Sir Dyno claims Gratton stiffed him on payments a few months after the CD hit the streets, and that he never worked with the dude again. Theres nothing to prepare. Its founding fathers adopted the phrase Blood in, blood out, and wrote a fifty-page constitution setting out the organizations bylaws. He crawled into his living room before dying in his familys arms. Former leaders include James "Tibbs" Morado, Joseph "Pinky" Hernndez, Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristn and Tex Marn Hernndez. Now youre in the gang., Lizard still recalls what Nato told him on that day back in San Quentin: Primo, if the North and South go to war, I cant protect you just because youre my blood. Despite the governor's complaints, all five are still housed in the same supermax unit. At the time, Operation Black Widow was just getting under way, and Grattons blueprint to the gangs hierarchy was invaluable. Quoting the prophet Jeremiah from the Old Testament, Bishop Manuel Cruz, a Cuban emigre himself, passionately said: "Woe to me if I do not care for my people and hear their cries." The theory went, if we separated the two gangs, wed have less problems, Vasquez said. 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. 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. As evidence, family members said, he had a large Aztec goddess tattooed atop the Nuestra Familia logo on his back. gang activity in Northern California about six years ago. When the cheerleading coach broke the news to Katrina Kohel that she was the only one left on the cheer squad, Kohel was determined to compete anyway. It sold, and he knew why. When the state-of-the-art super-max penitentiary opened in 1989, built exclusively for the states 2,800 most violent inmates, Governor George Deukmejian hailed it a model for the rest of the nation. Instead, it has become a model gang incubator. Shes not liking it too much. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Regardless, the compilation had limited success, and never took off like the G.U.N. Whites joined the Aryan Brotherhood or Nazi Low Riders for protection. "DC Cervantes is calling the shots," said J.R. Auten, a former gang investigator for state prisons and now a consultant for federal and state law enforcement. Just dont go out looking for it and doing anything., Ramirez replied, Its in motion. A local health care fraud enforcement action has resulted in federal charges against of 25 Southern California defendants for their alleged involvement in healthcare fraud schemes that fraudulently sought over $150 million from the Medicare and Medicaid programs, as well as private insurers and union health benefit plans. Prison gang members set to testify against Nuestra Familia leaders. Membership. Then he helped the FBI take the gang down. It remains to be seen ultimately whether this prosecution was warranted, he said in accepting the guilty pleas. I was doing it as a smokescreen. was felt on the streets. 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. Lizard recalls Nato asking him why he claimed Sureo, and if hed heard the history of the gang conflict. In his role as head of security, Cuete was responsible for stashing the groups original constitution among his legal papers, and keistering the gangs master hit list in his rectum, according to FBI documents. Lizard swung his weight around hard. To the broke and ambitious rapper, the deal sounded too good to refuse. According to transcripts, two carnals, Israel Silent Mendoza and Anthony Morales, brought Lizard sixty grams of negra, black-tar heroin to sell, use, or barter. As he awaits his new sentence, Lizard also awaits his new identity. Not just in rap, but everywhere. With the prison population growing so fast, they had their pick, Lewis said. In its fifteen years of operation, at least a dozen inmates have been strangled to death inside its walls, according to lawsuits and published reports. Still Sir Dyno says he wasnt getting paid. Even though theyd heard about the hit in advance, FBI agents never told Sanchez he was marked for violence. In June, one California prison experimented with another solution to the Norteo-Sureo war. He is also a consultant to a number of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors in this ever-changing war against gang violence. On one slow-burn track, Sir Dyno raps in a stoned vibrato: Today when I got up I knew it was a good day/Got on my red shirt, Dickies, and Im on my way., After the initial press run, Gratton restocked stores with an additional 1,000 CDs. [Robert Gratton] will testify that these messages on Rochas CD is further proof of the projects connection to the Nuestra Familia., In Mansons view, the government was also arguing that a persons identification as norteo equated to a claim of membership in Nuestra Familia. But one day on the yard, he was approached by Juan Nato Gurule, a long-lost cousin from the East Bay. Joe Gonzales orders the murder of familiano Richard Hernandez for failing to carry out orders. But as his FBI handlers dug further into Lizards tenure as their employee, they unraveled other disturbing facts that threatened to compromise the credibility of their star witness. At any one time, an estimated two to three hundred members are incarcerated there, including the gangs top three generals. Since prisoners cant mail one another, Lizard began writing Kayln Santiago, a friend from Boise. The official list of charges, which included more than thirty drug-related crimes along with acts of extortion and robbery, simply ended with the open-ended clause and other numerous crimes.. In it, he explains how the CD brought him unwanted attention and more money than hed expected, but he never reveals whether Sir Dyno knew North Star was a front for Nuestra Familia. My stuff has softened up a lot, Sir Dyno says. Happy was hardcore, with a permanent smile beneath his Fu Manchu mustache. The album would preach the unification of norteos Chicanos born north of an invisible border located somewhere around Fresno who, once inside the prison system, were eligible to join Nuestra Familia. Lizard and the government deny this accusation. He was all business, all the time.. In 1968, in response to La Emes overwhelming power, a group of Norteos bonded together in the exercise yard of what was then named Soledad State Prison. They were getting orders in and out of that prison in no time. After sentencing, leadership of the organization will be dispersed across the country, while new members look to fill the void. 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. Lo-fi beats backed simple, repetitive keyboard riffs. Vallejo is raising concerns about water. Frias, a 22-year-old Salinas native, maintains that Hernandez, the informant, approved the "green light," the execution order, on Sanchez while working for the FBI. Look for a box or option labeled Home Page (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari) or On Startup (Chrome). Not only had he given up his post on the street, but now theyd be suspicious that he was a narc. The former leaders include James "Tibbs" Morado, Joseph "Pinky" Hernandez, Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristan, and Tex Marin Hernandez. I cant muscle the guy because I dont know what hes involved with, he reasoned, so either I make an issue of it and make an enemy I dont want, or just let it go. Lizard said Cuete asked him to establish a line of communication that couldnt be detected by guards. He is the most significant witness and cooperators in this prison gang/organized crime family in history. In a way, its a compliment to me. He says theres a street code: You dont ever ask too many questions, and both men stuck to that code. Like all Latino males incarcerated in California for the past three decades, Lizard was forced to choose a gang allegiance once inside prison. Still, the weekend he got out, he was intent on getting paid. He was a criminal too. After the gang member sent word to his people on the street, the witnesses to Lizards crime were persuaded not to show up for trial. From inside Pelican Bay State Prison, Lizard had served as the brutally violent gangs principal secretary, helping inmates in solitary confinement set up bank accounts in Idaho, direct drug sales across Northern California, and even order murders. 305. It was again explained to Rocha that Kelly was an FBI agent, and that Rocha was being placed under arrest for RICO conspiracy. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. When the NF trial begins on November 3 jury selection starts this week federal attorneys will use photographs and lyrics from the G.U.N. He tested positive, violating a federal policy that informants remain drug-free while working for the government. He could shank n roll, as the prisoners say. He was sentenced to 29 years to life in prison. I am just as dangerous as they are.. He leaves behind a 3-year-old son of his own, but vows that the cycle of violence ends with him. That autumn, according to testimony from a fellow gang member, Lizard ordered seventeen stabbings. According to one source, Ribota took the CD to the San Joaquin County district attorneys office to see if it constituted an official threat to a police officer. Finally, he was going to San Francisco to testify. the credibility of the witnesses convicted felons who made deals Lizard said he shook the tail, but later needed to prove he was clean. Youre a lot smarter than those guys doing life in prison. It gives you something to do. No one who got whacked was an innocent man. The young guys trying to make their name were always the craziest, just as Lizard once had been. But within a few months, Nato got pinched for robbery, and with his long rap sheet, he got 39 years. Like other major prison gangs, including the Aryan Brotherhood and the Mexican Mafia, Nuestra Familia issues orders from its power base in the Security Housing Unit of Pelican Bay. Or were they? Dec. 22, 2021 5 AM PT. He told Ramirez there should be no bloodshed. But then he added: If something comes at us, you cant help it. He told the young man that if he wanted to be recognized by Nuestra Familia, he could appeal to the generals. Its rise even exceeded the mushrooming growth of the greater California prison population. But I knew more about Cuete and his family, and he did about mine. The eradication was criticized by some prison gang experts, citing that Eme members now filled a power vacuum, and that future Norteos, outnumbered and alone, would only serve as bait. The cells are bone-white and feature little more than a chrome toilet and cement platform with thin mattress and pillow. We cut off the head of the snake, but it will grow back, said Special Agent Holguin. You wouldnt isolate an inmate and make him a target for the other side., But some criminologists now acknowledge that this practice strengthened the gangs. After Gratton stabbed an enemy in Corcoran, he was transferred to Pelican Bays infamous Secured Housing Unit the college for prison gangsters. He found his man in David Sir Dyno Rocha, then a 26-year-old budding rhymer and producer from Tracy. Gratton had been deployed by his bosses to run the gangs Zapatista crew, which operated in the Modesto, Tracy, and Turlock areas. According to Ribotas report, when he asked about the rappers affiliation, Rocha denied having any gang involvement but is a norteo. He already was serving a life sentence for murder in Pelican Bay State Prison, but now he was under indictment for ordering a hit on an underboss named Miguel Mikio Castillo. They were caught up in power grabs and backstabbing. I was getting my game back, Lizard said. According to transcripts and court documents, Ramirez brought up the touchy subject of Ray Sanchez, a competing heroin dealer who was boasting of taking over the drug game. Sir Dyno was born. For penance, Cuete was allegedly ordered to write an essay on the consequences of being a gossip. And he got what he wanted., Out only three months, G.U.N. Now, nearly all Norte-o soldiers and Nuestra Familia regiment captains across California answer to Cervantes, gang experts say, but re-establishing the gang's control over the streets has not been easy. For months, Dynos attorneys have been trying to distance their client from the rest of the defendants and get him his own trial. His teen angst surfaced one day when he threatened to kill his vice principal. The idea was that rap music could unite and galvanize young Norteo soldiers across the state, and it did. Years earlier, a young Norteo paroled from Pelican Bay had given a Santa Rosa detective a lead into the prison gang. Cuete was among the final holdouts. The risks had Lizard thinking. Its estimated for every NF member, there are seven La Eme. He returned to San Quentin in June of 1994 to begin his sentence. Shortly thereafter, his client pleaded guilty for a chance at parole, but remained adamant that Lizard had given him the green light. The largest and most feared Latino prison gang was the Sureo-based Mexican Mafia, or La Eme. He was as bright and loyal as they came, so Cuete could trust him.. Grattons wife was the cousin of a rapper named E-Clips, who at the time was a member of Darkroom Familia. After he was expelled, his parents sent him back north to live with an aunt in Pittsburg, where he continued to. Bakersfield was the traditional dividing point, but with the crush of immigration, the numerically superior Sureos pushed the demarcation line further north, first to Fresno and then to Modesto. In the next room, Ragan and a team of detectives from the Santa Rosa Police Department listened to the meeting and watched it on a hidden camera. The gang's new constitution says the five should still be respected as former leaders, but has stripped them of their power in California. Click here to follow the step-by-step murder of Brown Bob, as conducted from inside prison walls. Both were steeped in the Jehovahs Witnesses faith. The next rung of leaders in Pelican Bay includes Daniel "Stork" Perez of Salinas; Anthony "Chuco" Guillen of San Jose, who was involved in the murder of a Nuestra Familia member there and is serving a 25-year sentence; and George "Puppet" Franco, 39, from San Jose, responsible for the gang's activities in Stockton, Tracy and Fresno. As a captain, he answered only to a handful of higher-ranking capos and the three generals inside Pelican Bay. Cervantes added that hed already followed the couple to the courthouse. Even though hed participated in many stabbings and beatings in prison, hed avoided detection for most of his crimes. By the time Dyno got to the specially constructed federal courtroom, he was fifteen minutes behind schedule. It looked like they were unhappy with the content of G.U.N., Manson says, and thats why David was indicted for the content of his music. , 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.. Not with NF.. Together, Nato and Lizard robbed drug dealers, committed petty crimes, and raised funds for their carnals back inside. Around 6:30 p.m. on April 19, 1999, Brown Bob was watering his roses. His shackled codefendants didnt even look at him as he took his seat among them. Gratton was also using heroin, another mistake in the eyes of the gang. posters and CDs in his car, again cementing a link between the prison gang and local norteos. Lizard said Bob was marked because hed stuck his nose into matters that didnt concern him. Were moving your ass. Californias most fearsome prison is located near the Oregon border, a windswept fortress surrounded by three walls and two barbed-wire fences. gang's leaders communicated by some form of secret code within the He told his interviewers Sir Dyno put out Gang Stories without permission and, for that, was very close to being placed on a hit list.. Ribota declined comment for this story, in light of the upcoming trial. In the aftermath of Operation Black Widow, the five highest-ranking leaders of Nuestra Familia, James "Tibbs" Morado, Joseph "Pinky" Hernandez, Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristan, and Tex Marin Hernandez, were transferred to the United States Penitentiary, Florence ADX, the federal supermax prison in Colorado. Its getting airtime on radio stations in the Central Valley, and Sir Dyno has gone into super-marketing campaign mode, making a goal to get the ballad single Daddys Home in rotation on 75 radio stations nationwide. In fact, the 31-year-old gangsta rapper, whose real name is David Rocha, wanted nothing more than to distance himself from his codefendants. Since the government began using the antiracketeering statutes to take down crime families in 1970, the definition of coconspirator has been legally challenged and modified several times. But the feds believe his relationship with Gratton ran deeper than words on wax. He took a job at a golf course and used his access to the links to reclaim his swing, sometimes playing 36 holes a day. That report, based on information from another snitch, revealed that Cuete was demoted by the generals to the lowest rank for skimming funds and gossiping. I see the reality of things now and now that Ive gone through that, theres, like, no glory in it, you know?. It is here that the stories begin to diverge: Rocha claims that in the eleven or so months he knew Gratton, the parolee never discussed his ties to the highly secretive prison gang. To the FBIs delight, he also boasted about his existing Ecstasy ring, which was clearing a few thousand dollars a week. Not at all coincidentally, Pelican Bay also has become the headquarters of Nuestra Familia. Arnold Schwarzenegger protested the fact that the five were not scattered across the federal prison system, as former U.S. Attorney Robert Mueller's staff had promised. Preparing is something someone whos trying to hide their guilt would do, he says, fingering a synthesizer keyboard in his studio. Sicc OG. Lizard said he attacked Huero-T as he slept, pummeling him into a bloody mess until guards pulled him off. In hindsight, the move only solidified the stature of race-based gangs, said Daniel Vasquez, a former San Quentin prison warden and gang investigator. The words didnt sound right to Lizard. How could he go back in with Cuete wanting him dead? You have permission to edit this article. In May of 2001, Lizard met with Martin Ramirez, a gang member from Salinas. He was arrested by investigator Tim Helton for selling and transporting meth. I didnt realize lyrics could be taken so seriously, he now says, claiming that he rapped for shock value on G.U.N. His most recent, Engrave These Words on My Stone, is probably his most cathartic, if not authentic. On one Gang Stories track about issuing payback on the cops, a voice in the background calls out Detective Ribotas name, a suggestion to watch his back. Chained to their seats on a triple-tiered bleacher facing the jury box were fourteen men dressed in blood-red jumpsuits. He recorded From the Barrio with Love, taking his name outside California and into pockets of Chicano markets in places such as Phoenix, Denver, and Albuquerque. Lizard himself adamantly denied Zilversmits claims, insisting that he pressed for peace in the case of Sanchez. According to court documents, Gratton says he regularly fronted Sir Dyno four ounces at a time. 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