All Gratton needed was a rapper. Select the option or tab named Internet Options (Internet Explorer), Options (Firefox), Preferences (Safari) or Settings (Chrome). When you turn your back on all of that. Lizard wrote Big Smiley a wila, or small letter the size of a gum wrapper. Thats when Lizard began his career as a rider an inmate prone to acting violently toward fellow inmates. 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. promotional posters around town and learning from a confidential informant that Robert Gratton, one of the faces on the posters, was financing North Star from meth sales. Lizard recalled feeling nothing in the aftermath of the hit. His character on the track writes a letter to his daughter, apologizing for his absence while she grows up. He was a micro-manager. He wanted gang members to start cooking the drug themselves. They were Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, my pal Lizard Hernandez, and Robert "Huero" Gratton. No one who got whacked was an innocent man. Still, the accusations put Lizards conduct under scrutiny. I see the reality of things now and now that Ive gone through that, theres, like, no glory in it, you know?. By the time he turned 25, Dyno had carved his own niche as a Chicano gangsta rapper, mixing Spanish with English. It took 26 years for death to catch up to Donald Ramon Ortiz. But such divisions run deeper among Mexican Americans than among other Californians. Lawyers for the eight defendants, however, are likely to attack F. FuckScrapz209. walls at Pelican Bay State Prison to carry out the crimes. 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. Theres nothing to prepare. Jacobs told Viramontes he was marked, but promised he wouldn't let it happen in his yard. When he entered Corcoran State Prison in 1989 for selling cocaine, he joined Nuestra Raza, a recruiting gang for the more esteemed Nuestra Familia. But as his FBI handlers dug further into Lizards tenure as their employee, they unraveled other disturbing facts that threatened to compromise the credibility of their star witness. Bakersfield was the traditional dividing point, but with the crush of immigration, the numerically superior Sureos pushed the demarcation line further north, first to Fresno and then to Modesto. Like all Latino males incarcerated in California for the past three decades, Lizard was forced to choose a gang allegiance once inside prison. Even outside prison, members were expected to remain loyal to the gang. The young guys trying to make their name were always the craziest, just as Lizard once had been. His most recent, Engrave These Words on My Stone, is probably his most cathartic, if not authentic. 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." Anytime he drove out of the area, he had to call Ragan or his partner. Enter https://www.police1.com/ and click OK. He is currently a gang instructor at the FBI Headquarter's in-service nationwide training program for field agents. Not long after Gang Stories came out, Gratton released North Stars second title, a compilation called Cuete. Prosecutors say the He told Ramirez there should be no bloodshed. But then he added: If something comes at us, you cant help it. All rights reserved. Latinos, although initially thrown together, had to choose Norteo or Sureo. Chalk it up as a loss, just let it go, and move on. Had they not almost burned my identity, I wouldnt have had to be doing any of that, he said. 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. One morning this past August, Sir Dyno sat in his Dodge Caravan, stuck in I-580 traffic, knowing hed be late for his court hearing in San Francisco. I didnt know the guy was selling drugs, too. Sicc OG. You see, this is Norte, he growls on Scrap Killa. X-I-V fourteen, dont ever ask me what I mean/I got the gat that will put you in the dirt/I piss on your grave with your mamas feelings hurt.. But since prison officials scanned all mail that wasnt legal mail, Lizards challenge was to create an even more surefire way to communicate. 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 folded up the missive, stuck it to a piece of gum, and dangled it into Smileys cell using a thread of elastic hed plucked from his waistband. 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. He and his team of agents tore through Lizards hotel room, looking for evidence to send him back to the clink a bag of pot, a letter to a carnal, a bag of speed. Eager to shore up his status in Nuestra Familia, Lizard said, he soon stabbed Sureo Rudolpho Castillo in the throat, nearly killing him. I was ready to go, he recalled. 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. The rationale for the federal case, officials said, was to cripple the gang's power base . Hed began his criminal career as a teenage norteo gang member, pulling off smash-and-grab robberies of jewelry stores. 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. Nuestra Familia (Spanish for "our family") is a criminal organization of Mexican American (Chicano) prison gangs with origins in Northern California. He returned to San Quentin in June of 1994 to begin his sentence. He was a criminal too. Together, Nato and Lizard robbed drug dealers, committed petty crimes, and raised funds for their carnals back inside. And I was part of that policy. He took the gangs oath, Blood in, blood out, and rose to the rank of captain within a few years. But claiming norteo is at least a step toward gang culture, where the stakes are high. In the logic of the Chicano intrastate rivalry, there are norteos and sureos, and even if youre not running with the corner gang, youre still vulnerable to getting whacked by your enemy. Finally, brothers were required to learn sign language so they could make the most of the one hour outside their cells. They werent following what NF was about, he said. Or were they? During his time with Nuestra Raza, Gratton learned the boot camp basics: how to make shanks, decode letters, and memorize the NF Constitution. 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. Smiley replied that it was true, but not to worry no one was moving on it. Youre hot, the underboss said. Then at fourteen, Hernandez began to glimpse a different world. Copyright Weeklys All rights reserved. And I wanted to go high.. The official list of charges, which included more than thirty drug-related crimes along with acts of extortion and robbery, simply ended with the open-ended clause and other numerous crimes.. Ultimately, Judge Charles Breyer denied Zilversmits motion. Then Lizard got lucky. This arrest data includes all information on current and previous arrests for . Most importantly, he showed a willingness to draw sureo blood. Cuete took a shine to Lizard because Lizard was a stickler for detail, one police investigator said last year. Lizard said he shook the tail, but later needed to prove he was clean. I was giving them a taste of something they wanted for a long time. 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. Again, he uses a kernel of truth to anchor his rhyme, and a metaphor to exaggerate his reality. had pulled down between $50,000 and $80,000. Californias most fearsome prison is located near the Oregon border, a windswept fortress surrounded by three walls and two barbed-wire fences. Right after the CD came out, red-on-red violence all but ended, he says. He and his wife moved to Boise, Idaho, where he hoped the slow pace would help him start over. In September, the final eight defendants pleaded guilty, following the first thirteen members indicted. For that reason, he explains, he turned to dealing methamphetamine. The strings of evidence crossed, and the investigation grew, joined by the FBI and dubbed Operation Black Widow. At the time, Operation Black Widow was just getting under way, and Grattons blueprint to the gangs hierarchy was invaluable. He took a job at a golf course and used his access to the links to reclaim his swing, sometimes playing 36 holes a day. Now, for a CD he cut five years ago, for a guy he claims he barely knew, for a dollar he never made, David Rocha faces a life sentence on a single count of conspiracy. Using confidential informants, investigators said they've He used rap to vent about what every other twenty-year-old male stuck in a small town vents about: how fucked-up life is. 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. CD turned out to be one of about fifty disks the prolific rapper has appeared on in the past ten years, and the most militant in its norteo ideology. Lizard said Bob was marked because hed stuck his nose into matters that didnt concern him. Lizard and Nato were both soon paroled. In June, one California prison experimented with another solution to the Norteo-Sureo war. Thousands bought the album in the major record chains like Sam Goody's. In the weeks leading up to Lizards arrest, Kayln Santiagos apartment had been stormed by FBI agents. He also was responsible for ensuring the battalions on the streets were holding fast against Sureos and sending drug profits to help pay the legal bills of their incarcerated generals. Its getting airtime on radio stations in the Central Valley, and Sir Dyno has gone into super-marketing campaign mode, making a goal to get the ballad single Daddys Home in rotation on 75 radio stations nationwide. Every day we prepared for war., Lizard speaks about his gang membership with such conviction and authority that one law enforcement official jokingly compared his oratory skills to those of Fidel Castro. The more shock you had in your raps, at the time, the more you sold. To test his allegiance, he was ordered to move on his cellmate, Johnny Huero-T Fernandez. But within a few months, Nato got pinched for robbery, and with his long rap sheet, he got 39 years. Still, the weekend he got out, he was intent on getting paid. They let in only the guys who followed the rules to the T, and bought into the cause. Copyright 2023 They taught him to grind down plastic shampoo bottles into shanks for knifing an attacker, and to roll up the pages of National Geographic as makeshift spear handles. Back among the general prison population, Lizard reported to his ranking captain, Gerald Cuete Rubalcaba, one of the gangs most revered members. After he was expelled, his parents sent him back north to live with an aunt in Pittsburg, where he continued to. I spoke to a classification officer at the San Joaquin County jail who confirmed that Rocha claimed to be norteo but didnt claim a particular set of a gang.. As a kid I didnt know anything but religion, he said. This time, Goose brought bar charts to show drug production and expected net profits. Sir Dynos lawyers argue that a group trial will taint the jurys perception of their client. He just happened to have this talent, and he put this talent to use.. Jared Lewis, a former Modesto gang investigator, says the impact of G.U.N. FBI agents did not respond to interview requests. 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. You can cancel at any time. 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. They didnt care about agendas like that.. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. And though prison officials recently reorganized the housing in a way that slows down gang communications, coded directives are still smuggled out that translate to violence in California cities and farm towns. You have permission to edit this article. 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. 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 want to be with my family/but I killed a man yesterday.. And frankly, heres a guy whos committed numerous violent crimes, and hes getting a free pass. Just dont go out looking for it and doing anything., Ramirez replied, Its in motion. Big Smiley immediately ordered his soldier to enforce gang law back in C-Facility. 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. For seven months, he secretly recorded meetings with his gangs underbosses, allowing federal agents to listen in as his carnals planned drug deals, bought firearms, and talked openly about killing people, including two deputy district attorneys from Santa Clara County. He wanted to know what assurances could be made for him. The rappers story varies somewhat depending on whos doing the telling. With most prison gangs who try and use the mail, theres a big lag time things get lost, hits get reversed so theres a lot of miscommunication. All of these directives were channeled through him. He reiterated that he told Martinez clearly: no bloodshed., How could I order the hit? he asked. Once paroled, Lizard then served as Nuestra Familias highest-ranking member outside prison. Lizard reminded his brothers about the warriors in Pelican Bay. According to Lizard and FBI informants, the accounts held up to $25,000. CD, Lewis and Helton say. The gang's new constitution says the five should still be respected as former leaders, but has stripped them of their power in California. A small star on his forehead suggested hed killed someone in prison, even though, in truth, he hadnt. And what had germinated inside the prisons was now blooming all across California. 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. 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. Fourteen, Hernandez began to glimpse a different world drug themselves a key to the gangs was. He showed a willingness to draw Sureo blood cooking the drug themselves killed someone prison. And move on his cellmate, Johnny Huero-T Fernandez the more you.! 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