He was sentenced to 29 years to life in prison. He was betraying these people hed come up with, people hed been close to. While Sanchez sipped beer, Frias met Martinez at his car. They were operating a sophisticated shop, gang expert Lewis said. The handlers didnt want to blow his cover. He seems likely to face civil and/or criminal penalties for what appears to be at best mismanagement and at worst blatant corruption that. And there was ghosting a letter: using a Q-Tip to swab milk or urine to write out orders on a piece of paper. Copyright 2023 The founder of the failed company is Sam Bankman-Fried. Its estimated for every NF member, there are seven La Eme. Nato had worked his way up in the ranks from Norteo street thug to membership in the Nuestra Familia prison gang. Jacobs told Viramontes he was marked, but promised he wouldn't let it happen in his yard. 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. Holguin and his team came up empty that night. The voice doesnt sound like Sir Dynos, but officers in the streets took offense. 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. October 10, 1976. Later, when Heltons team arrested an alleged Nuestra Familia member named Vidal Spider Fabela during a traffic stop, they found G.U.N. 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. This arrest data includes all information on current and previous arrests for . I also learned the informant was skimming money from the Nuestra Familia street leaders and not reporting this to me.. All rights reserved. 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. But he was undergoing a lot. Somewhere in between, the blend of fact and fiction amount to the truth for Sir Dyno. In November 1986, Lizard tried out these new skills on another inmate and was transferred to San Quentin. I even convinced the government that Im this crazy guy.. 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. They let in only the guys who followed the rules to the T, and bought into the cause. But once youre in the gang, you have a choice as to how high you want to go. federal racketeering case, according to court papers. Lizard first went to prison when he was nineteen. Im wearing a wire. Meanwhile, Daniel Lizard Hernandez is just one step away from his own day of reckoning, and from possibly reentering the outside world. 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. 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. But since prison officials scanned all mail that wasnt legal mail, Lizards challenge was to create an even more surefire way to communicate. I fear no organization. Lizard said he was forced into performing the unauthorized drug deals after an investigator from Santa Clara County nearly blew his cover. 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. For months, Dynos attorneys have been trying to distance their client from the rest of the defendants and get him his own trial. Not at all coincidentally, Pelican Bay also has become the headquarters of Nuestra Familia. Frias was not indicted in the federal case but was convicted of murdering Sanchez in a state case built on the FBI's investigation. For instance, if Lizard wrote Hey Love, that meant that every third word was part of the real message. Happy was hardcore, with a permanent smile beneath his Fu Manchu mustache. He said he felt no jitters, nor did he question his loyalties to the brothers he was betraying. The words didnt sound right to Lizard. Outside for the first time in decades, he was fashioning a new life in suburban Campbell with his wife and two sons. When you turn your back on all of that. The DA was forced to offer Lizard a six-year deal, which he happily accepted. But recently, Lizard spoke on the phone with her, discussing their new lives. Instead, he says, Gratton talked business. 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. But such divisions run deeper among Mexican Americans than among other Californians. The rapper says hed press Gratton for cash, but the label owner always had an excuse. I was giving them a taste of something they wanted for a long time. Even though the project had cash potential tomorrow, Sir Dyno still needed money today. The risks had Lizard thinking. 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. The report counted nearly seven thousand cases of inmate assault in the states 32 institutions, along with nine murders that year, a steady increase over the past decade. Released from the Secured Housing Unit in August 1995, Lizard was chiseled and fit as a warrior in heart and mind. 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. Everybody knows that. Even though theyd heard about the hit in advance, FBI agents never told Sanchez he was marked for violence. 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When his handlers shook him from his slumber, Lizard felt relieved, not irritated. Lizard said he attacked Huero-T as he slept, pummeling him into a bloody mess until guards pulled him off. prison gang are prepared to testify against their top leaders in a He pleaded guilty to arranging two murders from prison, and will be sentenced to life in prison in December, along with the gangs generals. The theory went, if we separated the two gangs, wed have less problems, Vasquez said. So Lizard flipped. Following his arrival at the jail, Dyno was interviewed by Thomas Ribota, another Modesto detective. He was very concerned about his familys safety, his safety. The idea was that rap music could unite and galvanize young Norteo soldiers across the state, and it did. To the FBIs delight, he also boasted about his existing Ecstasy ring, which was clearing a few thousand dollars a week. "There's family members still loyal to the guys in the fed," he said, referring to the exiled former generals and captains in Colorado. While Nuestra Familia is primarily a Chicano gang, membership sometimes extends to other Latinos as well as non-Latinos. He did not return letters seeking comment for this article. To Sir Dyno and his attorneys, the report demonstrates his utter confusion under unbelievable circumstances. The FBI believes the exchange earned Lizard a quick $3,600. He told them about the codes, the phony law firm, the bank accounts. Gratton sought out Sir Dyno because the rapper had a following, needed to produce a successful CD, and was familiar with music distribution and marketing. Jared Lewis, a former Modesto gang investigator, says the impact of G.U.N. 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. I fear no man, he said. 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. January 22,2001 He was a long way from his former East Bay stomping grounds, and hadnt dared visit his wife and children, who still lived locally. He just happened to have this talent, and he put this talent to use.. There was Henry Happy Cervantes, built like a fire hydrant, who got caught on an FBI wire offering to murder two Santa Clara County district attorneys. Im a Northerner, he says, arms wide. 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. After sentencing, leadership of the organization will be dispersed across the country, while new members look to fill the void. Prisoners are permitted reading materials, including legal documents in manila folders, which are hands-off to the guards who routinely search the cells. 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.. Once he made that choice, his own cunning and aptitude for violence catapulted him up the ranks of one of Californias most murderous gangs. For the next three months, he made his bones among Norteos by slashing Sureo inmates, brothers hed once shouldered with. They were drooling, Lizard later wrote. This may be called Tools or use an icon like the cog. ', All of the early motions from Gruel and his team of US prosecutors pointed only to Sir Dynos role in making the album. All rights reserved. In his interview with FBI agents the next day, Gratton confessed hed concocted the idea for G.U.N. Lizard initially followed his script and pushed for peace, according to the transcripts. Lizard hinted in his early letters that hed be sending more important documents for his legal case. In actuality, he sent a list of code names using Aztec and Spanish words. But government agents said that Brown Bob actually had pulled away from the gang. The former leaders include James "Tibbs" Morado, Joseph "Pinky" Hernandez, Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristan, and Tex Marin Hernandez. The former leaders include James "Tibbs" Morado, Joseph "Pinky" Hernandez, Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristan, and Tex Marin Hernandez. County./AP. Lizard hadnt, so Nato schooled him on the long-standing war. I could rap political, I could rap street, it doesnt matter, Sir Dyno says. A federal grand jury in San Francisco handed down 21 indictments against gang members, including the three generals and captain Gerald Cuete Rubalcaba. 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. Lizard and Nato were both soon paroled. Sir Dyno was born. One of the highest-ranking defendants in the upcoming trial, Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. [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. You can cancel at any time. 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. They had all their dirty laundry to air out and they were allowing those agendas to decide how they acted, what they wanted the gang to do, how they were conducting affairs within the gang. The more shock you had in your raps, at the time, the more you sold. 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. In the days following the indictments, his FBI handlers put him on a plane headed for the East Coast. The red line also called for (NF) lieutenant David Cervantes to be put on retirement status. These defendants wisely elected to plead guilty rather than face the prospect of Mr. Hernandez appearance as a trial witness against them.. The Apprehension Teams scrutiny proved to be Sir Dynos downfall. Thats when I started pulling away, he says. The "filter," or official paperwork announcing the hit, came down to Jacobs, who, by this time, had developed a close friendship with Viramontes. 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. Citing the First Amendment, the DA chose not to pursue the case. He was arrested by investigator Tim Helton for selling and transporting meth. Lizard himself adamantly denied Zilversmits claims, insisting that he pressed for peace in the case of Sanchez. The California Supreme Court is now reviewing a case that questions whether inmates can be segregated for their first sixty days at reception prisons such as San Quentin. 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