THIBODAUX, LA - A probe targeting Hispanic street gangs with ties to the Mexican Mafia prison gang resulted in 36 people being charged in federal indictments that were unsealed Friday.

Authorities said the Mexican Mafia ran organized crime from prison, ordered murders, dealt drugs and demanded money from street gangs in return for protection.

Charges in the indictment include the murders of a San Diego man shot at close range last year and a prison inmate in Susanville in 2002.

Leading the conspiracy, according to court papers, was Raul Leon, 41, a Mexican Mafia leader imprisoned at Pelican Bay, the high-security prison 300 miles north of San Francisco.

Leon was imprisoned for life in a murder case as a teenager and assaulted a San Quentin prison officer with a self-made knife, or a shank, in 1986.

Federal prosecutors are using anti-racketeering laws to go after 22 members, associates and affiliates of the prison gang. An additional 14 people were indicted on drug conspiracy charges, but not racketeering.

Of those indicted, 16 were already in prison, and federal agents and local law enforcement officers arrested all but about four or five of the others Friday, officials said.

The case marks the first time authorities have used organized crime provisions of federal law to go after the Mexican Mafia in San Diego. A similar case in Los Angeles led to 39 convictions.