MTA Goes Down In A Blaze Of Glory

By Graff Guy on January 30th, 2009

This past Wednesday, authorities said they finally had arrested the MTA crew, including “Smear.” In a series of raids conducted Wednesday morning, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials arrested Cristian Gheorghiu (32), aka “Smear”, at his home in the east Hollywood area. They also arrested Shaun Alexander, 27; Sergio Ayala, 25; Eduin Miramontes, 23; Nicholas Rem, 28; Juan Rocha, 22; and Ryan Swenson, 27, also at their homes in the Los Angeles area.

According to the Los Angeles County Sherrif’s office MTA is responsible for some of the city’s most notorious acts of vandalism, most notably L.A.’s largest tag: the giant, half-mile-long “MTA” scrawl that appeared last year along the concrete banks of the Los Angeles River near downtown. (See figure 1.1)

MTA - Los Angeles River
Figure 1.1