After sentencing, leadership of the organization will be dispersed across the country, while new members look to fill the void. Nuestra Familia's new leadership General: David "DC" Cervantes Top Commanders: Daniel "Stork" Perez, of Salinas; Anthony "Chuco" Guillen, of San Jose; George "Puppet" Franco, of San Jose Demoted: Jose "Huerito" Gonzalez; James "Conejo" Perez Copyright 2008 Monterey County Herald. To the FBIs delight, he also boasted about his existing Ecstasy ring, which was clearing a few thousand dollars a week. The three ounces found in Sir Dynos car, Gratton was claiming, came from him a statement which, if true, puts Sir Dyno squarely within the gang conspiracy. 15 year old Carlos "Casper" Silva a Preston parolee is arrested murders 3 people witin a seven week span on behalf of Nuestra familia. His alleged crime is conspiracy in other words, simply having associated with the men sitting beside him. The system certainly creates you, makes you decide. Sir Dyno believed hed just made a wise career choice. Each day, the ranking member might assign a topic to his subordinates; by days end, a 1,500-word written essay was due. FBI reports show that while on the federal payroll, Lizard performed unauthorized drug deals. But Wino rejected Lizard. I didnt have a choice, he recalled. And when that rhyme ran out, as it usually does, he went where other rappers go to make up for the sudden loss of material: He started making shit up. Not only was there one less Sureo, but Lizard also showed a knack for attacking without detection. He was born in Pittsburg, which made him a Norteo by birth. gang's leaders communicated by some form of secret code within the Then he helped the FBI take the gang down. Cuete was among the final holdouts. They had all their dirty laundry to air out and they were allowing those agendas to decide how they acted, what they wanted the gang to do, how they were conducting affairs within the gang. I told him, Listen. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. On January 24, 2001, at the FBIs prodding, Lizard hosted a junta for local underbosses at a Motel 6 in Tracy. All rights reserved. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Cuete arranged for the new hotshot to move into his cell. The immediate and constant communication strengthened the gang. Of the 21 original defendants, nineteen are already certified as Nuestra Familia through the state Department of Corrections. Im so afraid, oh my God/Dont take me away, he raps, slowly, to the jailers whove come for him. I dont rattle, he said. Theres no denying Sir Dyno is norteo, but hes careful to explain that a norteo isnt necessarily a gang member, just a Chicano proud of his provenance. For instance, if Lizard wrote Hey Love, that meant that every third word was part of the real message. Nineteen-year-old Armando Frias was shooting pool when he recognized the wanted man. Its rise even exceeded the mushrooming growth of the greater California prison population. Lexipol. The thought of slashing his cousin made no sense. They also hardened into gang boundaries on the streets. All rights reserved. You see, this is Norte, he growls on Scrap Killa. X-I-V fourteen, dont ever ask me what I mean/I got the gat that will put you in the dirt/I piss on your grave with your mamas feelings hurt.. The amount of violence attributed to the men inside the courtroom and their associates on the outside was staggering: fifteen killings, eighty conspiracies to murder, ten attempted murders, ten felony assaults, one hundred assaults, and two drive-by shootings. If he stayed in Corcoran, hed have to watch his back for young Norteos. Now, the legal definition rests simply on whether a person has a slight connection to the mob. Cuete and Lizard proved just how far their reach extended in early 1999. Nearby cops heard the shots and pulled in quickly. CD to argue that Sir Dyno knew Gratton was affiliated with the mob. They were getting orders in and out of that prison in no time. The only problem is the limiting of audience outside Northern California., After costs for radio spots and posters and printing, the plan estimated profits of $21,051 on the first 4,000 units. Grattons wife was the cousin of a rapper named E-Clips, who at the time was a member of Darkroom Familia. The voice doesnt sound like Sir Dynos, but officers in the streets took offense. You cant smoke everybody that sells dope.. Like a religious convert eager to please his superiors, Lizards first efforts impressed his would-be peers. Holguin also was searching for evidence that connected Lizard to a larger operation. He seems likely to face civil and/or criminal penalties for what appears to be at best mismanagement and at worst blatant corruption that. New soldiers became captains and generals by stabbing or killing people. Together, Nato and Lizard robbed drug dealers, committed petty crimes, and raised funds for their carnals back inside. My stuff has softened up a lot, Sir Dyno says. Its just the way it is, Sir Dyno says. CD, Lewis and Helton say. The rapper arrived dressed in neatly pressed beige Dickies pants, spotless work boots, and an untucked flannel-print shirt a vato in his Sunday best, mumbling his apologies. Police surmise that the order was responsible for many of the shootings in Salinas in 2007, which increased by 50 percent over 2006 levels. A grand jury indictment was in the works. This arrest data includes all information on current and previous arrests for . By the time he turned 25, Dyno had carved his own niche as a Chicano gangsta rapper, mixing Spanish with English. In the logic of the Chicano intrastate rivalry, there are norteos and sureos, and even if youre not running with the corner gang, youre still vulnerable to getting whacked by your enemy. There are 150,000 pages of discovery to sort through, photographs from dozens of crime scenes, audiotapes from hours of hidden wires, and hours of surveillance videos. Meanwhile, Lizard received government paychecks totaling more than $52,000 for his seven months of work, according to FBI reports. Following his arrival at the jail, Dyno was interviewed by Thomas Ribota, another Modesto detective. Last year, a newly revised constitution for the gang was distributed through underground channels, allowing for change in the mesa's structure, said Santa Cruz County sheriff's Sgt. He was a criminal too. Gratton, already growing weary with the gang after learning that one of his closest allies, Robert Brown Bob Viramontes, had been murdered outside his Campbell home, ignored Rubalcabas letters. Every day we prepared for war., Lizard speaks about his gang membership with such conviction and authority that one law enforcement official jokingly compared his oratory skills to those of Fidel Castro. Now, at 22, Frias has been sentenced to a prison term of 29 years to life for the gang-ordered execution of Raymond Sanchez at Cap's Saloon in downtown Salinas. Even though hed participated in many stabbings and beatings in prison, hed avoided detection for most of his crimes. Now, for a CD he cut five years ago, for a guy he claims he barely knew, for a dollar he never made, David Rocha faces a life sentence on a single count of conspiracy. Despite the governor's complaints, all five are still housed in the same supermax unit. Jan 27, 2005. To test his allegiance, he was ordered to move on his cellmate, Johnny Huero-T Fernandez. Nuestra Familia generals James "Tibbs" Morado, Cornelio Tristan and James "Pinky" Hernandez, and captains Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba and Tex Hernandez were already serving life sentences in California when they were indicted by a federal grand jury in 2001. If Lizard wanted to buy it, Silent would ask only $15,000 cash. I know theres some things you dont ask., Dyno claims thats the moment he realized hed been duped and would never see his cash. So Lizard flipped. Ramirez bragged to Lizard that hed already chased Sanchez out of Salinas Chinatown at least once, and had warned him that he needed to pay taxes if he wanted to deal in Salinas. And with an ever-increasing prison population that only assures the continued growth of it and other gangs, the very segregation that bolstered the gangs strength appears irrevocable. Sureos tended to be more-recent immigrants who often disparaged Norteos as second-generation Latinos who groveled for agricultural jobs and neglected their mother tongue, according to Joseph Hernandez, a criminal justice professor at Sacramento State University and expert in Latino gangs. Prisoners are permitted reading materials, including legal documents in manila folders, which are hands-off to the guards who routinely search the cells. Roy Morales. Police1 is revolutionizing the way the law enforcement community crimes from Salinas to the Oregon border. At the time, Operation Black Widow was just getting under way, and Grattons blueprint to the gangs hierarchy was invaluable. Ultimately itll be a jurys role to sort out the truth, but this much everybody can agree on: In 1997 an NF captain named Robert Huerito Gratton was paroled from Pelican Bay State Prison, moved to Modesto, and started a label called North Star Records. On the new CD, he pounded out a few norteo rhymes, deriving material from his meth bust, after which hed pleaded guilty to a reduced charge and was sentenced to a year of house arrest. According to an FBI report, Cuete and his cohorts have continued to manage the gang while awaiting transfer to federal prisons from Alameda Countys Santa Rita Jail. Lizard said he was forced into performing the unauthorized drug deals after an investigator from Santa Clara County nearly blew his cover. At the time, the $5 million price tag and networking of thirty different law enforcement agencies made it the most expensive and largest investigation into a California prison gang. , With that, let each of us as norteos recognize the true purpose of this album and come together, henceforth, presenting a strong united front, que viva puros norteos unidos.. With most prison gangs who try and use the mail, theres a big lag time things get lost, hits get reversed so theres a lot of miscommunication. He crawled into his living room before dying in his familys arms. Im just going to wait for the trial.. Lizard was charged with attempted murder, and sent back to jail. When Lizard arrived in January of 1995, he checked in with the ranking gang member. Read another way, hes merely been persistent in denying his role. had pulled down between $50,000 and $80,000. The only way to sell was to shock, he says. At the time of Operation Black Widow, law enforcement officials had estimated that Nuestra Familia was responsible for at least 600 murders in the previous 30 years. But while prosecutors were assembling their final case against the gang, Lizard was drug-tested as part of the terms of his release. Under the federal RICO laws used to indict criminal organizations like Nuestra Familia, anyone who knowingly associates with one member of a gang becomes part of it and if the gang goes down, so does he. Lizard had been hiding out along the East Coast, a snitch buried deep inside federal protective custody. prison gang are prepared to testify against their top leaders in a Shes not liking it too much. Time to go, the agent said. Years earlier, a young Norteo paroled from Pelican Bay had given a Santa Rosa detective a lead into the prison gang. The consequences that the gangs have caused in society have given rise to two effects, which are the most outstanding: gang violence and citizen insecurity. Whatever it is, you gotta go to the extreme. The large XIV across his throat represented the fourteenth letter of the alphabet, N, for Norte. Following instructions from the generals, Cuete put out a hit on Brown Bob. Now he had to prove he had a mind to match. Since then, district attorneys from five NorCal counties had teamed up to share unsolved homicide files on dead Norteos. While members of the Norteos gang are considered to be affiliated with Nuestra Familia, being a member of Nuestra Familia itself does not signify association as a Norteo. Inside, he was greeted by FBI agents. Once paroled, Lizard then served as Nuestra Familias highest-ranking member outside prison. with his boss while in prison, and took it out of prison with him, after the idea was ratified by the NF leadership. He estimated the CD had netted about $80,000 and that hed sent only $5,000 to a bank account in Boise, Idaho, where a female accomplice transferred the money into a separate account for NF prisoners. with prosecutors for reduced sentences, The Press Democrat reported But in a coup d'etat of sorts, Gonzalez and Perez have been "demoted" to "Category 1," the lowest level of the Nuestra Familia, investigators say. The job seemed like a good fit. I can get a gun and go down and do it, he boasted. Do Not Sell My Personal Information. He wanted to know what assurances could be made for him. But such divisions run deeper among Mexican Americans than among other Californians. He was sentenced to six months in the prisons infamous Secured Housing Unit, where more than a thousand inmates spend 23 hours a day triple-locked inside individual cells, with only a small food slot as a window. Prosecutors remained high on their star witness, notwithstanding Agent Ragans conclusion: Mr. But at the time, it seemed like the right thing to do. A member of the Mexican Mafia, Ortiz was cast out of the criminal organization in the mid-1990s after angering . Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Hes had plenty of time to contemplate. And most of it hung on Lizard. Cuete took a shine to Lizard because Lizard was a stickler for detail, one police investigator said last year. 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