Rene “Boxer” Enriquez was the highest ranking member of California’s infamous Mexican Mafia to debrief.
Rene “Boxer” Enriquez (born July 7, 1962 in Artesia, California) is a former Mexican-American mobster. He was a high ranking influential member of the Mexican Mafia before becoming a federal witness in 2003. His life is chronicled in Chris Blatchford’s true crime book The Black Hand: The Story of Rene “Boxer” Enriquez, and his life in the Mexican Mafia.
In 2003, Enriquez left the Mexican Mafia. Since then, he has provided intelligence and other information help to law enforcement, acting as an expert witness in dozens of criminal trials and speaking at a number of conferences and training sessions. In 2014, officials with at least 11 federal and state law enforcement agencies wrote letters to the State Parole Board attesting to his contributions.
According to Enriquez’s parole officer, “There is a possibility Rene may get out of prison once his work with the feds are done, however there is also possibility that he may not.”
In February 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown blocked Enriquez’s release, citing security reasons. “Because he is a high-profile drop out targeted by the Mexican Mafia, Mr. Enriquez’s parole poses a serious security risk to him, his family, his parole agents, and the community in which he is placed,” Brown wrote. Enriquez told the board that if released, he would enter the federal government’s witness protection program because he is on the Mexican Mafia’s hit list for his cooperation with law enforcement. He would not appear in the state’s public sex offender listing because of witness protection, he said, but would be under stringent monitoring by the U.S. Marshals Service.
“I cannot undo the past. But I can contribute to the future,” Enriquez told the parole board. “I can contribute to dissuading other individuals from participating in this.
