Richard Valdemar is an internationally known expert in both traditional and non-traditional gangs. Richard Valdemar retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in 2004.  For most of his 33 years with the LASD he was involved in combating L.A. Gangs.  For the last 20 years he was assigned to the Detective Division, Major Crimes Bureau.  In 1977-78 he was assigned to the DEA Task Force and later to the U.S. Marshals, in the “Doc Holiday - Ray Ray Browning” federal drug conspiracy case against the leaders of the Black Guerrilla Family (BGF).  For more than 12 years he was part of the Federal Metropolitan Gang Task Force, cross designated as an FBI agent targeting the Mexican Mafia prison gang.  Since 1985 he was a member of the California (Prison) Gang Task Force.  He was the “gang expert” in the RICO prosecution of the Mexican Mafia in 1995 and the RICO of 1999 as well.