To avoid raising suspicion as a frequent mailer, she set up post-office boxes and had inmates write to other Norteos, who forwarded the correspondence to her. Time to go, the agent said. Sir Dyno accepts this rivalry, and its where many of his raps come from. As gang-on-gang violence grew in the late 1970s, prison administrators also began housing Norteos and Sureos in separate cells. We cut off the head of the snake, but it will grow back, said Special Agent Holguin. County./AP. And in response, FBI documents indicate that street soldiers in Nuestra Familia have ordered a two-year moratorium on murders while they wait for recent publicity to fade. When you turn your back on all of that. 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. Instead, he says, Gratton talked business. finds relevant news, identifies important training information, promotional posters around town and learning from a confidential informant that Robert Gratton, one of the faces on the posters, was financing North Star from meth sales. But the rapper has faith the judicial process will work in his favor. The Norte-os are trying to establish (in Salinas) but every time they try to, there's shootouts." Any brother who steps outside and then returns is automatically put on probation. 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. Rubalcaba is accused in court papers of ordering They were Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, my pal Lizard Hernandez, and Robert "Huero" Gratton. All rights reserved. On Daddys Home, instead of the stone-cold thug who whacks his way through the streets, Sir Dyno raps about what he truly is: a 31-year-old father facing a life sentence for the choices he made years earlier. If you wish to change your alliance, you will still have to prove to Norteos you are worthy, and the Sureos will want to kill you for switching sides.. Lizard said he attacked Huero-T as he slept, pummeling him into a bloody mess until guards pulled him off. [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. Special Agent Kelly explained to Rocha that he was being placed under arrest for violation of RICO conspiracy, the report states. And all are charged with substantive crimes: drug sales and possession, murder, and so on. The largest and most feared Latino prison gang was the Sureo-based Mexican Mafia, or La Eme. All norteos must unite with the determination to fight and challenge all those who oppose our unity and advancement toward equal justice. Zilversmit said the feds were preoccupied with preserving their investigation instead of saving lives. Since prisoners cant mail one another, Lizard began writing Kayln Santiago, a friend from Boise. Following his arrival at the jail, Dyno was interviewed by Thomas Ribota, another Modesto detective. He did not return letters seeking comment for this article. Orders from the generals were arriving on the streets within weeks, if not days. Preparing is something someone whos trying to hide their guilt would do, he says, fingering a synthesizer keyboard in his studio. Vallejo is raising concerns about water. Youre hot, the underboss said. Were moving your ass. And what had germinated inside the prisons was now blooming all across California. Hernandez never belonged to either group until he ended up in prison. They pulled in young guys by the bushel.. federal racketeering case, according to court papers. Grattons information cast a domino effect, eventually leading to 21 cooperating witnesses for the government. Today, the real Sir Dyno has five kids, a home in Tracy, and makes a living off CD sales, which he estimates at beyond 100,000 nationwide. Despite the governor's complaints, all five are still housed in the same supermax unit. I also learned the informant was skimming money from the Nuestra Familia street leaders and not reporting this to me.. 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. 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. Lizard said he wrote to a member of the Black Guerrillas whom hed met in San Quentin. At a hearing last month, Steven Gruel, US assistant attorney and Chief of Major Crimes, told the court that Sir Dynos limited role with Nuestra Familia made no difference under the law: It doesnt matter if you associate with a RICO enterprise for five years or five minutes; it still makes you part of the conspiracy.. Operation Knockout 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. Over an ominous keyboard drone, he speaks deliberately, as if issuing a UN speech: The primary purpose and goals of this album is to promote unity amongst each and every one of us as norteos. 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. He has since repudiated his former gang life, and spends his time writing and speaking to law enforcement gatherings about prison gangs. Till Eternity which most people simply call the G.U.N. 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 also was responsible for ensuring the battalions on the streets were holding fast against Sureos and sending drug profits to help pay the legal bills of their incarcerated generals. But recently, Lizard spoke on the phone with her, discussing their new lives. 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. Daniel Lizard Hernandez was awakened by an FBI agent at 4 a.m. a few weeks ago. They let in only the guys who followed the rules to the T, and bought into the cause. According to prison officials, gang leaders could arrange such deals by offering to keep the peace. Thats when I started pulling away, he says. "There's family members still loyal to the guys in the fed," he said, referring to the exiled former generals and captains in Colorado. They also hardened into gang boundaries on the streets. Gratton knew nothing about the music business, but he had bricks of cash and a simple plan: to produce a rap CD that would work as a recruiting tool for Nuestra Familia and also serve to launder the gangs drug money. Hed loaded up the hit list and was feuding with two of the generals while angling for a promotion. Copyright Weeklys All rights reserved. Within minutes, the gang member confessed his role in Nuestra Familia and offered to trade information for leniency. When Lizard asked Goose about protection for the rings, the underling said, Ill produce the manpower [and] the weapons to facilitate our needs and firepower to lay the motherfuckers down.. Of the 21 original defendants, nineteen are already certified as Nuestra Familia through the state Department of Corrections. Its not easy.. Like all Latino males incarcerated in California for the past three decades, Lizard was forced to choose a gang allegiance once inside prison. The system certainly creates you, makes you decide. A general named Art Big Smiley Ramirez was transferred from Pelican Bay to the cell directly below his own. 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. The idea was that rap music could unite and galvanize young Norteo soldiers across the state, and it did. had pulled down between $50,000 and $80,000. 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. And I wanted to go high.. The prosecutors revealed that Gratton would testify Sir Dyno dealt meth on his behalf. 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. 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. All Gratton needed was a rapper. His most recent, Engrave These Words on My Stone, is probably his most cathartic, if not authentic. They werent following what NF was about, he said. The former leaders include James "Tibbs" Morado, Joseph "Pinky" Hernandez, Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristan, and Tex Marin Hernandez. There, Gratton was made a full-fledged Nuestra Familia member. In 2004, when the prison gang's top five leaders were transferred from California to a federal supermaximum prison in Florence, Colo., a struggle for the gang's top positions brewed in Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, the Nuestra Familia's traditional headquarters. 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. The history of that hit calls into question the governments handling of Lizard. Consider this reasoning using an unrelated example: All chickens are bipeds; John Ashcroft is a biped. Shortly thereafter, his client pleaded guilty for a chance at parole, but remained adamant that Lizard had given him the green light. Cuete was among the final holdouts. That night, Holguin led a three-car caravan of police investigators, federal agents, and prison investigators to meet Lizard. According to Lizard and FBI informants, the accounts held up to $25,000. Lizard and the government deny this accusation. He was a long way from his former East Bay stomping grounds, and hadnt dared visit his wife and children, who still lived locally. If Nuestra Familia invested in meth labs, a network was already in place. 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.. I kind of paused, Sir Dyno says, adding that he suddenly thought better of asking too many questions. Even though the project had cash potential tomorrow, Sir Dyno still needed money today. "He's trying to regroup these guys. Frias used a pay phone to call another gang member, Roque Boxer Martinez, who said he would bring a .22 and meet Frias in the parking lot. That autumn, according to testimony from a fellow gang member, Lizard ordered seventeen stabbings. And I was part of that policy. 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. Lizard himself adamantly denied Zilversmits claims, insisting that he pressed for peace in the case of Sanchez. 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