Huerta had been living in Castroville and living a low-key life in recent months, often expressing fears she might be indicted after FBI agents tried to contact her earlier this year. With no leaders in Pelican Bay, generals began fighting for power. While the Mexican Mafia had initially been created to protect Mexicans in prison, there was a perceived level of abuse by members of La eMe towards the imprisoned chicanos from rural farming areas of Northern California. Two others, Raymundo Ray-Ray Carrasco Lopez and Adrian Angel Lopez, were charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in a separate federal case. The Inner Council members that round out the seven were listed as Samuel Sammy Luna, Guillermo Capone Solorio, Trinidad Trino Martinez and George Puppet Franco. In this weeks first upload of John Boxer Mendoza's book, Nuestra Familia: a broken paradigm, he describes how " Operation Black Widow "broke, who all the tar. The defendants, among whom several high-ranking members of both groups could be found, were responsible for 600+ murders. In December 2000, Hernandez struck a deal with the FBI. Among the six men and women indicted March 10 on charges of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana for the gang were Castroville resident Carolyn Huerta, as well as Salinas residents Robert Bubba Hanrahan, Juan Wino Gallegos and Rebecca Guzman. "I find it to be a horse of a different color from using a low-level informant. Operation Knockout began last year with gang intelligence from the Salinas Police Department and other local agencies, and soon was spearheaded by the California Department of Justices Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement. The FBI said gang commanders sent orders from six prisons in the state: Pelican Bay State Prison, High Desert State Prison, California State Prison-Sacramento, California State Prison-Solano, Pleasant Valley State Prison and Salinas Valley State Prison. The Nuestra Familia was not recognized as a prison gang by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation until 1979. The charges pending against these defendants are as follows: 21 U.S.C. The largest of the federal investigations was Operation Black Widow. [19], Since the written constitution of the Norteos stated that the gang's leaders resided in Pelican Bay State Prison in California; the relocation of the five leaders led to turmoil among its members. Deputy Chief Kelly McMillin said more of Ceasefires signature call-in meetings will be held in coming weeks in an effort to keep potential spikes in violence at bay. Before January the FBI had a policy of shielding its informants' identities from outside agencies. SAN JOSE - A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging 17 defendants with racketeering conspiracy, including acts involving murder, robbery, drug trafficking, and money laundering, and charging five others with drug trafficking-related crimes. Subpoenaed phone records show that an eight-minute call was placed from a Salinas gang member's cell phone to Hernandez five days before the killing, but there is no FBI report or transcript of the call to indicate he had taped it, as required by the informant's agreement with the FBI. The court also may order additional terms of supervised release, fines, and restitution. Law enforcement's use of informants is controversial. Zilversmit accuses the government of knowing that the murder was going to happen, but doing nothing to either stop it or warn the victim that he was in danger, and he says the money raised from drug and gun deals, as well as robberies and extortion ordered by Hernandez, went to the FBI, not the gang. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( But officials say it soon expanded outside, and over the last three-and-a-half decades has carried out hundreds of murders and thousands of robberies, staking its claim to its turf with intimidation and violence. By removing violent actors and crime drivers from the streets, we make our neighborhoods safer.. The defendants are scheduled to make initial federal court appearances before U.S. Magistrate Court Judge Nathanael Cousins and U.S. Magistrate Court Judge Sallie Kim today. "The problem in this case is all these guys have criminal histories, so you can't say they're not predisposed," he said. They saw today what happens, Schwarzenegger said. IRS delays tax deadline for Bay Area, but California has not followed: What should you do? If an individual is the target of a murder plot, you have to protect him.". 3553. Six of the 13 are inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison. [1] In the late 1960s, Mexican-American inmates of the California state prison system began to separate into two rival groups, Nuestra Familia[14] and the 1957-formed Mexican Mafia, according to the locations of their hometowns (the north-south dividing line is Delano, California). In a letter to the court, Frias said that a fellow gang member "pushed the matter (with Hernandez) and finally got the 'green light' for the murder .. . FBI informant Daniel Her- nandez at a Nuestra Familia gang meeting in Rohnert Park. It seems to me their primary responsibility is to stop crime.". He previously reported in Washington, D.C., Salinas and the East Bay, and is a middling triathlete. The leadership vacuum resulted in a power struggle between prospective generals. This is a carousel. "It doesn't matter what he says. The gangsters stopped in front of an apartment building, and Nuestra Familia member Paul Salcido and an associate got out of the car and ducked into an alley. In the weeks leading up to Lizard's arrest, Kayln . If the lawyer's claims prove true in court, it wouldn't be the first time the government went too far. 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. The message that we are continuing to put out there is that if you think you are going to try and fill the vacuum (left by the arrests), if you are going to choose to move with the gangs and commit gang crimes, then youre going to pay a price. Instead, they received 10-year sentences in a plea deal negotiated by the gang's leaders after . Several witnesses in the Valley Star case testified that they and others in the gangs Salinas crew often gave Huerta free drugs and helped her with her rent because she was a gang generals wife. For years, investigators have observed Huerta visiting Hernandez in jails and prisons and then delivering messages to local gang members. Operation Quiet Storm was the culmination of more than 5 years of complex investigative work. Northern District of California They do not have to get involved in this., Seave said the operation fits perfectly into the Ceasefire strategy. By late June 2001, according to FBI records, information from other informants showed that Hernandez had lied to his FBI handlers on other matters. [21] Women are not allowed to become full-fledged members of Nuestra Familia, but are sometimes used for communication and drug-running purposes as they are considered less likely to be noticed by law enforcement agents. [20], Eventually, three new generals came to power at Pelican Bay, yet two were demoted, leaving only David "DC" Cervantes as the highest-ranking member of the gang in California. If I stumble, push me. This book on the prison gang, Nuestra Familia is very in depth and gives a firsthand true account of one man's life in the gang. Really? He is duplicitous by nature. Federal law enforcement agencies, long unable to infiltrate Nuestra Familia, began to step up their investigations in the late 1990s. It's all false.". Taped conversations indicated that on Nov. 1, 1998, they planned to proceed with the killings. In scale and ambition, the operation dwarfs the two largest cases against the Nuestra Familia: Operation Black Widow ended in 2005, and Operation Valley Star led to a massive trial. [20] Operation Knockout He also admitted receiving about $7,000 for drugs and other criminal activities with gang members and to participating in other unauthorized drug deals while on the FBI's payroll. "Start whacking these fools," one gang member exhorted in one such discussion. IRS delays tax deadline for Bay Area, but California has not followed: What should you do? He later told a federal grand jury that law enforcement agents had not arrested the gang members earlier because prosecutors and the task force wanted to gather more evidence in the murder conspiracy. It should bring them some reality that its not romantic at all.. In a $5 million crime-fighting effort dubbed Operation Black Widow, several Nuestra Familia members agreed to become FBI informants; they wanted protection when they found themselves on. "If (suspects) commit a single overt act that furthers the conspiracy -- buying a gun or a car, for example -- that's enough to arrest them. While the NF was composed of a relative few, it exercised control and wielded influence over thousands of subordinate gang members in counties and prisons throughout Northern California using such regiments. Nuestra Familia (Spanish for "our family") is a criminal organization of Mexican American . Harriette Cole: I don't want the neighbor's kids at my house, Dear Abby: My wife said she doesn't like it, but it's part of my life, Ask Amy: I feel guilty for not speaking up about my co-worker's activities, Ask Amy: I'm your cabin housekeeper, and you apparently have no idea what I do. In 2001, the five highest-ranking commanders of the gang were transferred to a maximum security prison in Colorado. The operation, known by its code-name: Black Widow, aimed at damaging and destabilizing the internal structure of Nuestra Familia by means of targeting its leaders. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California have declined to comment on the allegations in Zilversmit's filing. Informants, he said, will always be an essential part of investigations. The indictment, unsealed Thursday, surprised local law enforcement officials who eight years ago began pursuing several of the defendants as part of a task force named Operation Northern Exposure. 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