[14] At the time of Operation Black Widow, law enforcement officials had estimated that Nuestra Familia was responsible for at least 600 murders in the previous 30 years. The gangsters stopped in front of an apartment building, and Nuestra Familia member Paul Salcido and an associate got out of the car and ducked into an alley. If an individual is the target of a murder plot, you have to protect him.". Nevertheless, any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court only after consideration of the U.S. "It was decided to allow it to go on until sufficient overt acts were completed that prosecutors felt that convictions could be obtained," Lazzarini testified. It was not immediately disclosed how many of the 19 remaining defendants were arrested in the law-enforcement sweeps this week. But to those who choose to stop the violence, there are available resources to help them. Alberto Larez, 45, known in Salinas as "Bird," was taken into custody Thursday morning at his residence in . 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. Three gang members later said in interviews or police reports that Hernandez gave a "green light" to commit the murder. FBI informant Daniel Her- nandez at a Nuestra Familia gang meeting in Rohnert Park. It's a business. Huerta had been living in Castroville and living a low-key life in recent months, often expressing fears she might be indicted after FBI agents tried to contact her earlier this year. The NF has a formal written constitution and a membership of approximately 250, with an additional 1,000 associates. Huerta is known among gang members as the wife of Joseph "Pinky" Hernandez, one the Nuestra Familia"s top leaders serving a life sentence in a Colorado "supermax" prison. "The problem in this case is all these guys have criminal histories, so you can't say they're not predisposed," he said. A lot of the street violence in the past 10 years in Salinas and Watsonville and San Jose stems from this, and in the prison yards too.. Before Ybarra and other gang members arrived at Gallegos' apartment, police parked a patrol unit near the building, according to police and FBI documents. On June 18, 2001, Hernandez told his handlers that a subordinate was distributing more than a dozen guns to young gang members in town, according to FBI reports. Such would prove the case with Hernandez, who was paid $52,200 over seven months. In 2000 and 2001, 22 members were indictment|indicted on RICO (law)|racketeering charges, including several who were allegedly serving as high-ranking gang leaders while confined in Pelican Bay . He could only participate in crimes approved by his FBI handlers, such as planned drug and gun purchases. Operation Knockout began last year with gang intelligence from the Salinas Police Department and other local agencies, and soon was spearheaded by the California Department of Justices Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement. IRS delays tax deadline for Bay Area, but California has not followed: What should you do? Viramontes, 44, a.k.a. Federal law enforcement agencies, long unable to infiltrate Nuestra Familia, began to step up their investigations in the late 1990s. At first, Hernandez came through, providing hours of incriminating tapes. For the FBI, infiltrating such an organization from the outside was virtually impossible. Operation Black Widow. The question of how to investigate violent street gangs and organized crime is one that has troubled police and prosecutors for centuries, and according to law enforcement experts, no satisfactory answer has yet been reached. Hill said she hoped the life sentences the defendants face will deter gang-involved youth from deeper involvement. And John Boxer Mendoza wasn't some minor player, he was right up there under the top generals in the gang, working for them and implementing Nuestra Family policy. The Bay Areas top federal prosecutor announced a sweeping array of indictments targeting the notorious Nuestra Familia prison gang, boasting that a five-year operation had culminated in a takedown of the organizations leadership responsible for an expanse of drug trafficking and brutal street violence spanning Northern California. But by April 2001, government agents began to lose control of their prized informant. 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 prisonin Colorado. By late June 2001, according to FBI records, information from other informants showed that Hernandez had lied to his FBI handlers on other matters. Journalist Reynolds uses her unprecedented access to gang members, both in and out of . 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. Hitt said agents tried to serve Guzman an arrest warrant in Salinas on Thursday but were unable to find her. It should bring them some reality that its not romantic at all.. Soon after, prison investigators confiscated a letter from her to an inmate, saying she and Hanrahan planned to marry in June 2008. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Gracia stepped down after publicly proclaiming her love for Hanrahan at a City Hall press conference. When confronted about unauthorized trips, Hernandez said he slipped away without permission to play golf in Stockton. A San Jose native, he graduated from UCLA with a BA degree in history and from the University of Maryland with a MA degree in journalism. The government's response had been due to be filed with the court on Nov. 29, but prosecutors requested and were given an additional 10 days. But now, police said they are prepared to respond with tactics developed as part of Operation Ceasefire. An ambitious multi-agency operation aimed at dismantling the Central Coast leadership structure of the Nuestra Familia gang resulted in more than three dozen arrests during sweeps early Thursday. In early 2008, Hanrahan figured into local headlines when his girlfriend Sara Gracia was named to a Salinas police advisory commission, causing an uproar within the Police Department and with the public. Huerta is known among gang members as the wife of Joseph Pinky Hernandez, one the Nuestra Familias top leaders serving a life sentence in a Colorado supermax prison. Nuestra Familia's new leadership General: David "DC" Cervantes Top Commanders: Daniel "Stork" Perez, of Salinas; Anthony "Chuco" Guillen, of San Jose; George "Puppet" Franco, of San Jose Demoted: Jose "Huerito" Gonzalez; James "Conejo" Perez Copyright 2008 Monterey County Herald Copyright 2013 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. Ramirez pled guilty for conspiring to murder Raymond Sanchez, and told Salinas police that the FBI's informant allowed the hit. He quoted a California Department of Corrections memo describing the gang's activities from January through the spring of 2001: "All operations were at direction of OBW [Operation Black Widow] staff with [a Special Services Unit Special Agent's] concurrence and were monitored with audio/video equipment and personnel.". The message that we are continuing to put out there is that if you think you are going to try and fill the vacuum (left by the arrests), if you are going to choose to move with the gangs and commit gang crimes, then youre going to pay a price. That strategy was challenged by former Deputy Assistant FBI Director Daniel O. Coulson, who led bureau anti-terrorism and organized crime teams from 1966 to 1997, and who defends the use of criminal informants as "worth the risk" to make difficult cases. State and federal law enforcement officials chose Salinas for the raids because for years the city has been known as a hub of Nuestra Familias activity. In this weeks first upload of John Boxer Mendoza's book, Nuestra Familia: a broken paradigm, he describes how " Operation Black Widow "broke, who all the tar. But San Francisco attorney Marc Zilversmit contends the government's own legal filings reveal a federal role in the brutal prison-based gang, and raise troubling questions about how far the FBI can take an undercover operation. Robert Salonga is a Bay Area News Group reporter who covers criminal justice and public safety for The Mercury News and East Bay Times. And that price is going to be your freedom, said District Attorney Dean Flippo. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. Last fall, when Russoniello came to a Salinas gang summit for law enforcement, at least some of the time was spent on the early planning of Operation Knockout. According to court documents, high-ranking Nuestra Familia members Salvador Castro, Jr. and Raymond Lopez used contraband cell phones from inside Fresno County's Pleasant Valley State Prison to . [21] Other symbols include use of the number 14 or XIV, as the letter "N" is the 14th letter of the English alphabet. Numerous convictions were overturned because information about informants was withheld from defendants and their attorneys. But he says the defense's claims against the government are actually more serious than entrapment, in which the rights of a suspect are violated, because they allege the government actually was in a position of knowingly tolerating crimes. In scale and ambition, the operation dwarfs the two largest cases against the Nuestra Familia: Operation Black Widow ended in 2005, and Operation Valley Star led to a massive trial. One FBI supervisor was starkly realistic about the whole process. The only idea of wit, or rather that inferior variety of the electric talent which prevails occasionally in the North, and which, under the name of Wut, is so infinitely distressing to people of good taste, is laughing immoderately at stated intervals.Sydney Smith (17711845), A white face goes with a white mind. Two others, Raymundo Ray-Ray Carrasco Lopez and Adrian Angel Lopez, were charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in a separate federal case. "I find it to be a horse of a different color from using a low-level informant. If the lawyer's claims prove true in court, it wouldn't be the first time the government went too far. Staff writer Nate Gartrell contributed to this report. Very seldom a white face will have a black mind.Nikki Giovanni (b. Hernandez replies, "Yeah" and adds: "Why are you gonna beat up somebody when they're just gonna come back and shoot you up, right? The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California have declined to comment on the allegations in Zilversmit's filing. It would be tough for Zilversmit to make a case that his client had no predisposition to commit the crimes he is accused of committing something the defense would have to prove in order win an acquittal, he said. One of the handguns distributed by Armando Santa cruz while he was regiment commander of Salinas FBI informant Daniel Hernandez at a Nuestra Familia gang meeting in Rohnert Park. In grand jury testimony, a former cellmate said Hernandez ordered 17 stabbings while in prison. Attorney General Brown disagreed, saying he learned when he was mayor of Oakland that only constant suppression works with hard-core gang members. The leadership vacuum resulted in a power struggle between prospective generals. "Together, the government and Hernandez ran the street operations, installing a new organization, promoting and demoting members, setting up gun and drug deals, and espousing a philosophy of violence that eventually led to the death of a rival drug dealer, Raymond Sanchez," Zilversmit wrote in a 51-page statement filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco in support of his motion to dismiss charges against his client, Armando "Suave" Heredia. Official websites use .gov The investigation, dubbed Operation Black Widow, was a joint effort by the FBI and state and local police in Northern California to break the Nuestra Familia gang, which police say operated from Salinas to the Oregon border and was run from inside the state's high-security Pelican Bay State Prison. both faced life sentences in the FBI's sweeping Operation Black Widow conspiracy case in 2000. The gangs targeted in this operation are responsible for much of the illicit drug distribution and violent crime that has plagued areas in the South Bay, Salinas and the Central Valley for years, Fair said. In April 2010, federal and local law enforcement agencies concluded what was considered the most significant effort to dismantle the Central Coast leadership structure of Nuestra Familia. FBI informant Daniel Hernandez at a Nuestra Familia gang meeting in Rohnert Park. The NF is alleged in the indictment to be a criminal enterprise that was created to organize, protect, discipline, profit from, and maintain the allegiance of gang members on the streets of and within custodial facilities in California. The gangsters saw the vehicle as they approached and, according to the informant, postponed the attack. Local authorities hope the arrests will cripple the gangs grip on younger gang members in the area and make existing gang-violence intervention efforts, such as Ceasefire, more effective. You cant win this fight.. Local deputies arrested her on March 16 in East Salinas for alleged probation violations, according to sheriffs logs. [23] After months of investigation, at least 37 alleged gang members were arrested during the raids conducted. [24], Last edited on 27 February 2023, at 00:46, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, "Prison Gangs (continued) - Gangs and Security Threat Group Awareness", "Authorities arrest 11 key gang members in east Hillsborough", "Bust of gang offers hope for Dodge City immigrants", "Gangs are becoming a growing threat across Utah", "The Marietta Daily Journal - Ga Supreme Court upholds brothers murder convictions", "Special Issue: Gangs in the United States", "Federal indictments crack vast prison crime ring", "Gang raid targets Nuestra Familia in Salinas", Organized Crime in California Annual Report 2007-08, "New leadership, constitution for Nuestra Familia", "Gang and Security Threat Group Awareness", "Eight-month investigation yields 37 high-level arrests", "Nuestra Familia case: Details of biggest gang prosecution in Santa Clara County history", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nuestra_Familia&oldid=1141826410, Drug trafficking, extortion, robbery, homicide, This page was last edited on 27 February 2023, at 00:46. Subpoenaed phone records show that an eight-minute call was placed from a Salinas gang member's cell phone to Hernandez five days before the killing, but there is no FBI report or transcript of the call to indicate he had taped it, as required by the informant's agreement with the FBI. [22], 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. Hernandez was a big catch. He was due to be released soon from Corcoran state prison, prosecutors said, where he served time on a 2007 assault charge. To join Nuestra Familia ("Our Family") and rise in its ranks takes years of studying the gang's written constitution, training, and committing violent crimes inside and outside of prison. In the late 1990s, law enforcement officials put into action the only plan that could crack open the violent criminal enterprise -- getting someone from the inside to turn on his brethren. The trial of Heredia and the other defendants is scheduled to begin in January. The suspects, under heavy surveillance, roamed Salinas with loaded weapons for several days. Eventually, three new generals came to power at Pelican Bay, yet two were demoted, . The California Department of Corrections says Nuestra Familia controls street gangs from Bakersfield to the Oregon border. tape telephone conversations with gang members and set up organizational meetings in Rohnert Park, Salinas, San Francisco, Milpitas, Tracy and Sacramento that the FBI would secretly videotape. In all, 21 people were indicted in the FBI's three-year investigation into Nuestra Familia, code-named Operation Black Widow. With no leaders in Pelican Bay, generals began fighting for power. To that end, he announced the debut Thursday of a county narcotics and gang task force overseen by the states Department of Justice. Also appearing at the press conference were Chief of the Office of Correctional Safety for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Derrick Marion, Santa Clara Sheriff Laurie Smith, and San Jose Deputy Chief of Police Elle Washburn. [8] Renewed organization [15] The gang's main sources of income are distributing cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine within prison systems as well as in the community and extorting drug distributors on the streets.[16]. Despite being locked down 23 hours a day in the prison's Security Housing Unit, gang leaders have used elaborate communication systems to send out orders, including writing coded messages disguised as love letters, using urine as invisible ink and sending letters marked "legal mail" to a nonexistent law firm in San Francisco, FBI records show. Both investigations were led by the FBI and crippled the gangs operations after the arrests of dozens of Nuestra Familia members and associates from Monterey County. Prison gang case puts role of FBI informants under scrutiny / Investigation results in 13 guilty pleas; 9 more defendants face trial next year, for fbi-hernandez; FBI Informant Daniel Hernandez at a Nuestra Familia gang meeting in Rohnert Park. Lawsuits seeking more than $2 billion have been filed against the government by families of people murdered in the course of informant-based investigations. Law enforcement authorities seized 40 pounds of cocaine, 14 pounds of marijuana, and dozens of firearms. The investigation did in fact lead to indictments in 2001 of 22 Nuestra Familia gang members on charges including murder, racketeering, assault, drug trafficking and conspiracy. Armando Frias, the gunman in the murder of Raymond Sanchez, says FBI informant Daniel Hernandez authorized the killing. He later told a federal grand jury that law enforcement agents had not arrested the gang members earlier because prosecutors and the task force wanted to gather more evidence in the murder conspiracy. Ybarra recorded the anger of gang members while law enforcement agents listened in. Police joined the FBI in a multi-jurisdictional effort to bring down members of the gang after a crime spree through Watsonville and neighboring cities began in the fall of 2003. Among the six men and women indicted March 10 on charges of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana for the gang were Castroville resident Carolyn Huerta, as well as Salinas residents Robert Bubba Hanrahan, Juan Wino Gallegos and Rebecca Guzman. When he left prison, he became Nuestra Familia's "street liaison commander" in charge of all the gang's operations outside prison, according to court documents. When agents learn a violent crime is being plotted, should they step in to prevent it and risk botching their undercover probe? The FBI's Operation Black Widow resulted in arrests and indictments of 150 members of Nuestra Familia gang. Hernandez, who grew up in Pittsburg in Contra Costa County, has a long and violent criminal history, committing armed assaults, admitting conspiring to murder a former gang member in San Jose in 1999 and to talking with fellow gang members about killing two Santa Clara County prosecutors. Miss Manners: I shouldn't call because the phone scares people? While all Nuestra Familia soldiers and captains in California are expected to follow the orders of Cervantes, a small percentage of the gang remains loyal to the former generals and captains imprisoned in Colorado. A preliminary examination in that case is scheduled for April 1. By 2007, three dozen of the gangs leaders and associates were arrested and charged with conspiracy in the Valley Star case that is still being tried in a Sacramento federal court. One local police officer, however, was skeptical of the lawyer's claims. Once the codes were understood and the messages intercepted, "Operation Black Widow" turned up 10 hit lists. Really? Frias, 22, said that in addition to himself, others who received the guns included two gang members, who within months used the weapons in Salinas in a murder and an attempted murder. [14] Thirteen of the defendants pleaded guilty; the other cases are still ongoing. U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of California, Indictment Describes the Prison Gangs Nexus of Power Overseeing Thousands of Gang Members Throughout California, The Nuestra Familias General Council And Other Members And Associates Charged With Racketeering, Oakland Resident Charged With Fentanyl And Methamphetamine Sales In Tenderloin, East Bay Resident Found Guilty Of Attempting To Help Smuggle Cocaine Through Bay Area Airports, San Jose Man Sentenced To More Than 16 Years Following Jury Convictions For Meth Trafficking And Gun Charges. Oregon,[6] Texas, Utah,[7] Washington[8]Mexico, Nuestra Familia was organized at Correctional Training Facility in Soledad, California in 1965. Marshal Service, with the assistance of the Santa Clara County Sheriffs Office, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Santa Clara County District Attorneys Office, and the San Jose Police Department, and with support from the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, Antioch Police Department, Campbell Police Department, Fremont Police Department, Kings County Sheriffs Office, Monterey County Sheriffs Office, Mountain View Police Department, Sacramento Police Department, Salinas Police Department, Menlo Park Police Department, Santa Clara County Parole Department, Santa Clara County Probation Department, Santa Clara Police Department, Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office, Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, Modesto Police Department, San Francisco Police Department, the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department, and Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety. The indictment outlines each position according to the NF Constitution. Operation Quiet Storm was the culmination of more than 5 years of complex investigative work. Government agents knew that working with such violent criminals was risky. Operation Quiet Storm, as dubbed by the FBIs San Francisco area field office, yielded 17 indictments and 55 charged defendants, prompting an array of regional agencies including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, the Santa Clara County Sheriffs Office and San Jose Police Department to serve high-risk arrest warrants Wednesday. Details: Informants, he said, will always be an essential part of investigations. Outstanding warrants remain on seven unnamed people. That forces police to turn to informants, who by their very nature are untrustworthy. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Attorney General Jerry Brown and a host of officials announced the results of the action Thursday. All seven members of the NFs General Council led the NF organization while incarcerated in the California prison system. Northern District of California If I stumble, push me. The charges pending against these defendants are as follows: 21 U.S.C. Stats to follow: THE FEDERAL PROSECUTION. Another problem is that in order for the informant to bring in good information, he must be a successful gang member, and the higher he moves in the organization, the more valuable the evidence he can provide to law enforcement trying to make a case against the gang leaders. The largest of the federal investigations was Operation Black Widow. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. That Watsonville-based team later evolved into the federal Valley Star investigation. Experts say the new guidelines were designed to provide outside checks and balances for the FBI without hindering agents' ability to do their jobs. An indictment merely alleges that crimes have been committed, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If it comes to it we have no choice but if we have a choice in the matter, then let's make it the right choice. The investigation into the outfit, which had been going on since 1997, got a break in December 2000, when Daniel "Lizard" Hernandez facing life in prison for charges that included murder plots in the course of a RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) enterprise contacted the Special Services Unit of the California Department of Corrections to talk about becoming an informer. She previously covered D.C. politics and California lawsuits for McClatchy's publications, including the Sacramento Bee, as a national real-time reporter. But at the trials, questions about the FBI's ability to fully control its gangster informants are being raised: When the FBI hires a criminal to be its eyes and ears in the inner workings of a dangerous gang, can the informant cease to engage in criminal activity? Everyone in the Salinas Nuestra Familia crew was arrested in the murder, except Hernandez, who continued to inform on the gang. Once membership was achieved, this membership was for life. For months, gang investigators from the California Department of Justice, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Salinas Police Department, the Monterey County Gang Task Force and the FBI worked to prepare arrest warrants for more than 40 high-ranking members of the gang in Salinas and nearby counties. 3553. "The more successful your informant becomes in the gang, the better, the more information you get. Operation Black Widow Federal law enforcement agencies, long unable to infiltrate Nuestra Familia, began to step up their investigations in the late 1990s. 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 scale and ambition, the operation dwarfs the two largest cases against the Nuestra Familia: Operation Black Widow ended in 2005, and Operation Valley Star led to a massive trial just under way in a Sacramento federal court. FBI records indicate that he failed to record or report on phone calls with gang members and he disappeared without telling his handlers. The investigation is the first time law enforcement has attempted to bring in such large numbers of Nuestra Familia associates from one geographic area, and the hope is this will virtually shut down the gangs business in Salinas long enough for other anti-violence strategies to take hold. By removing violent actors and crime drivers from the streets, we make our neighborhoods safer.. The allegations about the way Operation Black Widow handled the case are based on information from the government's discovery documents, Zilversmit said. Thirteen of the defendants plead guilty; the other cases are still ongoing. The problem is that to break gangs and organized crime, inside information is needed, but such groups and especially street gangs are extremely difficult for undercover police to infiltrate. As outlined in the indictment, membership in the NF involved a process of sponsorship, approval, and indoctrination. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate. Her attorney Jeremy Dzubay said its up to District Attorney Dean Flippo to decide whether her local case must be tried before Huerta is taken into federal custody. Members of the organization are considered to have taken a "blood oath" to join the gang, and are considered lifelong participants. 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