Big Weasel in big trouble? The founder of an antiviolence group called No Guns pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal weapons charges. Hector “Big Weasel” Marroquin is accused of selling an assault rifle, a machine gun, two pistols and two silencers …

Looks like there’s been next to no oversight on any of the money spent on these programs in LA:

Connie Rice knew it all along. She knew that Hector Marroquin, veteran of the 18th Street Gang and a self-proclaimed anti-gang activist, was still in the life.

That’s what Rice stated last week, as news broke that Marroquin allegedly sold automatic rifles and silencers to undercover ATF agents on three separate occasions, between September and November.

On Tuesday, she reiterated her claim of knowing about Marroquin, and called on city officials to probe the $1.5 million in city funds that his anti-gang program, No Guns, received.

So the city of Los Angeles dropped a million and a half into the pocket of a gang boss on his promise that he’d be anti-gun. And they believed him. But what’s a million or so of taxpayer dollars…there are always more citizen to fleece.

This was the spit-take line of the article:

More troubling suspicions arose even earlier. In 2000, L.A. Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Valdemar, a now-retired sergeant in the prison-gang unit, wrote memos to the highest levels of Sheriff Lee Baca’s department, identifying Marroquin as an alleged Mexican Mafia associate who was enforcing drug turf and ordering gang hits.

Wes McBride, a former Sheriff’s deputy, now the head of the California Gang Investigators Association, says he spoke with Baca in early 2006 when Marroquin was charged with gun possession. “I’m sure Baca knew” McBride says. “I told him myself. The problem is getting the brass to listen.”

McBride says he is unsure if Baca ever warned L.A. police Chief William Bratton. “I don’t know anything about this” says Baca spokesman Steve Whitmore. “I’m swamped with this Paris Hilton thing.”

Riiiiight. Gotta deal with the important stuff like boozing celebrities first. We can worry about gang leaders and gun sales when we have time.