The young guys trying to make their name were always the craziest, just as Lizard once had been. He hung out at the Modesto nightclub La Familia Garcias and set up a meth ring using known norteo gangsters as runners, an enterprise he now claims earned him $10,000 a day. who joined the FBI and other agencies in an investigation of street He seems likely to face civil and/or criminal penalties for what appears to be at best mismanagement and at worst blatant corruption that. According to Ribotas report, when he asked about the rappers affiliation, Rocha denied having any gang involvement but is a norteo. Still, the accusations put Lizards conduct under scrutiny. 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. I told him, I know exactly who you are,' Holguin recalled. Lizard already knew all the old tricks. David Rochas arrest report depicts a guy caught off guard. While Nuestra Familia is primarily a Chicano gang, membership sometimes extends to other Latinos as well as non-Latinos. Heres my card.'. The 13 defendants, six of them from Pelican Bay, are currently housed at a maximum security prison in North County Jail in Oakland where . Lizard reminded his brothers about the warriors in Pelican Bay. In August 1998, the CD appeared on the radar of Tim Helton, an investigator on Modestos Street Terrorism and Apprehension Team. Symbols and culture Helton checked out Grattons business licenses, and learned of Sir Dynos involvement through the music distributor. I also learned the informant was skimming money from the Nuestra Familia street leaders and not reporting this to me.. Despite the governor's complaints, all five are still housed in the same supermax unit. Up to that point, Lizard had identified himself as a Sureo, but only when pressed. At home, Sir Dyno says hes just waiting for the truth to come out, but the phrase emerges like one thats been worn out, a fortification against the harsher truth: He stands to lose everything. And there was ghosting a letter: using a Q-Tip to swab milk or urine to write out orders on a piece of paper. Inside Corcoran State Prison, Lizard reported to the ranking commander and heard some troubling news. 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. 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. Gratton, meanwhile, had Sir Dyno write out a business plan, which offers a glimpse of the rappers instinct to use shock value to boost sales: By releasing G.U.N. Californias most fearsome prison is located near the Oregon border, a windswept fortress surrounded by three walls and two barbed-wire fences. These divisions werent just cultural. The rapper says his final meeting with Gratton occurred while the label owner was outside washing his car. Besides directing the tone of the project, Gratton asked to narrate the intro. As he awaits his new sentence, Lizard also awaits his new identity. They spent the next two days debriefing their new informant. The rapper denied this new accusation. Cuete took a shine to Lizard because Lizard was a stickler for detail, one police investigator said last year. Ultimately, Sir Dynos fate could come down to whether jurors believe the David Rocha at home on the couch, or Robert Gratton, the snitch on the stand. One morning this past August, Sir Dyno sat in his Dodge Caravan, stuck in I-580 traffic, knowing hed be late for his court hearing in San Francisco. They were getting orders in and out of that prison in no time. Lizard said that during that time, he heard two Norteos disrespecting Smileys name and took the initiative to stab them both. "There's family members still loyal to the guys in the fed," he said, referring to the exiled former generals and captains in Colorado. If the underbosses suspected that he was the target of an investigation, they might shun him or worse. After Gratton ratted out his fellow gang members one by one, offering a list of 350 names, he was moved into the federal Witness Relocation Program. Hes convinced hell get off scot-free. They werent following what NF was about, he said. The FBI believes the exchange earned Lizard a quick $3,600. Both were steeped in the Jehovahs Witnesses faith. , it will help establish the label financially. I want to be with my family/but I killed a man yesterday.. Then, several weeks later, a Pelican Bay investigator intercepted a letter penned by Lizard to one of his superiors. For norteos, it was a rallying call, with a cruising, bounce-your-shocks soundtrack. On seven of the CDs fourteen tracks, Sir Dyno raps as hired: Hes a heartless gangsta with a nihilistic agenda. There was also the lean and smooth figure of Gerald Cuete Rubalcaba, the gangs most powerful captain, whose job inside Pelican Bay, a fellow gang member told the feds, was to keister the syndicates constitution in his rectum, along with the master hit list which, by now, read fifty names long. Click here to follow the step-by-step murder of Brown Bob, as conducted from inside prison walls. When he entered Corcoran State Prison in 1989 for selling cocaine, he joined Nuestra Raza, a recruiting gang for the more esteemed Nuestra Familia. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. He is currently a gang instructor at the FBI Headquarter's in-service nationwide training program for field agents. Dyno has since expanded his own label, Darkroom Studios, starred in three independent movies, and penned a fictional autobiography about a gangster named Joaquin who takes up arms for the Zapatistas. A general named Art Big Smiley Ramirez was transferred from Pelican Bay to the cell directly below his own. When you turn your back on all of that. I told him, Listen. After three decades, Nuestra Familia is now an institution on Northern California streets and is spreading rapidly through the suburbs of the Central Valley, gang investigator Lewis said. , Just as knowledge can be the key, there is strength in numbers; therefore, we norteos can no longer continue to fight against one another. Address: 318 Harrison Street, Suite 302, Oakland, CA 94607 Phone: (510) 879-3700 www.EastBayExpress.com More by Justin Berton Lizard is a Rat new AltWeeklies Award - Feature Story East Bay Express | Justin Berton | 04-21-2008 | Media Tags: media Growing Up Right new They moved together into a Pittsburg apartment, and Nato continued his cousins indoctrination in Nuestra Familia. Lizard said Bob was marked because hed stuck his nose into matters that didnt concern him. Rubalcaba is accused in court papers of ordering In a memo to his colleagues, Helton talks about spotting G.U.N. 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. Gratton was shirtless, a large Nuestra Familia tattoo visible in bold letters across his back. 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. Weeks later, the general was attacked by Sureos and landed in solitary confinement. That wasnt what I signed up for.. Again, he uses a kernel of truth to anchor his rhyme, and a metaphor to exaggerate his reality. The founder of the failed company is Sam Bankman-Fried. Zilversmit said the feds were preoccupied with preserving their investigation instead of saving lives. 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. That was their fuck-up. Not only had he given up his post on the street, but now theyd be suspicious that he was a narc. Outside prison walls, the reach and violence of Nuestra Familia had only grown. If you continue to listen to them, then youll be in there for life, too.'. Rocha then asked for what was he being arrested, indicating he did not understand the charge. New soldiers became captains and generals by stabbing or killing people. Membership. 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. I wanted to go face to face with all those attorneys, he said. Maybe hed give me one hundred bucks to shut me up, or fifty bucks to shut me up, he says, or gas money or something.. January 22,2001 It is a form of psychological torture." Perez says that, after the initial arrests of the five, attempts were made to persuade them to plead guilty or inform on their co-defendants and on Cuba by . Since at least the 1920s, many California Latinos have thought of themselves in the same way that other residents of the state divide themselves: as Northern Californians, or Norteos; and Southern Californians, or Sureos. The coddled "terrorists" of South Florida Anti-Castro Cuban exiles who have been linked to bombings and assassinations are living free in Miami. Copyright 2023 I dont rattle, he said. His bike frame was made by Dyno, so the kids at school called him Dyno Dave. By the time he turned twenty, though, youthful angst had sunk in, and Too $hort cassettes found a home in Dyno Daves music box. The rationale for the federal case, officials said, was to cripple the gang's power base . He has since repudiated his former gang life, and spends his time writing and speaking to law enforcement gatherings about prison gangs. 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. 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. Brown Bob brought it on himself., It was just like the Nuestra Familia constitution said: Blood In, Blood Out., By the time Lizard exited Pelican Bay, prison guards had nicknamed Nuestra Familia The Blooming Flower for its astonishing growth. She disguised her own missives as legal mail from a fictitious San Francisco attorney and sent them directly back into the Secured Housing Unit, where all three gang generals were locked up. 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 is the most significant witness and cooperators in this prison gang/organized crime family in history. At any one time, an estimated two to three hundred members are incarcerated there, including the gangs top three generals. Three leaders soon emerged at Pelican Bay, filling the ranks of the gang's mesa, or board of directors: David "DC" Cervantes of Chino, Jose "Huerito" Gonzalez and James "Conejo" Perez. FBI agents did not respond to interview requests. A few years earlier, the two attorneys had nailed former general Pinky Hernandez for ordering a murder, and Cuete wanted to offer their coffins as a gift to Pinky. Holguin and his team came up empty that night. One of the highest-ranking defendants in the upcoming trial, Of the 21 original defendants, nineteen are already certified as Nuestra Familia through the state Department of Corrections. Monday. The system certainly creates you, makes you decide. Blacks sided with the Black Guerrilla Family or the Five Percenters. Silent also provided Lizard with a stolen Dodge Durango to test-drive. You have entered an incorrect email address. Any brother who steps outside and then returns is automatically put on probation. 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. He told his commander that hed received an order from Cuete to kill two deputy district attorneys, a husband and wife team in San Jose named Kitty and Charles Constantinides. While awaiting sentencing for armed robbery, he said, he knifed a member of the Aryan Brotherhood in self-defense. He had two daughters to support, and payments from other rap projects were slow coming in. He was as bright and loyal as they came, so Cuete could trust him.. After sentencing, leadership of the organization will be dispersed across the country, while new members look to fill the void. Therefore John Ashcroft is a chicken.. They formed their own gang: Nuestra Familia our family. OUR PUBLICATIONSCannabis ChronicleEast BayGilroy DispatchGood Times Santa CruzHollister Free LanceKing City RustlerMarin Pacific SunMetro Silicon ValleyMorgan Hill TimesNorth Bay BohemianPress BannerSalinas Valley TribuneSouth ValleyWatsonville Pajaronian, ADVERTISINGAdvertiseLegal NoticesObituariesSponsored ContentWriting An ObituarySubmit an Obituary, COMPANY INFOJob OpportunitiesPrivacy Policy. federal racketeering case, according to court papers. Over the next four years, Lizard and Cuete masterminded and penned more than three thousand letters, according to an FBI report. Everybody knows that. Since his first arrest, hes produced a new CD nearly every month. County./AP. Gang affiliation in California is often a matter of geography, but for Daniel Hernandez it wasnt that simple. The case grew out of information developed by Santa Rosa Police, Were moving your ass. The former leaders include James "Tibbs" Morado, Joseph "Pinky" Hernandez, Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristan, and Tex Marin Hernandez. I was a soldier, and a good one.. Eager to shore up his status in Nuestra Familia, Lizard said, he soon stabbed Sureo Rudolpho Castillo in the throat, nearly killing him. Since then, district attorneys from five NorCal counties had teamed up to share unsolved homicide files on dead Norteos. 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 idea was that rap music could unite and galvanize young Norteo soldiers across the state, and it did. They didnt care about agendas like that.. According to prison officials, gang leaders could arrange such deals by offering to keep the peace. Grattons wife was the cousin of a rapper named E-Clips, who at the time was a member of Darkroom Familia. Lizards letters were sent to code breakers at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. But he was undergoing a lot. Lizard says the drug was merely Vicodin, a pain reliever he took after strenuous workouts at the gym. Its rise even exceeded the mushrooming growth of the greater California prison population. 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. While the recognized leaders of the Norteos in Pelican Bay ask that members respect the former leaders, they have been effectively stripped of their authority. The boss reminded Gratton that the money belonged to the gang, and demanded more deposits into Nuestra Familia bank accounts. As a kid growing up in this small town, David Rocha was a freestyle BMXer who bounced along on one wheel during Fourth of July parades. How could he go back in with Cuete wanting him dead? 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.. But at the time, it seemed like the right thing to do. He faced 25 years to life. Zilversmit represents Armando Suave Heredia, a gang member arrested for ordering a successful hit on Salinas heroin dealer Ray Sanchez. I know theres some things you dont ask., Dyno claims thats the moment he realized hed been duped and would never see his cash. attempts on two assistant district attorneys in Santa Clara But such divisions run deeper among Mexican Americans than among other Californians. The DA was forced to offer Lizard a six-year deal, which he happily accepted. I didnt know the guy was selling drugs, too. Im a Northerner, he says, arms wide. He pleaded guilty to arranging two murders from prison, and will be sentenced to life in prison in December, along with the gangs generals. After several years of upheaval -- stemming largely from the massive federal prosecution called Operation Black Widow -- the top leadership of the Nuestra Familia is once again firmly established. When Lizard arrived in January of 1995, he checked in with the ranking gang member. Copyright 2023 The handlers didnt want to blow his cover. Cuete was among the final holdouts. Lizard said he wrote to a member of the Black Guerrillas whom hed met in San Quentin. And I got caught what I was doing. Kids everywhere were listening to it, and closely. According to his informants, Lewis says, Sir Dyno was indeed just as the rapper portrays himself before Gratton came to town: broke, and desperate to get famous. Lizard had been hiding out along the East Coast, a snitch buried deep inside federal protective custody. 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. The five former leaders are James "Tibbs" Morado, 59, whose common-law wife, 20-year-old Salinas resident Crystal Nenque, was found slain on Hecker Pass Road near Watsonville in 2005; Joseph "Pinky" Hernandez, 58; Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, 52; Cornelio Tristan, 46; and former Monterey resident Tex Marin Hernandez, 53. Lizard said he attacked Huero-T as he slept, pummeling him into a bloody mess until guards pulled him off. Lizard and the government deny this accusation. Following his arrival at the jail, Dyno was interviewed by Thomas Ribota, another Modesto detective. Even though he was broke and sleeping on friends couches, Sir Dyno felt he was on the cusp of the big time, ready to break. Even though hed participated in many stabbings and beatings in prison, hed avoided detection for most of his crimes. Former leaders include James "Tibbs" Morado, Joseph "Pinky" Hernndez, Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristn and Tex Marn Hernndez. After they wade through all of the evidence, jurors will then be asked to turn their attention to David Rocha. Lizard claimed Norteo. And I was part of that policy. It wasnt quite the impression he wanted to make. 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. For seven months, he secretly recorded meetings with his gangs underbosses, allowing federal agents to listen in as his carnals planned drug deals, bought firearms, and talked openly about killing people, including two deputy district attorneys from Santa Clara County. Instead, phone records and a confidential FBI source revealed that hed driven to a house in East San Jose, where hed bought two pounds of methamphetamine. You cant smoke everybody that sells dope.. [Gratton] said he was sick and tired of going to prison, he didnt want to go back, he wants to be legitimate, Dyno recalls, so he wants to sell cars and start a record company. In November 1986, Lizard tried out these new skills on another inmate and was transferred to San Quentin. Prisoners are permitted reading materials, including legal documents in manila folders, which are hands-off to the guards who routinely search the cells. And in another case, according to his handlers, Lizard drove to Lodi with Happy Cervantes for a weekend getaway, where he left his wire behind and failed to stay in touch with the FBI. None of these other [Nuestra Familia members] have a thing to say about [Sir Dyno], Manson says. 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. He said he knows they may try to find him, but that he will not hide. According to Lewis, the gang grew from about a thousand members in the late 80s to more than two thousand just six years later. Three days before Christmas, Lizard called Holguin. Enter https://www.police1.com/ and click OK. 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. One of those footnotes involves Sir Dyno who, despite his history of gangsta-rap posturing, clearly is not a criminal on a par with his codefendants. Copyright Weeklys All rights reserved. Right after the CD came out, red-on-red violence all but ended, he says. A grand jury indictment was in the works. All rights reserved. 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. Once that dried, the correspondent would write another letter in ink on the page, but the recipient knew to hold it up to the light to read the real message. Each day, the ranking member might assign a topic to his subordinates; by days end, a 1,500-word written essay was due. In his FBI interrogation, Gratton never makes it clear whether Sir Dyno knew he was rapping for the mob, or that North Star Records had been set up to launder money. He always offered to learn more and do more to serve the organization. In the early 1970s, gang fights which were called race riots then became more common inside the prisons. I can get a gun and go down and do it, he boasted. I fear no organization. In all, 21 people were indicted in the FBIs three-year investigation into Nuestra Familia, code-named Operation Black Widow. Lizard got away with it, and when Big Smiley emerged, he personally sponsored Lizard into Nuestra Familia. 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. I was all ready to go, Lizard recalled later. was drawing the attention its makers craved, and then some. Lizard prepared to take the stand against Nuestra Familia. Lizard hadnt, so Nato schooled him on the long-standing war. They let in only the guys who followed the rules to the T, and bought into the cause. After a few weeks of writing and recording, the CD was released on Cinco de Mayo of 1998 and found its audience immediately. If he wrote Dear Love, every sixth word mattered. Rocha did not seem to understand the reason for the arrest or the charge. Instead, he says, Gratton talked business. In her written response, she pointed out the governments logical error: All NF members and associates are norteos; David is a norteo. "He's trying to regroup these guys. Dozens of Napans who are homeless will soon find permanent housing in a former city motel. Robert Brown Bob Viramontes was 44 and had shared cells with Nuestra Familias founding fathers in Soledad. In total, aside from the five convictions and twenty guilty pleas credited to Lizards grand jury testimony and undercover work, federal officials said Operation Black Widow led to a total of 75 Nuestra Familia convictions. I was getting my game back, Lizard said. Cuete had gone power mad. Looking to score one night in early 1994, Lizard headed to an intersection known for the sale of chiva. They were operating a sophisticated shop, gang expert Lewis said. On January 24, 2001, at the FBIs prodding, Lizard hosted a junta for local underbosses at a Motel 6 in Tracy. We cut off the head of the snake, but it will grow back, said Special Agent Holguin. You have permission to edit this article. And what had germinated inside the prisons was now blooming all across California. Cuete arranged for the new hotshot to move into his cell. Do Not Sell My Personal Information, If you need further help setting your homepage, check your browsers Help menu, Copyright 2013 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved, New police chief hired at N.C. PD after entire police force resigned, SIG Sauer's ROMEO-M17: The future of the Red Dot revolution is here, Video: Bystander pins down drunk driver fleeing crash that killed a Texas police officer, 'It's a blessing': 24-year-old takes helm as N.C. police chief, 'Hold your heart open': Officers, community members attend funeral for Kansas City cop, K-9, Open the tools menu in your browser. Snow-locked Highway 29 between Calistoga and the Lake County border will likely stay closed through the weekend, CHP announced Friday afternoon. Sir Dyno was born. But witnesses corralled by police later refused to work with the district attorney. The large XIV across his throat represented the fourteenth letter of the alphabet, N, for Norte. From the prisons to the jails, all over California, you have to claim a side, Vasquez said. Familia is primarily a Chicano gang, and then some made by Dyno, Nato! So Nato schooled him on the long-standing war letters, according to prison officials, gang which! Familia bank accounts five are still housed in the FBIs prodding, Lizard recalled later Latinos well! Stuck his nose into matters that didnt concern him by stabbing or people! Cut off the head of the greater California prison population too. ' gerald cuete'' rubalcaba was due only! They were getting orders in and out of that heroin dealer Ray Sanchez by. On another inmate and was transferred to San Quentin Corcoran State prison, Lizard tried out these new skills another... Wasnt quite the impression he wanted to go, Lizard headed to FBI! 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