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Calif. prison guard convicted of aiding racist prison gang

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES- A former prison guard was convicted Tuesday of aiding a white supremacist inmate gang known as the Nazi Low Riders.

Prosecutors said Shayne Allyn Ziska, 44, helped the gang distribute methamphetamine, heroin and other drugs at the California Institute for Men in Chino.

Ziska was convicted of participating in a corrupt organization’s conspiracy, violent crime in the aid of racketeering and deprivation of rights under color of law, said federal prosecutor Adam D. Kamenstein said.

He also was found Ziska guilty of allowing a gang member to stab an inmate.

Ziska faces up to 50 years in federal prison when he is sentenced May 8.

Ziska was placed on administrative leave from the prison in 2000 because of a California Department of Corrections investigation that was later turned over to the FBI.

Kamenstein declined to say what prompted the probe.