As a captain, he answered only to a handful of higher-ranking capos and the three generals inside Pelican Bay. 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. Hed picked up an ounce of weed at Rohnert Park and smoked a few joints with his buddy Israel Silent Mendoza. The words didnt sound right to Lizard. I was getting my game back, Lizard said. CD, Sir Dyno says. 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. I said, Yeah, I could rap like that, whatever. Around 6:30 p.m. on April 19, 1999, Brown Bob was watering his roses. Theres no reason Id want him to go down.. But Lizards exploits show how prison policies adopted to control gangs such as Nuestra Familia may actually have helped them bloom. Inside, he was greeted by FBI agents. In the eyes of the law, that would make Sir Dyno a real-life gangster. You could see he was nervous, Holguin said. Its a tough call. Despite the governor's complaints, all five are still housed in the same supermax unit. Look for a box or option labeled Home Page (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari) or On Startup (Chrome). 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. 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. When you turn your back on all of that. 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. 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. Lizard then drove to a house in Stockton, where he tested the powder and sold it to another Norteo. Instead, he says, Gratton talked business. This was reported to the informants state parole officer. 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 FBI believes the exchange earned Lizard a quick $3,600. Since prisoners cant mail one another, Lizard began writing Kayln Santiago, a friend from Boise. Daniel Lizard Hernandez was awakened by an FBI agent at 4 a.m. a few weeks ago. The unit requires pin-drop silence from its inmates. The young guys trying to make their name were always the craziest, just as Lizard once had been. "There's family members still loyal to the guys in the fed," he said, referring to the exiled former generals and captains in Colorado. It is my hope the federal prison system is better equipped to derail the violence.. walls at Pelican Bay State Prison to carry out the crimes. At any one time, an estimated two to three hundred members are incarcerated there, including the gangs top three generals. s success filtered back up to Pelican Bay, and Gratton began receiving frequent letters from his boss, Gerald Cuete Rubalcaba. Lizard recalls Nato asking him why he claimed Sureo, and if hed heard the history of the gang conflict. 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. He could shank n roll, as the prisoners say. Lawyers for the eight defendants, however, are likely to attack 15 year old Carlos "Casper" Silva a Preston parolee is arrested murders 3 people witin a seven week span on behalf of Nuestra familia. Silent also provided Lizard with a stolen Dodge Durango to test-drive. He told them he could go undercover for them. I know theres some things you dont ask., Dyno claims thats the moment he realized hed been duped and would never see his cash. who joined the FBI and other agencies in an investigation of street Thats not going to happen. 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. Sicc OG. I was all ready to go, Lizard recalled later. Since his first arrest, hes produced a new CD nearly every month. He was a loyal and merciless soldier until a foolish parole violation threatened to send him back to prison, where his own safety was in question. 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. 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. 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 . He leaves behind a 3-year-old son of his own, but vows that the cycle of violence ends with him. Lizards government handlers ultimately boasted that their prized informant delivered unprecedented effectiveness as a cooperating witness. According to a memo by prosecutors in the US Attorneys Office, his unshakable undercover effort will forever leave its mark in the history of law enforcement. Based on Lizards grand jury testimony alone, the US Attorneys office estimates that twenty Nuestra Familia members pleaded guilty, and five others were convicted in courts across Northern California. All rights reserved. Lexipol. 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That what I decided to do.. They sat by and watched these guys pick each other off one by one. According to motions filed by Zilversmit, at least two other alleged Nuestra Familia members were attacked while the feds were listening in. The rappers story varies somewhat depending on whos doing the telling. A judge will decide in December whether his cooperation as an informant outweighs his considerable criminal past. 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. 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. In December of 2001, Daniel Hernandez became the highest-ranking member of the Nuestra Familia prison gang to cooperate with federal investigators. For instance, if Lizard wrote Hey Love, that meant that every third word was part of the real message. 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. The shooters blasted Brown Bob with seven shots to his arms, chest, back, and legs. 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. Thats it. 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. And most of it hung on Lizard. The former leaders include James "Tibbs" Morado, Joseph "Pinky" Hernandez, Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristan, and Tex Marin Hernandez. 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. But the rapper has faith the judicial process will work in his favor. He argued with a dealer and ended up firing three bullets at the man as he ran away. I spoke to a classification officer at the San Joaquin County jail who confirmed that Rocha claimed to be norteo but didnt claim a particular set of a gang.. When it concluded in April 2001, after a $5 million investment, it was one of the largest takedowns on a prison gang in US history. One such order last year told Norte-os across Northern California to clean the streets of Sure-os. They were expected to smuggle in a copy of the Nuestra Familia constitution inside their legal folders and commit the document and its philosophy to memory. 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. Along with Crooked and other Bay Area rhymers, the Darkroom Familia took off as a twelve-member supergroup, touring across the West on their own dime, all of them touting the street thug lifestyle. Thats when Lizard began his career as a rider an inmate prone to acting violently toward fellow inmates. Go, Lizard began his career as a captain, he answered only to a house in,. Filtered back up to Pelican Bay Home Page ( Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari ) or on Startup Chrome. An inmate prone to acting violently toward fellow inmates powder and sold it another... 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