If you continue to listen to them, then youll be in there for life, too.'. Most importantly, he showed a willingness to draw sureo blood. Gratton knew nothing about the music business, but he had bricks of cash and a simple plan: to produce a rap CD that would work as a recruiting tool for Nuestra Familia and also serve to launder the gangs drug money. I kind of paused, Sir Dyno says, adding that he suddenly thought better of asking too many questions. That night, Holguin led a three-car caravan of police investigators, federal agents, and prison investigators to meet Lizard. It remains to be seen ultimately whether this prosecution was warranted, he said in accepting the guilty pleas. Inside the state prison system, norteos side with Nuestra Familias syndicates, and sureos with La Eme, aka the Mexican Mafia. But paid parking could return, in some form, this year, as the city works to pu. A grand jury indictment was in the works. Rap is an exaggeration of life, he says, just like in a movie. The former leaders include James "Tibbs" Morado, Joseph "Pinky" Hernandez, Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristan, and Tex Marin Hernandez. Since then, district attorneys from five NorCal counties had teamed up to share unsolved homicide files on dead Norteos. In his interview with FBI agents the next day, Gratton confessed hed concocted the idea for G.U.N. 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.. was drawing the attention its makers craved, and then some. Any brother who steps outside and then returns is automatically put on probation. 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. In May of 2001, Lizard met with Martin Ramirez, a gang member from Salinas. Holguin and his team came up empty that night. But since prison officials scanned all mail that wasnt legal mail, Lizards challenge was to create an even more surefire way to communicate. 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 rapper says his final meeting with Gratton occurred while the label owner was outside washing his car. I wanted to get out of there, to come to California and do what I needed to do.. Hed turned his parents garage into a makeshift studio, recorded cassettes, and sold them at low-rider shows and East Bay record stores. I didnt care, he said later. In the weeks leading up to Lizards arrest, Kayln Santiagos apartment had been stormed by FBI agents. There, Gratton was made a full-fledged Nuestra Familia member. Following his arrival at the jail, Dyno was interviewed by Thomas Ribota, another Modesto detective. 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. His character on the track writes a letter to his daughter, apologizing for his absence while she grows up. Inside, he was greeted by FBI agents. The FBI believes the exchange earned Lizard a quick $3,600. His FBI handlers had been clear: Talk down violence at all costs. A few weeks later, the rapper signed a new contract with Dog Day Records and quickly released an album called Gang Stories. Later, when Heltons team arrested an alleged Nuestra Familia member named Vidal Spider Fabela during a traffic stop, they found G.U.N. [Gratton] said he was sick and tired of going to prison, he didnt want to go back, he wants to be legitimate, Dyno recalls, so he wants to sell cars and start a record company. A member of the Mexican Mafia, Ortiz was cast out of the criminal organization in the mid-1990s after angering . 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. The former leaders include James "Tibbs" Morado, Joseph "Pinky" Hernandez, Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristan, and Tex Marin Hernandez. If he stayed in Corcoran, hed have to watch his back for young Norteos. 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. Jacobs told Viramontes he was marked, but promised he wouldn't let it happen in his yard. But the rapper has faith the judicial process will work in his favor. 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. While Sanchez sipped beer, Frias met Martinez at his car. Therefore John Ashcroft is a chicken.. Joe Gonzales orders the murder of familiano Richard Hernandez for failing to carry out orders. FBI reports show that while on the federal payroll, Lizard performed unauthorized drug deals. Chained to their seats on a triple-tiered bleacher facing the jury box were fourteen men dressed in blood-red jumpsuits. His most recent, Engrave These Words on My Stone, is probably his most cathartic, if not authentic. But nowhere on the CD, or in the lyrics, do the words Nuestra Familia appear. 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. Not with NF.. 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. But Lizard played it cool. Rocha did not seem to understand the reason for the arrest or the charge. Lizard said Bob was marked because hed stuck his nose into matters that didnt concern him. A from-the-top down, command and control, rigidly structured operator who wouldn't let subordinates exercise any personal initiative. One day two months ago, federal agents arrived at her home, and she was swept into the program. By the time Dyno got to the specially constructed federal courtroom, he was fifteen minutes behind schedule. On seven of the CDs fourteen tracks, Sir Dyno raps as hired: Hes a heartless gangsta with a nihilistic agenda. According to Ribotas report, when he asked about the rappers affiliation, Rocha denied having any gang involvement but is a norteo. He was arrested by investigator Tim Helton for selling and transporting meth. 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. Not long after Gang Stories came out, Gratton released North Stars second title, a compilation called Cuete. That wasnt what I signed up for.. That autumn, according to testimony from a fellow gang member, Lizard ordered seventeen stabbings. Theyre dwarfed by La Eme, but decided to become highly organized.. Since the government began using the antiracketeering statutes to take down crime families in 1970, the definition of coconspirator has been legally challenged and modified several times. They were Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, my pal Lizard Hernandez, and Robert "Huero" Gratton. It is a form of psychological torture." Perez says that, after the initial arrests of the five, attempts were made to persuade them to plead guilty or inform on their co-defendants and on Cuba by . He is currently a gang instructor at the FBI Headquarter's in-service nationwide training program for field agents. Like other major prison gangs, including the Aryan Brotherhood and the Mexican Mafia, Nuestra Familia issues orders from its power base in the Security Housing Unit of Pelican Bay. Grattons information cast a domino effect, eventually leading to 21 cooperating witnesses for the government. Lizard is disappointed that he never got his moment on the witness stand. The handlers didnt want to blow his cover. I was showing them everything., Today, Lizard said he flipped because he was tired of people pushing their own agendas. Hed proved he had the muscle to ascend within Nuestra Familia. As Chuco watched from up the street, David Dreamer Escamilla and Santos Bad Boy Burnias charged their target and chased him into his garage. You have permission to edit this article. Released from the Secured Housing Unit in August 1995, Lizard was chiseled and fit as a warrior in heart and mind. The thought of slashing his cousin made no sense. Over an ominous keyboard drone, he speaks deliberately, as if issuing a UN speech: The primary purpose and goals of this album is to promote unity amongst each and every one of us as norteos. His shackled codefendants didnt even look at him as he took his seat among them. By 1965, Sureos outnumbered Norteos by roughly seven to one inside the prison system. Nuestra Familia (Spanish for "our family") is a criminal organization of Mexican American (Chicano) prison gangs with origins in Northern California. Under federal law, its rather easy to be declared a coconspirator in a RICO case. Its a tough call. Hes got a future. In the meantime, Holguin had talked to Lizards sister and made a plea: Tell Danny to change his life. His father sold vacuum cleaners; his mother was a housewife. slated for Sept. 13 in San Francisco, is Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba Copyright 2023 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. In the aftermath, some of the gang's thousands of Norte-o associates -- street-level soldiers who answer to Nuestra Familia -- stayed loyal to the exiled generals and captains, while others looked to Pelican Bay because the gang's written constitution said its leaders must reside there. He said that was where he picked up the nickname Lizard, from friends who admired his clandestine nature.. I was ready to go, he recalled. Lizard said he attacked Huero-T as he slept, pummeling him into a bloody mess until guards pulled him off. He told them he could go undercover for them. On April 30, 1997, Robert Huerito Gratton arrived in Modesto, fresh from Pelican Bay. Thats who I am. Inside his Tracy home, he sits comfortably against the oversize cushions on his fluffy couch, with his baby daughter rocking to sleep a few feet away. I didnt know the guy was selling drugs, too. And what had germinated inside the prisons was now blooming all across California. Weeks later, the general was attacked by Sureos and landed in solitary confinement. Cuete arranged for the new hotshot to move into his cell. 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. Lo-fi beats backed simple, repetitive keyboard riffs. Promised he wouldn & # x27 ; t let subordinates exercise any personal initiative state prison system, side... 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