The prosecutors revealed that Gratton would testify Sir Dyno dealt meth on his behalf. But Lizard played it cool. Nato had worked his way up in the ranks from Norteo street thug to membership in the Nuestra Familia prison gang. And I wanted to go high.. Finally, he was going to San Francisco to testify. While Sanchez sipped beer, Frias met Martinez at his car. Then Lizard got lucky. If Nuestra Familia invested in meth labs, a network was already in place. Its rise even exceeded the mushrooming growth of the greater California prison population. And all are charged with substantive crimes: drug sales and possession, murder, and so on. There was also the lean and smooth figure of Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, the gang's most powerful captain, whose job inside Pelican Bay, a fellow gang member told the feds, was to "keister" the syndicate's constitution in his rectum, along with the master hit list which, by now, read fifty names long. Hes turned his attention to rapping about what he knows, rather than what he fantasizes. Its different for her, he said. [21] 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. 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. A grand jury indictment was in the works. Almost two decades later, Lizard still recalls the clarity of that moment. 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. was felt on the streets. Hed loaded up the hit list and was feuding with two of the generals while angling for a promotion. At first, Sir Dynos lead attorney Rosalind Manson thought she had a slam-dunk, a bring-on-the-First Amendment, lets-end-it-now case. There, Gratton was made a full-fledged Nuestra Familia member. Rubalcaba is accused in court papers of ordering It was during that interrogation Sir Dyno says he first learned about Grattons connections to Nuestra Familia. In the days following the indictments, his FBI handlers put him on a plane headed for the East Coast. While Nuestra Familia is primarily a Chicano gang, membership sometimes extends to other Latinos as well as non-Latinos. Sir Dynos lawyers argue that a group trial will taint the jurys perception of their client. He complained again that his overhead was too high; he had to charge $3,200 per pound of meth, while his competitors were selling it at $2,600 to $2,800. January 22,2001 Later, when Heltons team arrested an alleged Nuestra Familia member named Vidal Spider Fabela during a traffic stop, they found G.U.N. If he stayed in Corcoran, hed have to watch his back for young Norteos. The rapper says his final meeting with Gratton occurred while the label owner was outside washing his car. How could he go back in with Cuete wanting him dead? 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 was arrested by investigator Tim Helton for selling and transporting meth. That night, Holguin led a three-car caravan of police investigators, federal agents, and prison investigators to meet Lizard. 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. 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. On the new CD, he pounded out a few norteo rhymes, deriving material from his meth bust, after which hed pleaded guilty to a reduced charge and was sentenced to a year of house arrest. He said he knows they may try to find him, but that he will not hide. After a few weeks of writing and recording, the CD was released on Cinco de Mayo of 1998 and found its audience immediately. The gang's new constitution says the five should still be respected as former leaders, but has stripped them of their power in California. Natos harsh sentence made Lizard rethink his lifes path. Big Smiley immediately ordered his soldier to enforce gang law back in C-Facility. But one day on the yard, he was approached by Juan Nato Gurule, a long-lost cousin from the East Bay. It took 26 years for death to catch up to Donald Ramon Ortiz. What if you get away with it? Instead, he says, Gratton talked business. He was a criminal too. But on his way out the door, the veteran agent made Lizard an offer. In April 2001, FBI agents, along with assistance from 24 local and state agencies, ended Operation Black Widow. Its estimated for every NF member, there are seven La Eme. They were getting orders in and out of that prison in no time. He was sentenced to six months in the prisons infamous Secured Housing Unit, where more than a thousand inmates spend 23 hours a day triple-locked inside individual cells, with only a small food slot as a window. He told them about the codes, the phony law firm, the bank accounts. One month later, he was visited by Louie Holguin, a special agent with the Department of Corrections who monitored parolees and prison gangs. 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. 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.. Hes got a future. Sicc OG. But life was still rough, he says, and drug deals and violence went down in front of his eyes, even if it was what he calls mostly high school stuff, kid stuff, stupid stuff. He admits to selling pot, but only small-time, just enough to support myself., From those experiences, he says, he extrapolated in his art, and began rapping in that netherworld of myth, that place where facts give way to the cushion of fiction, where arrogance and boasting overtake the narrative. Cuete and Lizard proved just how far their reach extended in early 1999. For months, Dynos attorneys have been trying to distance their client from the rest of the defendants and get him his own trial. 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. CD, Sir Dyno says. Nuestra Familia members in the Secured Housing Unit kept to a punishing daily regimen of crunches and push-ups, followed by makeshift weightlifting with a barbell fashioned from pillow cases filled with books and magazines. Jared Lewis, a former Modesto gang investigator, says the impact of G.U.N. There was Henry "Happy" Cervantes, built like . On October 27, 1999, a year and a half after he arrived in Modesto, Gratton was pulled over on his way to a carnival in Turlock. He wanted gang members to start cooking the drug themselves. "There's family members still loyal to the guys in the fed," he said, referring to the exiled former generals and captains in Colorado. His wife had declined to enter witness protection until the trial arrived. One day two months ago, federal agents arrived at her home, and she was swept into the program. Henry Happy Cervantes spoke to Lizard alone. , Just as knowledge can be the key, there is strength in numbers; therefore, we norteos can no longer continue to fight against one another. Like a religious convert eager to please his superiors, Lizards first efforts impressed his would-be peers. 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. , With that, let each of us as norteos recognize the true purpose of this album and come together, henceforth, presenting a strong united front, que viva puros norteos unidos.. Gerald Marvin Rubalcaba of Visalia, age 45, was arrested for Possession of Controlled Substance Violation Parole: Felony Reckless Driving Evading P.O. I was already doing what I was doing, you know? It wasnt worth it to me anymore., Yet the claim that the rapper was blissfully unaware of Grattons gang connections doesnt pass the sniff test for law-enforcement guys like Jared Lewis. I also learned the informant was skimming money from the Nuestra Familia street leaders and not reporting this to me.. 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. Consider this reasoning using an unrelated example: All chickens are bipeds; John Ashcroft is a biped. Im so afraid, oh my God/Dont take me away, he raps, slowly, to the jailers whove come for him. Lizard said he attacked Huero-T as he slept, pummeling him into a bloody mess until guards pulled him off. He faced 25 years to life. At Lizards behest, Crazy Girl opened two bank accounts and made deposits from gang soldiers who were required to remit 25 percent of their profits. Regardless, the compilation had limited success, and never took off like the G.U.N. Sir Dyno accepts this rivalry, and its where many of his raps come from. Gratton, Sir Dyno says, wanted him to aim his lyrics at bringing together norteos. uncovered a hierarchy at Pelican Bay State Prison responsible for Gratton was shirtless, a large Nuestra Familia tattoo visible in bold letters across his back. They pulled in young guys by the bushel.. I didnt care, he said later. Jan 27, 2005. The rules were simple: Lizard had to record all his phone conversations with gang members and wear a wire when he held stings set up by the FBI. He offered to cover all production costs and promised Sir Dyno a fifty-fifty split on profits. You gotta understand, all these guys made their own choices, he said. Click here to follow the step-by-step murder of Brown Bob, as conducted from inside prison walls. Still Sir Dyno says he wasnt getting paid. In a memo to his colleagues, Helton talks about spotting G.U.N. 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. But nowhere on the CD, or in the lyrics, do the words Nuestra Familia appear. In 2000, a yard riot launched by gang members ended after 250 inmates were injured, many of them with stab wounds. The history of that hit calls into question the governments handling of Lizard. I was all ready to go, Lizard recalled later. FBI reports show that while on the federal payroll, Lizard performed unauthorized drug deals. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. In all, 21 people were indicted in the FBIs three-year investigation into Nuestra Familia, code-named Operation Black Widow. Then he waited. His middle-class Long Beach upbringing was spent golfing, surfing, and skateboarding. 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. A general named Art Big Smiley Ramirez was transferred from Pelican Bay to the cell directly below his own. You wont catch me slipping. Investigators ended Operation Black Widow in June of 2001. Theyre dwarfed by La Eme, but decided to become highly organized.. The unit requires pin-drop silence from its inmates. 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. Days later, Big Smiley sent Lizard his own wilas, as well as books on Chicano history. Orders from the generals were arriving on the streets within weeks, if not days. Daniel Hernandez sends a red line to several imprisoned (NF) leaders recommeding the impeachment of (NF) General Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba and lieutenant Sheldon Villanueva. Chalk it up as a loss, just let it go, and move on. People like the extreme., He was one of the few who really got off their butts and did it, says Eduardo Crooked Quiroz, a rapper and filmmaker who has known Sir Dyno for ten years. 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