Vianna Roman: South LA’s Gang Leader for the Mexican Mafia

Vianna Roman is a former South Los Angeles gang figure who acted as the street-level proxy for her father, incarcerated Mexican Mafia member Danny Roman, and in March 2015 she was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for racketeering, narcotics, and weapons offenses tied to a federal investigation called Operation Roman Empire.¹

How She Ran Her Father’s Operation

Danny Roman, known as “Popeye,” had been a California prisoner since 1985, serving life without parole for first-degree murder, and he directed the Harpys street gang and more than a dozen other Latino gangs from the Special Housing Unit at Pelican Bay State Prison.² Because of the restrictions he faced inside, he needed someone outside to carry his orders. Federal prosecutors described Vianna Roman as his “conduit” and his “voice” on the streets.³

During visits to Pelican Bay she used coded language to receive her father’s directives and relay information back to him, then passed those orders to Manuel Valencia, the Harpys’ shot caller who ran day-to-day operations. Her husband, Aaron Soto, also served as a gang leader and intermediary.⁴

She ran a market on Compton Avenue, Villamar Tortilleria y Carniceria, that gang members called “the meat shop.” According to the Los Angeles Times, the market functioned as an operational headquarters where she met with her father’s lieutenants, discussed gang politics, and collected extortion payments. On the 25th of every month, emissaries from the gangs under Danny Roman’s control delivered between $5,000 and $6,000 collected from 15 South Los Angeles gangs to the shop.² An LAPD detective’s affidavit stated that multiple informants reported individuals had been “tortured, assaulted and murdered” inside the market.

The gang network’s revenue came from distributing methamphetamine, cocaine, crack cocaine, and heroin; extorting vendors at the Alameda Swap Meet under the label of “union dues”; armed robberies targeting USC students; and conspiracies to commit murder, including a plot to kill a witness in a state court case.⁴ To hide the money, Danny Roman’s underlings used fake names and family members’ identities to funnel funds into his inmate trust account. Officials seized $24,000 from that account before Vianna Roman’s 2012 indictment.²

The Federal Case Against Her

The investigation that brought her down, Operation Roman Empire, was a two-and-a-half-year effort led by the Los Angeles High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force, a joint operation between the DEA and the LAPD, with support from the ATF and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.⁵

A federal grand jury returned a 60-count racketeering indictment on November 28, 2012, naming 29 defendants and alleging violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, violent crimes in aid of racketeering, and narcotics and weapons offenses.⁴ Eighteen defendants were arrested in an early-morning sweep on December 6, 2012. A court docket entry noted that on the day of the arrests, a “Notice Re: Arrest of Hospitalized Defendant” was filed for Vianna Roman, suggesting she was hospitalized when taken into custody.⁶

On May 1, 2014, she pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner to racketeering, narcotics, and weapons offenses. She admitted using coded language during prison visits to relay her father’s orders to the Harpys, and orchestrating the extortion of Alameda Swap Meet vendors under his authority.⁷ Her plea agreement initially contemplated a sentence of roughly 20 years, with the possibility of life at the judge’s discretion.³

Her Sentence

On March 23, 2015, Judge Klausner sentenced Vianna Roman to 180 months, 15 years, in federal prison, below the 20-year term her plea agreement had envisioned.¹⁸ Danny Roman himself was not charged in the federal RICO case because he was already serving life without parole. Of the 29 defendants named in the indictment, 25 were ultimately convicted and sentenced; three remained fugitives, and charges against one were dismissed after he was convicted of first-degree murder in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Where She Is Now and Her Father’s Death

At the time of her father’s death in June 2020, Vianna Roman was reported to be serving her 15-year federal sentence at a prison in Victorville, California.²

Danny Roman was stabbed to death on June 10, 2020, at a substance abuse treatment facility at Corcoran State Prison. He was 64. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, two inmates, Raul Alvarado, 47, and Edward Cisneros, 31, attacked him on the facility’s yard at 10:44 a.m., stabbing him repeatedly in the body and face. He was pronounced dead at 11:11 a.m., and two stabbing weapons were recovered at the scene.⁹ Alvarado, a Mexican Mafia member known as “Spy,” was already serving a life sentence for second-degree murder; Cisneros was serving a life sentence for attempted first-degree murder. Both were placed in segregated housing, and the Kings County District Attorney’s Office opened an investigation. Available reporting does not indicate whether either man was formally charged with the killing.²

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Leaders of South LA Gang Controlled by Incarcerated Mexican Mafia Member Sentenced to Prison
2
Los Angeles Times. Danny Roman, Mexican Mafia Member and South LA Gang Chieftain, Is Stabbed to Death in Corcoran
3
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Top Players in South LA Gang Controlled by Incarcerated Mexican Mafia Member Plead Guilty
4
U.S. Department of Justice. Operation Roman Empire Federal Racketeering Indictment
5
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. DEA-LAPD HIDTA Investigation Targets South LA Gangs
6
CourtListener. United States v. Roman, 2:12-cr-01135
7
U.S. Department of Justice. Top Players in South LA Gang Plead Guilty
8
Los Angeles Times. Imprisoned Gang Leader’s Daughter Sentenced
9
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility Investigating Inmate Death as a Homicide