By the time Dyno got to the specially constructed federal courtroom, he was fifteen minutes behind schedule. posters and CDs in his car, again cementing a link between the prison gang and local norteos. 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. Lizard has a thick handlebar mustache, broad shoulders, and is engraved with prison tattoos in Old English script. The former leaders include James "Tibbs" Morado, Joseph "Pinky" Hernandez, Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristan, and Tex Marin Hernandez. 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. Former leaders include James "Tibbs" Morado, Joseph "Pinky" Hernndez, Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristn and Tex Marn Hernndez. Gerald Marvin Rubalcaba of Visalia, age 45, was arrested for Possession of Controlled Substance Violation Parole: Felony Reckless Driving Evading P.O. 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. Its not easy.. All norteos must unite with the determination to fight and challenge all those who oppose our unity and advancement toward equal justice. Whites joined the Aryan Brotherhood or Nazi Low Riders for protection. He was still using meth and heroin, on-again off-again pleasures hed picked up back in Pittsburg. 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.'. Fourteen of those charged in federal court in Los Angeles and Santa Ana . Click here to read the Nuestra Familia constitution. I even convinced the government that Im this crazy guy.. Big Smiley immediately ordered his soldier to enforce gang law back in C-Facility. After that, he said, I didnt want any speculation coming my way because we still had meetings to take care of. Lizard said he compensated by assisting in unauthorized drug and arms deals. He smoked pot and tasted alcohol. His teen angst surfaced one day when he threatened to kill his vice principal. He faced 25 years to life. He suggested that gang members cook our own shit to gain control, saying he could make twenty pounds of raw meth in one batch. 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. It was a hell of an audience to keep waiting. Then in late April 2001, more than two years since hed last spoken to Robert Gratton, he was summoned to a meeting with his parole officer. He said he felt no jitters, nor did he question his loyalties to the brothers he was betraying. who joined the FBI and other agencies in an investigation of street If you continue to listen to them, then youll be in there for life, too.'. 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 Weeklys All rights reserved. It probably aggravated the situation, and forced people to align, pick a side. I wanted to go face to face with all those attorneys, he said. Hed proved he had the muscle to ascend within Nuestra Familia. Grattons information cast a domino effect, eventually leading to 21 cooperating witnesses for the government. Robert Brown Bob Viramontes was 44 and had shared cells with Nuestra Familias founding fathers in Soledad. 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. Lawyers for the eight defendants, however, are likely to attack I mean, he wasnt gonna tell me, and I wasnt gonna tell him what I was doing.. He told them he could go undercover for them. But a year into the case, the governments complaint against Sir Dyno shifted course. In August 1998, the CD appeared on the radar of Tim Helton, an investigator on Modestos Street Terrorism and Apprehension Team. But on his way out the door, the veteran agent made Lizard an offer. Black tattoo ink scribbled across their forearms and crawled up their necks, and some of them hid stone-faced beneath dark Ray-Ban-style glasses. The history of that hit calls into question the governments handling of Lizard. I am just as dangerous as they are.. Gratton sought out Sir Dyno because the rapper had a following, needed to produce a successful CD, and was familiar with music distribution and marketing. Lizard swung his weight around hard. Address: 318 Harrison Street, Suite 302, Oakland, CA 94607 Phone: (510) 879-3700 www.EastBayExpress.com More by Justin Berton Lizard is a Rat new AltWeeklies Award - Feature Story East Bay Express | Justin Berton | 04-21-2008 | Media Tags: media Growing Up Right new 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. In the weeks leading up to Lizards arrest, Kayln Santiagos apartment had been stormed by FBI agents. In June, one California prison experimented with another solution to the Norteo-Sureo war. And what had germinated inside the prisons was now blooming all across California. Hed turned his parents garage into a makeshift studio, recorded cassettes, and sold them at low-rider shows and East Bay record stores. Not only does Rocha appear on the cover of the CD wearing the norteo colors (red), reads one motion, but he is seen giving gang signs for the norteos. I wanted to get out of there, to come to California and do what I needed to do.. But recently, Lizard spoke on the phone with her, discussing their new lives. Its different for her, he said. I dont rattle, he said. But government agents said that Brown Bob actually had pulled away from the gang. Rudy Del Real and Rudolfo Quilon complete the order. Arnold Schwarzenegger protested the fact that the five were not scattered across the federal prison system, as former U.S. Attorney Robert Mueller's staff had promised. 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. FBI reports show that while on the federal payroll, Lizard performed unauthorized drug deals. Frias returned to the bar, gun tucked in his waistband, walked behind Sanchez, and fired a bullet into the base of his skull, killing him. Sir Dyno was born. There sat Cornelio Corny Tristan, one of three alleged NF generals. They dont want guys to get close; it blurs the lines. Sir Dyno believed hed just made a wise career choice. He told the young man that if he wanted to be recognized by Nuestra Familia, he could appeal to the generals. Like all Latino males incarcerated in California for the past three decades, Lizard was forced to choose a gang allegiance once inside prison. But Lizard played it cool. The cells are bone-white and feature little more than a chrome toilet and cement platform with thin mattress and pillow. 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 . Lizard already knew all the old tricks. Youre hot, the underboss said. Holguin and his team came up empty that night. When you turn your back on all of that. Since then, district attorneys from five NorCal counties had teamed up to share unsolved homicide files on dead Norteos. He says theres a street code: You dont ever ask too many questions, and both men stuck to that code. (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). slated for Sept. 13 in San Francisco, is Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba He took the gangs oath, Blood in, blood out, and rose to the rank of captain within a few years. He crawled into his living room before dying in his familys arms. For that reason, he explains, he turned to dealing methamphetamine. He told his commander that hed received an order from Cuete to kill two deputy district attorneys, a husband and wife team in San Jose named Kitty and Charles Constantinides. You have permission to edit this article. FBI agents did not respond to interview requests. As evidence, family members said, he had a large Aztec goddess tattooed atop the Nuestra Familia logo on his back. Its founding fathers adopted the phrase Blood in, blood out, and wrote a fifty-page constitution setting out the organizations bylaws. Its not like her life used to be.. 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. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. He returned to San Quentin in June of 1994 to begin his sentence. finds relevant news, identifies important training information, I cant muscle the guy because I dont know what hes involved with, he reasoned, so either I make an issue of it and make an enemy I dont want, or just let it go. 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. In an interview last year, Zilversmit said Lizard and his FBI handlers were culpable in the death of Sanchez. And then I told him, You know who I am. Hoping to curtail the violence, wardens stopped putting Anglos, blacks, and Latinos in cells with one another. 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. Heres my card.'. Since his first arrest, hes produced a new CD nearly every month. His character on the track writes a letter to his daughter, apologizing for his absence while she grows up. I kind of paused, Sir Dyno says, adding that he suddenly thought better of asking too many questions. 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. On the back cover, he stands next to Gratton, flashing XIV signs. Chained to their seats on a triple-tiered bleacher facing the jury box were fourteen men dressed in blood-red jumpsuits. He just happened to have this talent, and he put this talent to use.. Symbols and culture Both were steeped in the Jehovahs Witnesses faith. Thats not going to happen. They made their beds, and so did Bob. Rapper David Rocha thought a norteo gangsta CD was his ticket to glory -- not life in prison. Its rise even exceeded the mushrooming growth of the greater California prison population. What if you get away with it? They were Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, my pal Lizard Hernandez, and Robert "Huero" Gratton. Eager to shore up his status in Nuestra Familia, Lizard said, he soon stabbed Sureo Rudolpho Castillo in the throat, nearly killing him. Lizard also followed protocol and reported his arrival to the prisons ranking gang member, Daniel Wino Perez. Most importantly, he showed a willingness to draw sureo blood. 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. was felt on the streets. "There's family members still loyal to the guys in the fed," he said, referring to the exiled former generals and captains in Colorado. Sir Dyno wanted to make a name for himself, Lewis says, so he sold his soul to the devil. The large XIV across his throat represented the fourteenth letter of the alphabet, N, for Norte. 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 . was drawing the attention its makers craved, and then some. He is also a consultant to a number of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors in this ever-changing war against gang violence. 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. Lizard wrote Big Smiley a wila, or small letter the size of a gum wrapper. Once he made that choice, his own cunning and aptitude for violence catapulted him up the ranks of one of Californias most murderous gangs. Theres nothing to prepare. In a memo to his colleagues, Helton talks about spotting G.U.N. Select the option or tab named Internet Options (Internet Explorer), Options (Firefox), Preferences (Safari) or Settings (Chrome). For months, Dynos attorneys have been trying to distance their client from the rest of the defendants and get him his own trial. County./AP. You have entered an incorrect email address! 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. But since prison officials scanned all mail that wasnt legal mail, Lizards challenge was to create an even more surefire way to communicate. All rights reserved. The Norte-os are trying to establish (in Salinas) but every time they try to, there's shootouts." And I was part of that policy. Instead, he says, Gratton talked business. Lizard still takes pride in that: What the law didnt know was that Lizard had an escape plan and a handcuff key, but more importantly, he had influence on the streets, he recalled in a letter. Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Grattons wife was the cousin of a rapper named E-Clips, who at the time was a member of Darkroom Familia. None of these other [Nuestra Familia members] have a thing to say about [Sir Dyno], Manson says. At night, he ordered rows of Nuestra Familia inmates to recite aloud Aztec war chants to rattle guards and enemies. Police dogs sniffed through his car and came up with three ounces of crystal meth. CD, Sir Dyno says. 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. They were expected to smuggle in a copy of the Nuestra Familia constitution inside their legal folders and commit the document and its philosophy to memory. Time to go, the agent said. In December of 2001, Daniel Hernandez became the highest-ranking member of the Nuestra Familia prison gang to cooperate with federal investigators. s success filtered back up to Pelican Bay, and Gratton began receiving frequent letters from his boss, Gerald Cuete Rubalcaba. They knew I had them., He still hasnt been reunited with his family. For penance, Cuete was allegedly ordered to write an essay on the consequences of being a gossip. You dont have a choice. While working as an informant, he tested positive for drug use. The founder of the failed company is Sam Bankman-Fried. When Lizard arrived in January of 1995, he checked in with the ranking gang member. Zilversmit said the feds were preoccupied with preserving their investigation instead of saving lives. Released from the Secured Housing Unit in August 1995, Lizard was chiseled and fit as a warrior in heart and mind. While Nuestra Familia is primarily a Chicano gang, membership sometimes extends to other Latinos as well as non-Latinos. The coddled "terrorists" of South Florida Anti-Castro Cuban exiles who have been linked to bombings and assassinations are living free in Miami. He was arrested by investigator Tim Helton for selling and transporting meth. We are not going to whack no DAs!. Today, the real Sir Dyno has five kids, a home in Tracy, and makes a living off CD sales, which he estimates at beyond 100,000 nationwide. Cuete was among the final holdouts. The cases were spread across Northern California. After all, race-based prison gang violence dominates Californias prison system, according to a 2002 report from the California State Department of Justice. Lizard says the drug was merely Vicodin, a pain reliever he took after strenuous workouts at the gym. Still, the gang has been dealt a serious wound with Lizards help. A small minority within the gang has not transferred loyalty to Cervantes, Santa Cruz County's Morales said. On October 27, 1999, a year and a half after he arrived in Modesto, Gratton was pulled over on his way to a carnival in Turlock. He had two daughters to support, and payments from other rap projects were slow coming in. Right after the CD came out, red-on-red violence all but ended, he says. He found his man in David Sir Dyno Rocha, then a 26-year-old budding rhymer and producer from Tracy. Natos harsh sentence made Lizard rethink his lifes path. With the prison population growing so fast, they had their pick, Lewis said. The only problem is the limiting of audience outside Northern California., After costs for radio spots and posters and printing, the plan estimated profits of $21,051 on the first 4,000 units. Or were they? The rappers story varies somewhat depending on whos doing the telling. When the NF trial begins on November 3 jury selection starts this week federal attorneys will use photographs and lyrics from the G.U.N. Gratton had been deployed by his bosses to run the gangs Zapatista crew, which operated in the Modesto, Tracy, and Turlock areas. You arent just talking about some poor criminal who was abused by the NF and got drawn into the criminal net. : 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. His middle-class Long Beach upbringing was spent golfing, surfing, and skateboarding. Frias, a 22-year-old Salinas native, maintains that Hernandez, the informant, approved the "green light," the execution order, on Sanchez while working for the FBI. The quickest way to get money back fast would be to release a norteo album. 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. Click here to follow the step-by-step murder of Brown Bob, as conducted from inside prison walls. Following his arrival at the jail, Dyno was interviewed by Thomas Ribota, another Modesto detective. I fear no man, he said. When he entered Corcoran State Prison in 1989 for selling cocaine, he joined Nuestra Raza, a recruiting gang for the more esteemed Nuestra Familia. Police surmise that the order was responsible for many of the shootings in Salinas in 2007, which increased by 50 percent over 2006 levels. They were much smaller than the Mexican Mafia, so they used it to their advantage, gang expert Jared Lewis said. Lizard brushed aside Holguins offer. Theres blood on the governments hands here, he said. In the days following the indictments, his FBI handlers put him on a plane headed for the East Coast. 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. It was his way or the highway. If they come for him, he said, he worries only for them, his enemies. The only way to sell was to shock, he says. Its a tough call. A few years earlier, the two attorneys had nailed former general Pinky Hernandez for ordering a murder, and Cuete wanted to offer their coffins as a gift to Pinky. 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. In April 2001, FBI agents, along with assistance from 24 local and state agencies, ended Operation Black Widow. Copyright 2023 I know theres some things you dont ask., Dyno claims thats the moment he realized hed been duped and would never see his cash. They pulled in young guys by the bushel.. Theres no denying Sir Dyno is norteo, but hes careful to explain that a norteo isnt necessarily a gang member, just a Chicano proud of his provenance. Last year, a newly revised constitution for the gang was distributed through underground channels, allowing for change in the mesa's structure, said Santa Cruz County sheriff's Sgt. If you say, I dont know, they say Where are you from? When you tell them, they direct you to that side of the prison. 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. Daniel Lizard Hernandez was awakened by an FBI agent at 4 a.m. a few weeks ago. of Tulare County. At any one time, an estimated two to three hundred members are incarcerated there, including the gangs top three generals. The guys I played with didnt care Norteo, Sureo, or what side you were on. That autumn, according to testimony from a fellow gang member, Lizard ordered seventeen stabbings. There, Gratton was made a full-fledged Nuestra Familia member. Brown Bob brought it on himself., It was just like the Nuestra Familia constitution said: Blood In, Blood Out., By the time Lizard exited Pelican Bay, prison guards had nicknamed Nuestra Familia The Blooming Flower for its astonishing growth. One of the gangs living legends had recently been paroled. That was their fuck-up. Somewhere in between, the blend of fact and fiction amount to the truth for Sir Dyno. I want to be with my family/but I killed a man yesterday.. I was all ready to go, Lizard recalled later. They were getting orders in and out of that prison in no time. In fact, the 31-year-old gangsta rapper, whose real name is David Rocha, wanted nothing more than to distance himself from his codefendants. Lizard and Nato were both soon paroled. They were, according to the government, members of Nuestra Familia, Northern Californias most notorious and ruthless prison gang. Well, if youre upset with the content, the First Amendment says Too bad. He said that after he drove away from a successful arms sale in the South Bay, at which he wore a wire, one of his underbosses called to warn him he was being tailed by a suspicious car, which Lizard knew was the investigator. Almost two decades later, Lizard still recalls the clarity of that moment. The handlers didnt want to blow his cover. But Lizard hadnt exactly gone straight. He has since repudiated his former gang life, and spends his time writing and speaking to law enforcement gatherings about prison gangs. 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. How could he go back in with Cuete wanting him dead? I did what I had to do, he says. federal racketeering case, according to court papers. Man, Im from the streets. I was a soldier, and a good one.. In all, 21 people were indicted in the FBIs three-year investigation into Nuestra Familia, code-named Operation Black Widow. Down one tricep it reads East and down the other, Bay. On the side of his shaved head he has a dragon next to the words Convicted by Insanity.. According to one source, Ribota took the CD to the San Joaquin County district attorneys office to see if it constituted an official threat to a police officer. The following day, Ray Sanchez walked into Caps Saloon, unaware that hed been the discussion of a hit. 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. He and his wife moved to Boise, Idaho, where he hoped the slow pace would help him start over. Cuete had gone power mad. Hes got a future. By 1965, Sureos outnumbered Norteos by roughly seven to one inside the prison system. Hes turned his attention to rapping about what he knows, rather than what he fantasizes. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Rocha still did not understand the charge or why he was being placed into custody. 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. Gratton was also using heroin, another mistake in the eyes of the gang. Daniel Hernandez sends a red line to several imprisoned (NF) leaders recommeding the impeachment of (NF) General Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba and lieutenant Sheldon Villanueva. Gang affiliation in California is often a matter of geography, but for Daniel Hernandez it wasnt that simple. The strings of evidence crossed, and the investigation grew, joined by the FBI and dubbed Operation Black Widow. His teen angst surfaced one day when he threatened to kill his vice principal. The young guys trying to make their name were always the craziest, just as Lizard once had been. Monday. Within minutes, the gang member confessed his role in Nuestra Familia and offered to trade information for leniency. Orders from the generals were arriving on the streets within weeks, if not days. And he had better news: Nuestra Familia pot and speed were piping through Modesto, Stockton, and Sacramento. The policy eventually trickled down to county and city jails and even the California Youth Authority. He told them about the codes, the phony law firm, the bank accounts. In the months since federal officials brought indictments based on the evidence he helped them gather, Lizard told his tale from within the confines of protective custody via letters and telephone interviews. In its fifteen years of operation, at least a dozen inmates have been strangled to death inside its walls, according to lawsuits and published reports. And in every fashion when necessity called for it, I wanted the NF hierarchy to recognize my loyalty and dedication to NF. They moved together into a Pittsburg apartment, and Nato continued his cousins indoctrination in Nuestra Familia. He was all business, all the time.. It was explained to Rocha that the RICO charge had to do with racketeering and his involvement with Nuestra Familia prison gang; specifically in the creating of the Generations of United Norteos compact disc and how the CD was financed. Im wearing a wire. He complained again that his overhead was too high; he had to charge $3,200 per pound of meth, while his competitors were selling it at $2,600 to $2,800. Using racketeering statutes to bust the organized crime ring, the indictment carried six charges of murder or attempted murder, as well as charges of assault, conspiracy, drug trafficking, and arms dealing. He seems likely to face civil and/or criminal penalties for what appears to be at best mismanagement and at worst blatant corruption that. I can get a gun and go down and do it, he boasted. No one who got whacked was an innocent man. Nuestra Familia generals James "Tibbs" Morado, Cornelio Tristan and James "Pinky" Hernandez, and captains Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba and Tex Hernandez were already serving life sentences in California when they were indicted by a federal grand jury in 2001. 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. Im a Northerner, he says, arms wide. "DC Cervantes is calling the shots," said J.R. Auten, a former gang investigator for state prisons and now a consultant for federal and state law enforcement. He showed a willingness to draw sureo blood Aztec war chants to rattle guards enemies! Pick, Lewis says, arms wide Substance Violation Parole: Felony Driving! To say about [ Sir Dyno ], Manson says apartment, and both stuck. Her, discussing their new lives gerald cuete'' rubalcaba norteo, sureo, or what side you were on a of. 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