Federal prosecutors Tuesday charged a prominent Latino street gang member who acted as a hired gun amid a dispute between two rivals Armenian organized crime figures.
Federal authorities say the two-year conflict between Robert “Fish” Amiryan and Alla Artuni sometimes turns suburban streets in the San Fernando Valley into war zones. The shooter fires from the top of the truck lathe and ladder, monitors the target with a drone, and maintains the cache of automatic weapons in the storage unit.
In May, federal agents and local police arrested Amiryan, 47, and Artuni, 41, for alleged kidnapping, fraud and attempted murder. Both were detained in the same department, and Amiryan was charged in Artuni, where Armenians announced that he would “own” Artuni’s wife, a Los Angeles Police Department detective wrote.
The initial evacuation target in May was allegedly allegedly a high-level rise in hit rate and equipment gunmen, and federal authorities say the suspect was arrested on Tuesday, in fact, a trigger representing Artuni. Vanowen Street Locos, four prominent members of the North Hollywood gang, were charged with murder.
A Los Angeles Police Department detective’s affidavit revealed that much of the evidence allegedly came from the suspect’s own mouth as they grabbed the recorded prison phone and said they had not received the explosion payment for the killing of Amir Young and his associates.
A suspect attacked Robert Amiryan’s spouse and children.
(U.S. District Court)
Maria “Mary Ocean” mare was also detained Tuesday, accused of driving an escape car to groping Amir Young’s life. According to a detective investigating a shooting near Universal City on March 14, 2025, Mare complained that she would not get the $50,000 she promised because “that’s the wife, not him.”
A detective wrote in the affidavit that Amir Young’s partner pulled her Cadillac Escalade to a parking lot when two men in black opened fire with rifles. Amiryan’s spouse was shot in the leg. Her two children in the back seat were not hit.
The attack on Amiryan’s family marked a cruel turn in the clashes that broke out two years ago. On the evening of April 3, 2023, when Amiryan returned to the apartment building on San Jose Avenue in Burbank, a man wearing a ski mask shot him with an AR-15, a federal agent wrote in the affidavit.
Prosecutors accused Amiryan and his crew of kidnapped a man they believed to be behind the assassination attempt, torture and interrogation of his home in Sun Valley. Police surrounded the house and Amiryan with two other men (Vahan Harutyunyan) and Sevak “Seco” Gzraryan.
Officials released the people and Amiryan was “innocence” when the victim denied being kidnapped and told the police explicitly.
A month later, a Burbank detective wrote in the search warrant affidavit that Amiryan and his spouse were sitting on the balcony when a raised red Ford F-150 pulled up the building. A man in dark clothes stands on a truck lathe and opens fire. Amiryan waved herself on her partner and was shot to death in her belly and arms.
Burbank police learned that an Artuni assistant bought a truck six hours ago for $500, the affidavit said.
In the second month, a gray pickup truck drove into an alley and ran behind the house in Harutyunyan North Mountain. When the police later searched Artuni’s phone. Daniel Kaminski of LAPD wrote in an affidavit that the drone lens of the house was found, which was hit by a large metal fence, and neighbors said Harutyunyan was installed immediately after moving in.
Two shooters opened fire in Vahan Harutyunyan’s backyard.
(U.S. District Court)
Harutyunyan, a convicted money launderer, told his neighbor that he was a professional gambler who was hanging out in his backyard with Amiryan and Gzraryan while two masked men stood on the truck bed. They fired with automatic weapons and shot Harutyunyan six times. Kaminsky wrote that as the truck speeded, the shooter lay on the bed.
Detectives obtained cell phone records from members of Artuni crew, including Elmwood Rifa Gang member Vahagn Stepanyan of Burbank and Jose “Listo” Gonzalez Jr. Kaminsky, of Vanowen Street Locos, who recorded their cell phones pinged on a honeycomb tower near Harutyunyan’s home at the time of the shooting.
Vahagn Stepanyan shows in a 2013 photo of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that he is accused of targeting the spouse of a prominent Armenian organized crime figure.
(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
In April 2024, Artuni flew to Armenia, where federal agents suspected that he was condemning more senior criminals for his increasingly bloody dispute with Amiryan. He spent several months in Dubai before returning to Los Angeles in November 2024.
Kaminski wrote that in February 2025, Edir de la Cruz, a prominent member of Vanowen Street Locos, was called “temper” and said his girlfriend Mares was shot dead from prison where he was possessed.
The mare handed the phone to Christopher “hit” Ayala, who said he was still “working on the job”.
Ayala told De La Cruz that it was going to happen two days ago, but “his wife and his children jumped with him. ”
The next day, Kaminsky wrote, the mare told De La Cruz that she was willing to drive because she needed money.
Carlos Grimaldi was stopped by LAPD on February 28, 2025.
(U.S. District Court)
Kaminski claimed in the affidavit that Stepanyan and Carlos’ “Spanky” Grimaldi were shooters targeting Amiryan’s spouse and children on the evening of March 14.
Two weeks ago, Grimaldi cashed out a $8,560 check conducted by a “fake” business related to one of Artuni’s subordinates, Kaminski wrote. Detectives said it was paid for the Amirians’ lifelong attempt.
The day after the attack, the mare told her boyfriend that the job was “completed.” She said she would receive a “50” reward.
But when she spoke to De La Cruz the next day, she said she read in the Los Angeles Times that a woman was hit, not a man. More importantly, she said, no one died. Kaminsky wrote that the mare said she didn’t know if she would get paid.
According to the detective, De la Cruz was unhappy. He told the mare to go over and he and Gonzalez were “just there. On the spot!”
Meanwhile, police found that the escaped car was abandoned in Studio City. Kaminsky wrote that detectives were sure that the mare bought the silver Audi on Facebook Marketplace.
When they spoke again, Dela Cruz told the Mare to ask for payment. He said she put her life in “life”. He told the mare to tell Stepanyan she did her part, “You guys are just doing it right.”
According to Kaminski, Mares told De La Cruz two days later that Stepanyan agreed to pay $10,000. The detective wrote that the mare could post his bail, Dela Cruise said.
Mare, Dela Cruz, Ayala and Grimaldi are now charged in federal court with murder. Gonzalez is accused of beating. It is not clear whether these people have lawyers to speak on their behalf.
