By Jason Meisner, Tribune reporter
4:42 pm, March 6, 2014
As a high-ranking member of the Latin Kings street gang on Chicago’s West Side, Juan Amaya ordered underlings to use hammers to smash the hands of a teenager suspected of stealing from the gang, federal prosecutors say.

A regional “Inca” – or lieutenant – in the gang’s Little Village neighborhood stronghold, Amaya oversaw a vast cocaine distribution ring on city streets, reporting directly to Latin King regional leaders, according to prosecutors.

On Thursday, a federal jury found Amaya, 37, known as “Crow,” guilty of racketeering conspiracy as well as weapons and drug offenses that could land him in prison for the rest of his life.

Amaya was the latest Latin King member to be convicted in a years-long effort by federal authorities to dismantle the leadership of the sprawling gang, which boasts about 10,000 active members across Illinois, including more than 1,000 in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood alone, according to trial testimony.

Like the 2011 trial of purported Latin King “Corona” Augustin Zambrano, jurors in Amaya’s weeklong trial were given a crash course in the gang’s corporate-like structure, from the process of promotions to how internal disputes were settled in a regimented – though violent – fashion.

The evidence against Amaya was buttressed by fellow gang members who themselves had been charged and agreed to assist the government in hopes of reducing their prison sentences.

Prosecutors said the hammer attack on Rodolfo Salazar in 2008 occurred after he was suspected of stealing from a girlfriend of Zambrano, at the time the regional leader of the gang. As punishment, Amaya ordered fellow gang member Ruben Caquias and others to smash both of Salazar’s hands with hammers, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Porter said. Caquias, who pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing, testified he watched the attack being carried out.

Salazar was hospitalized but remained in the gang. Three months later he was shot to death while sitting in a parked car on the West Side, records show.

Prosecutors said Amaya was eventually demoted from his position as Inca because of rumors he was plotting to assassinate Zambrano and take over the crown. After the rumors were debunked, gang leadership kept him on in a lesser role, they said.

State prison records show Amaya was convicted of murder in 1991 and sentenced to 24 years in prison. He served about half that time before his release . At the time he was charged in the federal case, Amaya was back in prison for a 2012 drug conviction, records show.

The jury deliberated about four hours beginning Wednesday before finding Amaya guilty on all six counts, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany McCormick.

As the verdict was read in U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer’s courtroom, Amaya rubbed his face and gazed at his family seated in the front row.