gerald cuete'' rubalcaba

The boss reminded Gratton that the money belonged to the gang, and demanded more deposits into Nuestra Familia bank accounts. In the eyes of the law, that would make Sir Dyno a real-life gangster. Its estimated for every NF member, there are seven La Eme. She was nicknamed Crazy Girl and had the moniker tattooed over her right kneecap, according to FBI documents. "There's family members still loyal to the guys in the fed," he said, referring to the exiled former generals and captains in Colorado. But the state prison guards union and correctional officials have argued that to mix inmates now would only bring more violence. According to transcripts and court documents, Ramirez brought up the touchy subject of Ray Sanchez, a competing heroin dealer who was boasting of taking over the drug game. Sanchez was laying low, but Ramirez expected him to pop up again. Lizard and Nato were both soon paroled. Two months later, the leaders met again at the Los Robles Lodge in Santa Rosa. Hes turned his attention to rapping about what he knows, rather than what he fantasizes. The cells are bone-white and feature little more than a chrome toilet and cement platform with thin mattress and pillow. So far as you can trust anyone in a gang, hed trusted Cuete. 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. This may be called Tools or use an icon like the cog. He arrived on time, with one of his friends waiting in the lobby. 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. If you ever want to talk, call me. Not just in rap, but everywhere. Using confidential informants, investigators said they've Were going to take care of it tonight., But then he talked about looking the other way. He told his carnal, We got more on the table than just a fight for powder. He said that was where he picked up the nickname Lizard, from friends who admired his clandestine nature.. Lizard was then ordered to make a move on Jeremiah Ruiz, a Nuestra Familia dropout. Gratton had been deployed by his bosses to run the gangs Zapatista crew, which operated in the Modesto, Tracy, and Turlock areas. F. FuckScrapz209. Therefore John Ashcroft is a chicken.. When you turn your back on all of that. Sureos tended to be more-recent immigrants who often disparaged Norteos as second-generation Latinos who groveled for agricultural jobs and neglected their mother tongue, according to Joseph Hernandez, a criminal justice professor at Sacramento State University and expert in Latino gangs. Under federal law, its rather easy to be declared a coconspirator in a RICO case. 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. One of the highest-ranking defendants in the upcoming trial, Lizard has a thick handlebar mustache, broad shoulders, and is engraved with prison tattoos in Old English script. I even convinced the government that Im this crazy guy.. Im just going to wait for the trial.. 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. 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. It looked like they were unhappy with the content of G.U.N., Manson says, and thats why David was indicted for the content of his music. I was already doing what I was doing, you know? But at the time, it seemed like the right thing to do. He was a criminal too. Assistant US Attorney Steven Gruel responded in court papers that federal agents couldnt be blamed for failing to notify the victim, since Sanchez already knew that he had serious problems with Heredias gang (in fact, he had been hiding). Gruel also offered four instances in which Lizards testimony did lead FBI agents to inform Norteos they were marked for death. He wanted to know what assurances could be made for him. Lizard said Bob was marked because hed stuck his nose into matters that didnt concern him. 15 year old Carlos "Casper" Silva a Preston parolee is arrested murders 3 people witin a seven week span on behalf of Nuestra familia. 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 smoked pot and tasted alcohol. Dec. 22, 2021 5 AM PT. Ribota declined comment for this story, in light of the upcoming trial. 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. In the weeks leading up to Lizards arrest, Kayln Santiagos apartment had been stormed by FBI agents. Cuete arranged for the new hotshot to move into his cell. 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. 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. was drawing the attention its makers craved, and then some. According to prison officials, gang leaders could arrange such deals by offering to keep the peace. Click here to read the Nuestra Familia constitution. Quoting the prophet Jeremiah from the Old Testament, Bishop Manuel Cruz, a Cuban emigre himself, passionately said: "Woe to me if I do not care for my people and hear their cries." His teen angst surfaced one day when he threatened to kill his vice principal. He suggested that gang members cook our own shit to gain control, saying he could make twenty pounds of raw meth in one batch. I mean, he wasnt gonna tell me, and I wasnt gonna tell him what I was doing.. Inside Corcoran State Prison, Lizard reported to the ranking commander and heard some troubling news. All those guys didnt want to see me up there. A judge will decide in December whether his cooperation as an informant outweighs his considerable criminal past. The five former leaders are James "Tibbs" Morado, 59, whose common-law wife, 20-year-old Salinas resident Crystal Nenque, was found slain on Hecker Pass Road near Watsonville in 2005; Joseph. Over the next four years, Lizard and Cuete masterminded and penned more than three thousand letters, according to an FBI report. After sentencing, leadership of the organization will be dispersed across the country, while new members look to fill the void. Its as sensible as that East Coast-West Coast thing. Fourteen of those charged in federal court in Los Angeles and Santa Ana . of Tulare County. Not with NF.. 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. 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 . In November 1998, he was pulled over on a traffic violation. Shes not liking it too much. One day two months ago, federal agents arrived at her home, and she was swept into the program. For penance, Cuete was allegedly ordered to write an essay on the consequences of being a gossip. Even though hed participated in many stabbings and beatings in prison, hed avoided detection for most of his crimes. He argued with a dealer and ended up firing three bullets at the man as he ran away. At the time, norteo street gangs were engaged in red-on-red turf wars, and were giving up overall ground to the sureos, their blue-clad enemies from the south. 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. Nearby cops heard the shots and pulled in quickly. Since then, district attorneys from five NorCal counties had teamed up to share unsolved homicide files on dead Norteos. When his handlers shook him from his slumber, Lizard felt relieved, not irritated. Once paroled, Lizard then served as Nuestra Familias highest-ranking member outside prison. For instance, if Lizard wrote Hey Love, that meant that every third word was part of the real message. I wanted to get out of there, to come to California and do what I needed to do.. had pulled down between $50,000 and $80,000. You have entered an incorrect email address. 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. Eager to shore up his status in Nuestra Familia, Lizard said, he soon stabbed Sureo Rudolpho Castillo in the throat, nearly killing him. According to Lewis, the gang grew from about a thousand members in the late 80s to more than two thousand just six years later. Gratton, meanwhile, had Sir Dyno write out a business plan, which offers a glimpse of the rappers instinct to use shock value to boost sales: By releasing G.U.N. Man, Im from the streets. Still, the accusations put Lizards conduct under scrutiny. This was reported to the informants state parole officer. You wouldnt isolate an inmate and make him a target for the other side., But some criminologists now acknowledge that this practice strengthened the gangs. 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. Copyright 2023 Police1. The rapper says hed press Gratton for cash, but the label owner always had an excuse. If he stayed in Corcoran, hed have to watch his back for young Norteos. To Sir Dyno and his attorneys, the report demonstrates his utter confusion under unbelievable circumstances. They spent the next two days debriefing their new informant. 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. 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. Grattons wife was the cousin of a rapper named E-Clips, who at the time was a member of Darkroom Familia. Sir Dyno had only been to jail once, following his drug arrest. Lizard had been hiding out along the East Coast, a snitch buried deep inside federal protective custody. I was giving them a taste of something they wanted for a long time. 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. I did it because I was ordered to do it. One month later, he was visited by Louie Holguin, a special agent with the Department of Corrections who monitored parolees and prison gangs. He had two daughters to support, and payments from other rap projects were slow coming in. Its different for her, he said. Even though theyd heard about the hit in advance, FBI agents never told Sanchez he was marked for violence. 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. 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. Just dont go out looking for it and doing anything., Ramirez replied, Its in motion. The album would preach the unification of norteos Chicanos born north of an invisible border located somewhere around Fresno who, once inside the prison system, were eligible to join Nuestra Familia. In an interview last year, Zilversmit said Lizard and his FBI handlers were culpable in the death of Sanchez. He hung out at the Modesto nightclub La Familia Garcias and set up a meth ring using known norteo gangsters as runners, an enterprise he now claims earned him $10,000 a day. But if we want to prepare these people for integration to society, maybe we need to integrate them in the prison first, get them used to living with different peoples.. Now youre in the gang., Lizard still recalls what Nato told him on that day back in San Quentin: Primo, if the North and South go to war, I cant protect you just because youre my blood. The prosecutors revealed that Gratton would testify Sir Dyno dealt meth on his behalf. As a kid growing up in this small town, David Rocha was a freestyle BMXer who bounced along on one wheel during Fourth of July parades. In her written response, she pointed out the governments logical error: All NF members and associates are norteos; David is a norteo. All norteos must unite with the determination to fight and challenge all those who oppose our unity and advancement toward equal justice. Hed been Cuetes right hand for four years. That what I decided to do.. I told him, I know exactly who you are,' Holguin recalled. For now, at least, the final guilty pleas appeared to have pruned back the Blooming Flower. A few weeks later, the rapper signed a new contract with Dog Day Records and quickly released an album called Gang Stories. 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. Everyone says they want to rap, says they want to make CDs, but David was really doing it. Lizard said he wrote to a member of the Black Guerrillas whom hed met in San Quentin. 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. At the end of the day he gets to go home.. 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 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. In all, 21 people were indicted in the FBIs three-year investigation into Nuestra Familia, code-named Operation Black Widow. This arrest data includes all information on current and previous arrests for . Theres no reason Id want him to go down.. He was a micro-manager. But one year later, his family moved to Long Beach, the heart of Sureo country. They moved together into a Pittsburg apartment, and Nato continued his cousins indoctrination in Nuestra Familia. For that reason, he explains, he turned to dealing methamphetamine. And I got caught what I was doing. And I did my time for what I was doing. It was a hell of an audience to keep waiting. If he was going to hold the case together, hed need to account for his own alleged crimes as a snitch. I can get a gun and go down and do it, he boasted. After Gratton stabbed an enemy in Corcoran, he was transferred to Pelican Bays infamous Secured Housing Unit the college for prison gangsters. Silent also provided Lizard with a stolen Dodge Durango to test-drive. Transferred to Chino State Prison, he celled with two Texas gang members whod been banished for terrorizing their own prison system. And then I told him, You know who I am. It gives you a sense of purpose. The words didnt sound right to Lizard. It would bring the most attention and the most sales. 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. But one day on the yard, he was approached by Juan Nato Gurule, a long-lost cousin from the East Bay. You wont catch me slipping. Investigators ended Operation Black Widow in June of 2001. And the transfer led to internal power struggles played out in the streets, police say. Not only had he given up his post on the street, but now theyd be suspicious that he was a narc. Then Lizard got lucky. October 10, 1976. For norteos, it was a rallying call, with a cruising, bounce-your-shocks soundtrack. The more shock you had in your raps, at the time, the more you sold. The five former leaders are James "Tibbs" Morado, 59, whose common-law wife, 20-year-old Salinas resident Crystal Nenque, was found slain on Hecker Pass Road near Watsonville in 2005; Joseph "Pinky" Hernandez, 58; Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, 52; Cornelio Tristan, 46; and former Monterey resident Tex Marin Hernandez, 53. Whatever it is, you gotta go to the extreme. If Sir Dynos case were only about lyrics, its likely the First Amendment would swiftly end the debate in his favor. He reiterated that he told Martinez clearly: no bloodshed., How could I order the hit? he asked. While Nuestra Familia is primarily a Chicano gang, membership sometimes extends to other Latinos as well as non-Latinos. Lizard said that during that time, he heard two Norteos disrespecting Smileys name and took the initiative to stab them both. I mean, I would think not, but you better have some realness to it if youre going to rap that way., Despite his marketed image, Sir Dyno now claims hes never known anyone who died from gang warfare, never had anyone close to him go off to prison. CD to argue that Sir Dyno knew Gratton was affiliated with the mob. I was ready to go, he recalled. He offered to cover all production costs and promised Sir Dyno a fifty-fifty split on profits. Now, nearly all Norte-o soldiers and Nuestra Familia regiment captains across California answer to Cervantes, gang experts say, but re-establishing the gang's control over the streets has not been easy. Even though the project had cash potential tomorrow, Sir Dyno still needed money today. Instead, he says, Gratton talked business. Lizard and the government deny this accusation. , Just as knowledge can be the key, there is strength in numbers; therefore, we norteos can no longer continue to fight against one another. I was showing them everything., Today, Lizard said he flipped because he was tired of people pushing their own agendas. The rappers story varies somewhat depending on whos doing the telling. Its not easy.. [Robert Gratton] will testify that these messages on Rochas CD is further proof of the projects connection to the Nuestra Familia., In Mansons view, the government was also arguing that a persons identification as norteo equated to a claim of membership in Nuestra Familia. Since flipping for the feds, Gratton is preparing to publish his story in a yet-to-be-released book, The Rise and Fall of Nuestra Familia. An informant outweighs his considerable criminal past Dynos case were only about lyrics its! The rapper signed a new contract with Dog day Records and quickly released an called. For instance, if Lizard wrote Hey Love, that meant that every third word was of! Revealed that Gratton would testify Sir Dyno knew Gratton was affiliated with the determination to and... 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