Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Input: A notorious prison gang and a Mexican drug cartel were on the brink of forging a powerful alliance as part of an effort to muscle into the Southern California methamphetamine business with an army of street dealers, federal and local authorities confirmed Tuesday. 
  
 In announcing a pair of indictments, authorities said they were able to disrupt the planned merger between the Michoacan drug cartel and leaders in California's Mexican Mafia prison gang. 
  
 "This would have opened a superhighway for drugs and guns and given this cartel an exclusive franchise," U.S. Atty. Andre Birotte Jr. said. 
  
 During the operation, agents and law enforcement officials said they seized $19 million worth of methamphetamine. 
  
 The alleged alliance between the cartel and the prison gang was revealed in a pair of indictments that named more than 40 members of a powerful Los Angeles street gang. The investigations involved the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; and L.A. County law enforcement agencies. 
  
 One of the indictments, which details the alleged business deal between the prison gang and the La Familia Michoacana cartel, named six members and three associates of the prison gang and four people linked to the cartel and its successor, Los Caballeros Templarios. 
  
 The indictment outlines a venture called the "Project" in which cartel members would be given "free rein" to sell methamphetamine in Southern California and provides protection for incarcerated cartel members in exchange for money and methamphetamine going to Mexican Mafia members, according to the indictment. 
  
 "Today's salvo against the Mexican Mafia is part of a 20-year fight to curb the influence of the prison gang both inside prison walls and on the streets of Southern California," Birotte said. 
  
 The second indictment charged nearly three dozen members of the Florencia 13 gang with racketeering, drug and weapons counts. Some are also allegedly members of the Mexican Mafia. 
  
 Some ranking members of Florencia 13 are already being held at the maximum-security prison in Pelican Bay but continue to operate the gang through smuggled instructions, working hand-in-hand with the Mexican Mafia prison gang, according to the indictment. 
  
 The gang controls swaths of Los Angeles County and in each territory sets up outposts to deal drugs and operate illegal gambling, prosecutors allege. 
  
 Federal officials equated the alliance to a major manufacturer looking for wholesalers, distributors and bill collectors. "This is the first time the street gangs and cartels have come together on this scale," Birotte said. 
  
 Had the partnership not been disrupted, Birotte said, it would have "opened the floodgates" to hundreds of pounds of meth moving onto the streets of L.A. each month. 
  
 Birotte said the cartel "had made some down payments to start the project." In one instance, he said, it paid $150,000 to key members of the Mexican Mafia. 
  
 One of the indictments reveals that it was the cartel's leaders who initially approached gang leaders about a "union" and that Mexican Mafia representatives had traveled to Mexico to meet with the cartel leadership. 
  
 By eavesdropping and using informants, authorities said they were able to decipher the conversations between the two sides, even though they spoke in coded language. 
  
 According to one conversation, Mexican Mafia leaders considered La Familia to be a bigger player in drug trafficking than Chapo Guzman, the reputed drug lord who heads the Sinaloa cartel. 
  
 "We believe that we have initiated a crippling effect to those members who are still loyal to the Mexican Mafia crime organization," L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca said. 
  
 Federal and local officials acknowledged Tuesday that much of the Mexican Mafia's business is overseen by leaders who are behind bars at state prisons such as Pelican Bay who continue to pass messages to make deals and run various street gangs. 
  
 Birotte said the federal indictment would see those leaders, if convicted, transferred to prisons across the U.S. in an effort to disrupt their ability to communicate. 
  
 Federal investigators say that although they have sought to bring charges against other members of the Mexican Mafia leadership before, Tuesday's charges are the most far-reaching effort. 
  
 richard.winton@latimes.com ||||| August 6, 2013 6:53 AM 
  
 MONTEBELLO (CBSLA.com/AP) — The completion of two major investigations conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearm and Explosives resulted in the arrest Monday of nearly two dozen suspects tied to a Mexican Mafia prison gang. 
  
 More than 400 officers from the ATF and several local law enforcement agencies served 30 search warrants across Los Angeles County in connection with a federal grand jury indictment. 
  
 The indictments contend that members and associates of the Mexican Mafia allied with a Mexican methamphetamine cartel called La Familia Michoacana and also controlled a Los Angeles County street gang called Florencia 13. 
  
 Authorities contend that members of the prison gang control much of the narcotics trafficking and other activities of local Hispanic gangs from behind bars. 
  
 “The indictment alleges that participants in the Project sought to give La Familia members “free rein” to sell methamphetamine in Southern California and to provide protection for incarcerated cartel members in exchange for money and methamphetamine going to Mexican Mafia members,” Hoffman said. 
  
 Authorities also confiscated numerous firearms and 600 pounds of meth during the raids. 
  
 (TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.) |||||
Output:
Authorities say they've thwarted a massive multinational business merger in Southern California—between Mexican drug cartel La Familia Michoacana and US prison gang Mexican Mafia. "This would have opened a superhighway for drugs and guns and given this cartel an exclusive franchise," says US attorney Andre Birotte Jr., per the LA Times. Authorities issued two indictments against the cartel and gang, with some 400 ATF and local officers arresting nearly two dozen people and seizing 600 pounds of meth (value: $19 million) and a number of firearms in raids across Los Angeles on Monday, reports CBS Los Angeles. "This is the first time the street gangs and cartels have come together on this scale," says Birotte. The deal, creatively titled "the Project," would have given members of the cartel protection and "free rein" to sell meth in Southern California (much of which is controlled by the Mexican Mafia and affiliated street gangs) so long as it provided money and meth to members of the prison gang, according to one indictment, the Times reports. Many of those named in the indictments are already behind bars, and if convicted, will be dispersed to other prisons across the country in an effort to weaken the gang's operation, says Birotte.