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| The stakes are high. California's ‘poor receive more than a tenth of —¢fif*cities, Chicanos have begun to ‘tne health and welfare dolltrs ‘spent in the United States. Drug- irehabilitation programs currently “pppear to be the focus of inter- gang action. About $40 million an- nually, counting federal grants from the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the Law Enforce- { ment Assistance Administration, is j spent in California. The possible loss of such sums t spurred Health and Welfare Secre- tary Mario Obledo to request on Friday that federal officials as well as Los Angeles authorities join a state task force probing the loss of funds to mob action. For months reports have circu- lated in the barrios that, for in- stance, the operators of some pre- paid health-plan programs funded by the state were being forced to pay a “head” tax to the mob on each patient they saw. Other sources in East Los Ange- les.gay that halfway houses, which ate meant to provide treatment for drug addicts and ease the tran- sition from prison to normal life, are being strong-armed into pay- ‘ing “ghost counselors” salaries, i ee ev acre ‘formed in California’s pri ' prisons a »Self-protection units. They began to spill out of the prisons in 1979. The two maia gangs ure “Nues- tra Familia” (Our Family), which is composed mainly of rural Chi- canos from Califarnia’s Central Valley, and “EME” pronounced enmeh, as in the Spanish proa- unciation of the letter “M." Com- pesed -of urban Chicanos from East Los Angeles, EME is also cajled the Mexican Mafia, or sometimes “Emilys Brothers,” _ AS long as three years ago offi- cials were warning that the orga- nizations were moving to the sfreets, but there was no real con- Tn until recently, when they ap- parently began a gangland turf r over the control of hard-drug traffic and funds for social pro- grams. — As blacks have in major East- attempt to wrest control of organ- ized crime from the older Italian Mafia in California, One inform- ant, only recently out of prison, said ‘the Italian Mafia had passed the word in the state institution that Nuestra Familia and EME could fight it out for control, and “to the victor Delong the spoils.”- - The war has been bloody. In 1975, according to Charles E. Ca- sey, head of the Organized Crime and Intelligence Branch of the California Department of Justice, 20 murders were traceable to in- fer-gang rivalry; 16 of those oc- curred in prisons. But in 1976 there were 75 such murders, and ali but 14 occurred on the streets. That has led to-a climate of fear in East Los Angeles, where one barrio figure refused to talk to re- porters at all, saying, “If it § \ out, it could get me killed. I have — been threatened and my family has been threatened, and if it go’ out, I would have to leave here or they would kill me.’ . ‘Other longtime observers- in Bast Los Angeles report that the leaders of community programs appear to be intimidated and are not-talking about the situation. In Los Angeles Thursday, Police Commander Ray Ruddell said “at least five and possibly more” mur- ders .are linked to Get Going, the halfway house operated by Mrs. Delia-and her husband, Michael. Later police officials said the fiz- ure could go as high as 10. Tlie alfway house, situated just a few - lecks-south of Los Angeles City 171 Hall and state buildings, has be- come the focus of the turf war be- tween two factions of EME. Michael Delia reportedly is jf the side of EME, although he alt has ties to the older Sicilian L in East Los Angeles. He was taken into custody with stx other Chi- cano Mafia figures on Tharsday, then was released on $7,500 bail, - charged with possession of a ,38- ; caliber pistol and two “balloons” | ofheroin. —- . { At a press conference that day - - officers said the six had been linked to a series of crimes he- tween Jan. 15 and Feb. 1 thinughout California. The offi wuld not publicly speculate what crimes they were. ~ |