At different times, the men oversaw the relentless flow of drugs into county jails. After smugglers carried the narcotics into the jails, often secreting them inside their bodies, the narcotics were sold to inmates, according to the indictment. Other inmates who wanted to sell drugs were forced to wait until the Mexican Mafia supply had been sold and had to give up a third of their stash to the gang. That illicit tax gave authorities the code name for their investigation, "Operation Dirty Thirds."

Source: Los Angeles Times May 23, 2018 20:26 UTC