Feds investigating an LA gang allege one of its leaders worked as a city ‘peace ambassador’

Federal officials investigating a well-known L.A. street gang say one of its leaders was being paid by the city as a peace ambassador in MacArthur Park.

The details, contained in a sworn affidavit, came out after the FBI arrested Michael Angel Alvarez, 41, late last week on allegations that he had body armor in his possession despite being convicted of a violent felony, which is illegal under federal and California law.

Alvarez had recently been released from prison for a 2002 murder conviction. He was also convicted in April of unlawful possession of a weapon as a prisoner, a felony, before taking a job as a city contractor in early 2025.

The arrest — part of a wider investigation into the 18th Street gang — made news right before the primary election because of Alvarez’s work as a peace ambassador at MacArthur Park. Alvarez was employed by Healing Urban Barrios, a nonprofit that provides violence prevention services and re-entry programs for formerly incarcerated people. His job involved talking with gang members around MacArthur Park to try to prevent conflict and violence.

Federal investigators allege in the sworn affidavit that, while employed as a peace ambassador, Alvarez rose to a leadership position within the 18th Street gang. LAist attempted to reach out to Alvarez, as well as several people and organizations he is connected with, but did not hear back prior to publication.

Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced the arrest last Friday.

“The hardworking tax payers of Los Angeles deserve better than to see their money shelled out to a convicted gang murderer,” Essayli wrote on social media.

Alvarez faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison, he added.

What we know about the allegations against Alvarez

It’s far from uncommon for gang violence prevention workers to have criminal records or existing ties to street gangs. That’s because many in the field say that first-hand experience is valuable in lowering tensions between local gangs and encouraging active members to leave gang life.

Healing Urban Barrios has an active contract with L.A. City Council District 1, which includes MacArthur Park and the Westlake neighborhood, that has been in place since 2024.

The city contract with the nonprofit acknowledged the make up of the organization’s workforce: “[Healing Urban Barrios’] staff consists primarily of people who have been involved and/or have unique personal, relatable, and unmatched experience with transnational gangs, the criminal justice and immigration systems. That experience translates to providing in-depth knowledge and effective services to individuals and families in the community.”

The job description for peace ambassadors in the district includes “targeted street outreach, peace mediation efforts, organizing truces and providing rumor control,” according to the contract.

Naomi Roochnik, a spokesperson for Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who represents the district, told LAist peace ambassadors are employed and supervised by community-based organizations. She said Hernandez’ office was never told of any arrests or allegations against Alvarez connected to his time as a city contractor before the charge against him was announced. She said any peace ambassador found to be involved with illegal activity would immediately be removed.

Hernandez was first elected to the district in 2022 and is currently up for reelection. As of Friday morning, she had more than 53% of the vote in the primary, leading her challengers by a wide margin. She will not face a runoff in November if she stays above 50% when the vote is finalized.

Christina Navarro, founder and executive director of Healing Urban Barrios, told LAist in a statement the organization would not comment on Alvarez’ arrest, and that “everyone is innocent until proven guilty.”

“One incident cannot and will not keep us from this critical work,” Navarro wrote. “The results speak for themselves.”

In 2025, Navarro said the organization “reached more than 3,000 community members, mentored 750 individuals, trained 219 in workforce programs, helped earn 194 work-readiness certifications, and moved 50 people into livable-wage employment.”

What’s in the FBI affidavit

The affidavit is based on:

• Recorded phone calls that started in January
• Interactions between LAPD officers and Alvarez that started in March
• An interview with an FBI agent after LAPD officers arrested Alvarez on May 18 and found the body armor in his car. He was released without being charged and then arrested again less than two weeks later

According to the FBI special agent who interrogated Alvarez following his May 18 arrest, Alvarez said he had gained respect, or “juice,” because of his lengthy prison sentence and the severity of his conviction.

“Although he did not want to be ‘the guy,’” the agent wrote, “he found the 18th Street gang was in disarray with a lack of command structure and was bestowed the power by other members to fix it.”

The affidavit claims Alvarez’s vbbc rise within the gang came while he was working as a peace ambassador since early 2025.

According to federal officials, Alvarez was paid by Healing Urban Barrios “throughout each quarter of 2025 for a total of $58,156 for the year,” based on records cited in the affidavit from the State of California’s Employment Development Department.

Alleged members of the 18th Street gang described him as a gang leader in a recorded Jan. 3 phone call described in the affidavit. During another recorded call that same day, Alvarez spoke to an alleged gang member about an individual he had “marked out,” which the FBI agent wrote meant to “label someone as a target for violence due to breaking rules or for disloyalty to the gang.”

On March 3, Alvarez spoke with an LAPD officer near the park. The affidavit says he told the officer that “we” cleaned house, and that the individual had been beaten and pushed out of the gang.

Mayor says Alvarez was not working for her office’s crisis team

During his arrest on May 18, the affidavit also says Alvarez told LAPD officers that he was still part of the 18th Street gang and was working as part of the “CRT,” which the agent who wrote the affidavit believed to be in reference to the mayor’s Crisis Response Team.

The LAPD confirmed in a statement that Alvarez was detained near Bonny Brae and 3rd Street, near MacArthur Park, when Rampart Division officers found two body armor plates in the trunk of his car in violation of California state law.

According to the affidavit, Alvarez told the LAPD officer he had the armor because he was going to “draw on it.” He told the officer he liked doing graffiti and planned to display the painted plates for youth in the area.

In an interview after his arrest, according to the affidavit, Alvarez told the FBI agent and other law enforcement officers he worked for Healing Urban Barrios. He also said he had recently been stabbed while working as a peace ambassador.

After news of Alvarez’ arrest by the FBI was shared by Essayli on social media Friday, Spencer Pratt, who is currently in second place in the vote count and may face Bass in the November general election for mayor, shared the post, writing: “Karen Bass has turned LA City into a criminal cartel.”

Bass’ office says Alvarez was not part of the CRT.

In response to a request for comment, the mayor’s communications office sent an unsigned email statement saying that “community violence interventionists who work with the City of Los Angeles through non-profits are prohibited from being members of gangs or from participating in criminal activity.”

In response to a question about whether the mayor’s office was notified or consulted by federal law enforcement before Alvarez’ arrest, the same email statement said the office is “not going to comment on communications related to law enforcement operations.”

Healing Urban Barrios was previously contracted by the mayor’s office through the Latino Coalition for Community Leadership from 2022 to mid-2025 as part of the city’s Gang Reduction and Youth Development Program, also known as GRYD. The organization had provided gang violence reduction services and re-entry programs in the Hollywood, Olympic and Rampart II GRYD zones.

The most recent contract available on the city website ended in June 2025, and a spokesperson for Bass told LAist that the Latino Coalition for Community Leadership was not awarded a new contract the following year.

An isolated event

LAPD Captain Ben Fernandes, the Rampart Area commanding officer, told LAist three gangs operate in or near MacArthur Park.

“18th Street is the primary, MS-13 is the second and then last is the Crazy Riders,” he said.

He said since taking the position a year ago he has seen peace ambassadors around MacArthur Park work with officers to help deescalate conflict between gangs. This was the first case he knew of where a violence prevention worker in the area had been accused of a crime.

“ It's all been fairly positive,” Fernandes said. “This one instance of this individual being involved in criminal activity is the first I've heard since I've been here.”

Fernando Rejón is the executive director of the Urban Peace Institute, a nonprofit that trains and funds gang violence reduction programs in L.A., but is not associated with Healing Urban Barrios.

Rejón told LAist in an interview that peace ambassadors are typically entry level positions in such programs, and have not received the same level of training as more experienced community intervention workers.

He said he's concerned this situation is being used to further a political narrative.

“Contrary to the national narrative that is being pushed out there about Los Angeles, and California at that, is that California has seen one of its safest years in 2025 it's seen since data's been collected,” Rejón said.

He said last year in L.A. was one of the safest in a long time, which he doesn’t think should be overlooked because of one incident.

LAPD's annual crime and initiatives review for 2025 shows a decrease in homicides over the past four years.

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(The City of Los Angeles)

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“ The amount of work that is done behind the scenes to ensure safety, ensure that there is de-escalation of conflict, and to reduce the likelihood of shootings, a lot of times is immeasurable and unseen,” he told LAist.

Raul Claros, who is running against Hernandez as a moderate Democrat, promised in December he would live in an RV parked alongside MacArthur Park if elected to bring attention to issues around the park until they are fixed. He started early, parking his RV next to the park last Friday.

“Unfortunately, we're a national embarrassment,” he told LAist, referencing unsafe conditions in the park.

Claros said he’s not against gang violence reduction programs, but officials need to be more careful about who they contract with.