Slain Man Identified as Suspect in Four Killings

A man who was killed in South-Central Los Angeles last month has been identified as a suspect in four San Fernando Valley slayings dating back to 1989 and was a prime figure in a Mexican drug ring operating in the western United States, police said Friday.

Juan Paniagua Gomez, 28, was shot six times after leaving a party June 12 and spent nine days in Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center before dying of his wounds, said Det. Paul Mize of the Los Angeles Police Department’s South Division. Gomez went by several aliases and was initially hospitalized under a different name, but fingerprints revealed his identity as an alleged killer and drug trafficker, police said.

Det. Jim Boissier of the Foothill Division said Gomez was charged in a 1989 slaying and a 1990 double homicide in Pacoima, as well as a 1992 killing in Van Nuys. All the slayings are believed to have involved drug-related disputes or incidents in which Gomez allegedly killed his victims in order to steal drugs from them.

“He was notorious,” Boissier said. “We came close to catching him several times, but never did.”

Boissier said Gomez and several of his relatives belonged to a drug-running organization called the Sinaloa Cowboys. Based in Rancho Los Coyotes in the Mexican state of Michoacan, the ring deals mainly in cocaine, methamphetamines and tar heroin, and operates a drug network in Washington, Arizona and California, Boissier said.

Police said there are no suspects in Gomez’s slaying and it is not known if the slaying was related to his alleged drug activities. He was identified one day before his death, but police were unable to question him because he was unconscious, Boissier said.