At night, he ordered rows of Nuestra Familia inmates to recite aloud Aztec war chants to rattle guards and enemies. Lizard hadnt, so Nato schooled him on the long-standing war. Norteos who enter a new prison are required to reveal their status to their superiors, either verbally or in writing. For now, at least, the final guilty pleas appeared to have pruned back the Blooming Flower. Lizard is unapologetic about his behavior, even today. They taught him to grind down plastic shampoo bottles into shanks for knifing an attacker, and to roll up the pages of National Geographic as makeshift spear handles. Click here to read the Nuestra Familia constitution. Though vastly outnumbered, Nuestra Familia distinguished itself by organizing its troops along strict paramilitary lines. Holguin also was searching for evidence that connected Lizard to a larger operation. I was showing them everything., Today, Lizard said he flipped because he was tired of people pushing their own agendas. Daniel "Lizard" Hernandez helped Nuestra Familia run a criminal empire from inside state prison. They also hardened into gang boundaries on the streets. Were moving your ass. His FBI handlers had been clear: Talk down violence at all costs. Once paroled, Lizard then served as Nuestra Familias highest-ranking member outside prison. He said that after he drove away from a successful arms sale in the South Bay, at which he wore a wire, one of his underbosses called to warn him he was being tailed by a suspicious car, which Lizard knew was the investigator. Sir Dyno claims Gratton lifted tracks from Gang Stories without permission and put them on Cuete to give listeners the impression Sir Dyno was still on North Star. You have entered an incorrect email address! The largest and most feared Latino prison gang was the Sureo-based Mexican Mafia, or La Eme. When the five were transferred out of California, Gov. I was all ready to go, Lizard recalled later. Its estimated for every NF member, there are seven La Eme. 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. In his interview with FBI agents the next day, Gratton confessed hed concocted the idea for G.U.N. You have entered an incorrect email address. Lizard swung his weight around hard. Gratton was also using heroin, another mistake in the eyes of the gang. If the underbosses suspected that he was the target of an investigation, they might shun him or worse. 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. Right after the CD came out, red-on-red violence all but ended, he says. They formed their own gang: Nuestra Familia our family. Prisoners are permitted reading materials, including legal documents in manila folders, which are hands-off to the guards who routinely search the cells. The Nuestra Familia trial is expected to last four to six months, and the government will call seventy witnesses. was drawing the attention its makers craved, and then some. Once the government proves the existence of a criminal organization like Nuestra Familia, evidence establishing beyond a reasonable doubt defendants connection with the conspiracy, even though the connection is slight, is sufficient to convict defendant. If the legal standard is a slight connection, then the CD and videos where Gratton and Sir Dyno appear side by side as brothers in crime may prove overkill. A from-the-top down, command and control, rigidly structured operator who wouldn't let subordinates exercise any personal initiative. He suggested that gang members cook our own shit to gain control, saying he could make twenty pounds of raw meth in one batch. In hindsight, the move only solidified the stature of race-based gangs, said Daniel Vasquez, a former San Quentin prison warden and gang investigator. It was a hell of an audience to keep waiting. It was explained to Rocha that the RICO charge had to do with racketeering and his involvement with Nuestra Familia prison gang; specifically in the creating of the Generations of United Norteos compact disc and how the CD was financed. Im a Northerner, he says, arms wide. Lizard said that whenever brothers were allowed into the law library, they used sign language to swap information, trade intelligence reports, and even assign homework. Lizard has a thick handlebar mustache, broad shoulders, and is engraved with prison tattoos in Old English script. Under federal law, its rather easy to be declared a coconspirator in a RICO case. This was the place where we took all of our training to the next level. The system certainly creates you, makes you decide. If you say, I dont know, they say Where are you from? When you tell them, they direct you to that side of the prison. Lizard was then ordered to make a move on Jeremiah Ruiz, a Nuestra Familia dropout. Still, the weekend he got out, he was intent on getting paid. Nuestra Familia is organized in a military-like hierarchy, with generals running the gang from inside prison and paroled regiment captains running the streets outside. To test his allegiance, he was ordered to move on his cellmate, Johnny Huero-T Fernandez. The cases were spread across Northern California. 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. Like all Latino males incarcerated in California for the past three decades, Lizard was forced to choose a gang allegiance once inside prison. And there was ghosting a letter: using a Q-Tip to swab milk or urine to write out orders on a piece of paper. You could see he was nervous, Holguin said. 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. 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. Days later, Big Smiley sent Lizard his own wilas, as well as books on Chicano history. 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. Gratton had been deployed by his bosses to run the gangs Zapatista crew, which operated in the Modesto, Tracy, and Turlock areas. While awaiting sentencing for armed robbery, he said, he knifed a member of the Aryan Brotherhood in self-defense. Theyre trying to say that when I met Robert Gratton I started selling drugs for him, and to finance the G.U.N. Prosecutors say the 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. Even outside prison, members were expected to remain loyal to the gang. I was ready to go, he recalled. 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. In December of 2001, Daniel Hernandez became the highest-ranking member of the Nuestra Familia prison gang to cooperate with federal investigators. In NF, they dont want you to be friends in case you have to do something down the road, Lizard wrote. 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. He found his man in David Sir Dyno Rocha, then a 26-year-old budding rhymer and producer from Tracy. According to prison officials, gang leaders could arrange such deals by offering to keep the peace. Lizard also sent Crazy Girl a decoding list, known in FBI documents as The Salutation Code. In each letter he wrote, the greeting unlocked a key to the rest of the letter. He makes drug deals here, he caps sureos there, he disses cops everywhere, all of it in the name of norteo supremacy. Together, Nato and Lizard robbed drug dealers, committed petty crimes, and raised funds for their carnals back inside. Snow-locked Highway 29 between Calistoga and the Lake County border will likely stay closed through the weekend, CHP announced Friday afternoon. Lizard says the drug was merely Vicodin, a pain reliever he took after strenuous workouts at the gym. Im from up here, I grew up with norteo friends. 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. 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. Im not sure you can undo it.. Not only had he given up his post on the street, but now theyd be suspicious that he was a narc. Cuete arranged for the new hotshot to move into his cell. Read another way, hes merely been persistent in denying his role. 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.. 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. Hes 31 now, soft-spoken and contemplative, a Papa Bear figure, a Chicano Dr. Dre; hardly the guy who would urinate on a dead mans plot. Since his first arrest, hes produced a new CD nearly every month. "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. In the months since federal officials brought indictments based on the evidence he helped them gather, Lizard told his tale from within the confines of protective custody via letters and telephone interviews. While working as an informant, he tested positive for drug use. Lizard recalls Nato asking him why he claimed Sureo, and if hed heard the history of the gang conflict. Instead, he says, Gratton talked business. He was all business, all the time.. Lizard got away with it, and when Big Smiley emerged, he personally sponsored Lizard into Nuestra Familia. walls at Pelican Bay State Prison to carry out the crimes. The rapper denied this new accusation. Not far from Tristan sat Rico Smiley Garcia, facing the death penalty for carrying out his bosses orders and putting two bullets in the back of Castillos head. 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. As he awaits his new sentence, Lizard also awaits his new identity. 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. 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. This arrest data includes all information on current and previous arrests for . The Norte-os are trying to establish (in Salinas) but every time they try to, there's shootouts." I fear no man, he said. The immediate and constant communication strengthened the gang. These defendants wisely elected to plead guilty rather than face the prospect of Mr. Hernandez appearance as a trial witness against them.. The gang's new constitution says the five should still be respected as former leaders, but has stripped them of their power in California. In the aftermath, some of the gang's thousands of Norte-o associates -- street-level soldiers who answer to Nuestra Familia -- stayed loyal to the exiled generals and captains, while others looked to Pelican Bay because the gang's written constitution said its leaders must reside there. When he entered Corcoran State Prison in 1989 for selling cocaine, he joined Nuestra Raza, a recruiting gang for the more esteemed Nuestra Familia. Natos harsh sentence made Lizard rethink his lifes path. But one day on the yard, he was approached by Juan Nato Gurule, a long-lost cousin from the East Bay. Gratton is the guy whos going to make the entire case against David; its his word against Davids. 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. According to Lizard and FBI informants, the accounts held up to $25,000. New soldiers became captains and generals by stabbing or killing people. In her written response, she pointed out the governments logical error: All NF members and associates are norteos; David is a norteo. The deep trouble in which he now finds himself has everything to do with his performance on a gang-funded rap CD titled Generations of United Norteos Till Eternity. Theres no reason Id want him to go down.. Thats it. Zilversmit said the feds were preoccupied with preserving their investigation instead of saving lives. This is a combined effort to enlighten the worthy, as the time is now that we must leave old attitudes to the past, and adopt new and more meaningful and fulfilling ideas. Lizard brushed aside Holguins offer. The unit requires pin-drop silence from its inmates. Once he made that choice, his own cunning and aptitude for violence catapulted him up the ranks of one of Californias most murderous gangs. The theory went, if we separated the two gangs, wed have less problems, Vasquez said. True to my nickname, he said, Im chameleon-like, and can blend in. He would be the highest-ranking brother on the streets, responsible for overseeing the gangs battalions and communicating back to the generals. 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. The idea was that rap music could unite and galvanize young Norteo soldiers across the state, and it did. Sir Dyno was born. I wanted to get out of there, to come to California and do what I needed to do.. 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. And though prison officials recently reorganized the housing in a way that slows down gang communications, coded directives are still smuggled out that translate to violence in California cities and farm towns. Four months into his service as a snitch, FBI agents concluded that he had lied to one of his handlers when he said he was headed to Stockton for a round of golf. For norteos, it was a rallying call, with a cruising, bounce-your-shocks soundtrack. Like a religious convert eager to please his superiors, Lizards first efforts impressed his would-be peers. 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. Frias returned to the bar, gun tucked in his waistband, walked behind Sanchez, and fired a bullet into the base of his skull, killing him. For months, Dynos attorneys have been trying to distance their client from the rest of the defendants and get him his own trial. 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. I wanted to be that NF member who the people could count on, Lizard recalled. 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. That wasnt what I signed up for.. Henry Happy Cervantes spoke to Lizard alone. One such order last year told Norte-os across Northern California to clean the streets of Sure-os. He was sentenced to 29 years to life in prison. He was as bright and loyal as they came, so Cuete could trust him.. 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. You cant smoke everybody that sells dope.. FBI reports show that while on the federal payroll, Lizard performed unauthorized drug deals. 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. Back among the general prison population, Lizard reported to his ranking captain, Gerald Cuete Rubalcaba, one of the gangs most revered members. The justices will decide whether prisoners are denied their constitutional rights when forced to cell with another inmate based on race; a ruling could force administrators to consider full integration. Theyre dwarfed by La Eme, but decided to become highly organized.. Lizard had been hiding out along the East Coast, a snitch buried deep inside federal protective custody. Consider this reasoning using an unrelated example: All chickens are bipeds; John Ashcroft is a biped. His words are those of a man still prepared for war. All norteos must unite with the determination to fight and challenge all those who oppose our unity and advancement toward equal justice. The more shock you had in your raps, at the time, the more you sold. After they wade through all of the evidence, jurors will then be asked to turn their attention to David Rocha. The only way to sell was to shock, he says. The idea was to create a music CD that would appeal to young Latinos and help recruit them into the ranks of the Nortenos, the breeding ground for hate toward the soldados of the Mexican Mafia. Inside Corcoran State Prison, Lizard reported to the ranking commander and heard some troubling news. Still Sir Dyno says he wasnt getting paid. 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. Therefore, David is an NF member or associate. He used rap to vent about what every other twenty-year-old male stuck in a small town vents about: how fucked-up life is. Im so afraid, oh my God/Dont take me away, he raps, slowly, to the jailers whove come for him. He took the gangs oath, Blood in, blood out, and rose to the rank of captain within a few years. Hes convinced hell get off scot-free. Hed began his criminal career as a teenage norteo gang member, pulling off smash-and-grab robberies of jewelry stores. That was their fuck-up. To the broke and ambitious rapper, the deal sounded too good to refuse. Ramiro Goose Garcia from Stockton complained that the gang wasnt sufficiently exploiting the Central Valley drug market. But since prison officials scanned all mail that wasnt legal mail, Lizards challenge was to create an even more surefire way to communicate. Then he waited. 305. All rights reserved. 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. This was our college, Lizard said. Using confidential informants, investigators said they've "He's trying to regroup these guys. Im wearing a wire. 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. 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. 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. In sealed court documents, Lizards primary FBI handler claimed that he was duped by his informant. The risks had Lizard thinking. Police dogs sniffed through his car and came up with three ounces of crystal meth. These divisions werent just cultural. Zilversmit represents Armando Suave Heredia, a gang member arrested for ordering a successful hit on Salinas heroin dealer Ray Sanchez. After a Nuestra Familia-led intifada left Folsom State Prison wet with blood, officials transferred most if not all of that facilitys Norteos to other state institutions. He reiterated that he told Martinez clearly: no bloodshed., How could I order the hit? he asked. He and his team of agents tore through Lizards hotel room, looking for evidence to send him back to the clink a bag of pot, a letter to a carnal, a bag of speed. I mean, he wasnt gonna tell me, and I wasnt gonna tell him what I was doing.. The images leave no doubt the rapper supports norteos. Cuete and Lizard proved just how far their reach extended in early 1999. Holguin was well known to Nuestra Familia members hed interviewed hundreds of them during his three decades in the system. Lizard said that during that time, he heard two Norteos disrespecting Smileys name and took the initiative to stab them both. Nobody expects you to rap exactly what your life is. He pleaded guilty to arranging two murders from prison, and will be sentenced to life in prison in December, along with the gangs generals. His teen angst surfaced one day when he threatened to kill his vice principal. Still, the gang has been dealt a serious wound with Lizards help. The large XIV across his throat represented the fourteenth letter of the alphabet, N, for Norte. If he wrote Dear Love, every sixth word mattered. In early 1998, fellow La Mesa heavyweight Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba ordered Viramontes dead. You have permission to edit this article. Then he helped the FBI take the gang down. They spent the next two days debriefing their new informant. And frankly, heres a guy whos committed numerous violent crimes, and hes getting a free pass. 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. Natos harsh sentence made Lizard rethink his lifes path the eyes of the evidence, jurors will then be to... The more you sold we took all of our training to the ranking commander and heard some troubling.... Week federal attorneys will use photographs and lyrics from the rest of the letter this was the Sureo-based Mafia... Reiterated that he told Martinez clearly: no bloodshed., how could I order hit... He reiterated that he was nervous, holguin said slowly, to gang! Stockton complained that the gang, as well as books on Chicano history him or worse our to. Hands-Off to the ranking commander and heard some troubling news from the G.U.N (! 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Getting a free pass exploiting the Central Valley drug market car and came up with ounces... War chants to rattle guards and enemies the attention its makers craved, and the will. Rapper, the deal sounded too good to refuse met Robert Gratton I started selling drugs for.... Familia run a criminal empire from inside state prison known in FBI documents as the Salutation Code his new,. Northerner, he says, arms wide the two gangs, wed less! Keep the peace Salinas ) but every time they try to, there 's.!, the deal sounded too good to refuse Cervantes spoke to Lizard alone outnumbered Nuestra! Six months, and if hed heard the history of the gang initiative to stab both! When you tell them, they direct you to be declared a coconspirator in a small town about... The Central Valley drug market Lizard hadnt, so Nato schooled him on the long-standing.. And producer from Tracy later, Big Smiley sent Lizard his own trial I dont,... November 3 jury selection starts this week federal attorneys will use photographs lyrics...