He told them about the codes, the phony law firm, the bank accounts. His teen angst surfaced one day when he threatened to kill his vice principal. Since prisoners cant mail one another, Lizard began writing Kayln Santiago, a friend from Boise. Later, when Heltons team arrested an alleged Nuestra Familia member named Vidal Spider Fabela during a traffic stop, they found G.U.N. If you say, Nothing, youre not gonna make it. They formed their own gang: Nuestra Familia our family. And I got caught what I was doing. He had two daughters to support, and payments from other rap projects were slow coming in. His middle-class Long Beach upbringing was spent golfing, surfing, and skateboarding. The cells are bone-white and feature little more than a chrome toilet and cement platform with thin mattress and pillow. He was betraying these people hed come up with, people hed been close to. He tested positive, violating a federal policy that informants remain drug-free while working for the government. In April 2001, FBI agents, along with assistance from 24 local and state agencies, ended Operation Black Widow. In his interview with FBI agents the next day, Gratton confessed hed concocted the idea for G.U.N. It gives you a sense of purpose. These divisions werent just cultural. Meanwhile, Daniel Lizard Hernandez is just one step away from his own day of reckoning, and from possibly reentering the outside world. According to Lizard, the commander had one more piece of information: Cuete says youre a no-good. 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. 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. 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. Sir Dyno had only been to jail once, following his drug arrest. Lizard said he beat Ruiz to a pulp with his fists, bringing his victim close to death. His alleged crime is conspiracy in other words, simply having associated with the men sitting beside him. Ramirez confided to Lizard that his own boss, Heredia, who would later be Zilversmits client, wanted to go to war. What to do? He oversaw battalions across the greater Bay Area, and relayed their progress to his bosses back inside. And in response, FBI documents indicate that street soldiers in Nuestra Familia have ordered a two-year moratorium on murders while they wait for recent publicity to fade. Were moving your ass. Not at all coincidentally, Pelican Bay also has become the headquarters of Nuestra Familia. I could rap political, I could rap street, it doesnt matter, Sir Dyno says. Membership. Sir Dyno was born. It sold, and he knew why. I wanted to go face to face with all those attorneys, he said. In the next room, Ragan and a team of detectives from the Santa Rosa Police Department listened to the meeting and watched it on a hidden camera. A from-the-top down, command and control, rigidly structured operator who wouldn't let subordinates exercise any personal initiative. After the gang member sent word to his people on the street, the witnesses to Lizards crime were persuaded not to show up for trial. Jared Lewis, a former Modesto gang investigator, says the impact of G.U.N. 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. It took 26 years for death to catch up to Donald Ramon Ortiz. In the early 1970s, gang fights which were called race riots then became more common inside the prisons. : Wanton Disregard For Safety Warrants Or Holds Only Resist / Obstruct / Delay Peace Officer in Tulare County, California on March 30, 2016 by Tulare County Sheriff. Now, the legal definition rests simply on whether a person has a slight connection to the mob. Finally, brothers were required to learn sign language so they could make the most of the one hour outside their cells. Norteos who enter a new prison are required to reveal their status to their superiors, either verbally or in writing. A small minority within the gang has not transferred loyalty to Cervantes, Santa Cruz County's Morales said. Most importantly, he showed a willingness to draw sureo blood. As a captain, he answered only to a handful of higher-ranking capos and the three generals inside Pelican Bay. Theres blood on the governments hands here, he said. A general named Art Big Smiley Ramirez was transferred from Pelican Bay to the cell directly below his own. 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. Lexipol. At the end of the day he gets to go home.. And what had germinated inside the prisons was now blooming all across California. After he was expelled, his parents sent him back north to live with an aunt in Pittsburg, where he continued to. The three ounces found in Sir Dynos car, Gratton was claiming, came from him a statement which, if true, puts Sir Dyno squarely within the gang conspiracy. 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. Copyright 2023 Lizard had made other deals, too. Theyre dwarfed by La Eme, but decided to become highly organized.. In November 1986, Lizard tried out these new skills on another inmate and was transferred to San Quentin. I was getting my game back, Lizard said. But the rapper has faith the judicial process will work in his favor. Fourteen of those charged in federal court in Los Angeles and Santa Ana . The rapper arrived dressed in neatly pressed beige Dickies pants, spotless work boots, and an untucked flannel-print shirt a vato in his Sunday best, mumbling his apologies. (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). He was as bright and loyal as they came, so Cuete could trust him.. Its rise even exceeded the mushrooming growth of the greater California prison population. All those guys didnt want to see me up there. 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. Under the federal RICO laws used to indict criminal organizations like Nuestra Familia, anyone who knowingly associates with one member of a gang becomes part of it and if the gang goes down, so does he. You dont have a choice. But a year into the case, the governments complaint against Sir Dyno shifted course. He reiterated that he told Martinez clearly: no bloodshed., How could I order the hit? he asked. After all, race-based prison gang violence dominates Californias prison system, according to a 2002 report from the California State Department of Justice. A huge warehouse complex project is before the American City Council. Rocha still did not understand the charge or why he was being placed into custody. He was born in Pittsburg, which made him a Norteo by birth. Cervantes added that hed already followed the couple to the courthouse. , 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.. The deep trouble in which he now finds himself has everything to do with his performance on a gang-funded rap CD titled Generations of United Norteos Till Eternity. Lizard had been hiding out along the East Coast, a snitch buried deep inside federal protective custody. To test his allegiance, he was ordered to move on his cellmate, Johnny Huero-T Fernandez. Gratton stands only five foot seven, but his bold tattoos did the talking. Please subscribe to keep reading. Once he made that choice, his own cunning and aptitude for violence catapulted him up the ranks of one of Californias most murderous gangs. I was ready to go, he recalled. I told him, I know exactly who you are,' Holguin recalled. Dozens of Napans who are homeless will soon find permanent housing in a former city motel. They made their beds, and so did Bob. 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. Ribota declined comment for this story, in light of the upcoming trial. He did not return letters seeking comment for this article. I fear no organization. It's the most comprehensive and trusted online destination for law enforcement agencies and police departments worldwide. Im from up here, I grew up with norteo friends. Regardless, the compilation had limited success, and never took off like the G.U.N. Rocha was asked, Do you want to speak to an attorney? Rocha did not respond, and went on to state, Im a musician. He also stated something to the effect, If you have a landscaper work on your yard, you dont care where the equipment comes from.'. In early 1998, fellow La Mesa heavyweight Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba ordered Viramontes dead. Police surmise that the order was responsible for many of the shootings in Salinas in 2007, which increased by 50 percent over 2006 levels. The coddled "terrorists" of South Florida Anti-Castro Cuban exiles who have been linked to bombings and assassinations are living free in Miami. He said he knows they may try to find him, but that he will not hide. 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. Copyright Weeklys All rights reserved. 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. If it read Hello Love!, it was every eighth word. And one critic of his tenure as an informant even charges that the FBIs leash on Lizard was so loose that the government turned a blind eye to the killing of a Salinas drug dealer. And when that rhyme ran out, as it usually does, he went where other rappers go to make up for the sudden loss of material: He started making shit up. New soldiers became captains and generals by stabbing or killing people. This arrest data includes all information on current and previous arrests for . It is here that the stories begin to diverge: Rocha claims that in the eleven or so months he knew Gratton, the parolee never discussed his ties to the highly secretive prison gang. He told the young man that if he wanted to be recognized by Nuestra Familia, he could appeal to the generals. 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. Still, the accusations put Lizards conduct under scrutiny. The history of that hit calls into question the governments handling of Lizard. I want to be with my family/but I killed a man yesterday.. Henry Happy Cervantes spoke to Lizard alone. Beds, and never took off like the G.U.N gang has not transferred loyalty to Cervantes, Santa County! Named Vidal Spider Fabela during a traffic stop, they found G.U.N fights which were called race riots became. 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