Warning, this podcast contains explicit language and details acts of violence.

Listener discretion is advised.

Paul Tanaka, who was a tattooed member of the neo-Nazi deputy gang, The Vikings,

went on to be one of the most powerful people in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Tanaka has denied involvement with the gang.

His ascension solidified the influence of deputy gangs on department culture, and it all

happened on a fluke. Sheriff Peter Pitchis's successor, Sheriff Sherman Block, served as the sheriff

of Los Angeles County for 16 years. Block was the first deputy in the

department to work his way through every rank to the top. During his tenure, he became the highest

paid elected official in the United States. In 1998, Block was running for L.A. County Sheriff for the fifth time. He was the frontrunner

and expected to win easily. Then, the unexpected happened. Sherman Block died at USC University

Hospital after undergoing surgery for the removal of a blood clot just days before the election.

Bloch's mentee, Chief Deputy Lee Baca, was also running for the position.

Baca wasn't doing well in the polls, but following election day, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department found itself with a new leader,

someone who was considered to be very friendly to deputy gang members.

LA is not safe.

This is a tradition of violence, a history of deputy gangs inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

As the newly minted sheriff, Baca, who had been overseeing the Lennox Station, used his power to promote a then-Lieutenant to an aide.

It appeared that one of the most important and powerful people in the county of Los Angeles was somebody that nobody had ever heard of.

And that was then under sheriff Paul Tanaka,

who was pretty much a shadow sheriff running the place. That's Celeste Freeman, founder of Witness L.A. and an award-winning journalist who has covered deputy gangs. His background is in accounting,

in addition to law enforcement. The first time that

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