Hes turned his attention to rapping about what he knows, rather than what he fantasizes. For that reason, he explains, he turned to dealing methamphetamine. I did what I had to do, he says. Rocha still did not understand the charge or why he was being placed into custody. I was a soldier, and a good one.. The handlers didnt want to blow his cover. He reiterated that he told Martinez clearly: no bloodshed., How could I order the hit? he asked. I want to be with my family/but I killed a man yesterday.. He told his interviewers Sir Dyno put out Gang Stories without permission and, for that, was very close to being placed on a hit list.. If it read Hello Love!, it was every eighth word. Eventually, he returned there, unable to cope with life in the slow lane. Police dogs sniffed through his car and came up with three ounces of crystal meth. Snow-locked Highway 29 between Calistoga and the Lake County border will likely stay closed through the weekend, CHP announced Friday afternoon. Over the next four years, Lizard and Cuete masterminded and penned more than three thousand letters, according to an FBI report. Or were they? CD, Lewis and Helton say. Lizard first went to prison when he was nineteen. was felt on the streets. Vallejo is raising concerns about water. In it, he explains how the CD brought him unwanted attention and more money than hed expected, but he never reveals whether Sir Dyno knew North Star was a front for Nuestra Familia. It always does., Even Judge Charles Breyer seemed to question the value of Operation Black Widow. He just happened to have this talent, and he put this talent to use.. OUR PUBLICATIONSCannabis ChronicleEast BayGilroy DispatchGood Times Santa CruzHollister Free LanceKing City RustlerMarin Pacific SunMetro Silicon ValleyMorgan Hill TimesNorth Bay BohemianPress BannerSalinas Valley TribuneSouth ValleyWatsonville Pajaronian, ADVERTISINGAdvertiseLegal NoticesObituariesSponsored ContentWriting An ObituarySubmit an Obituary, COMPANY INFOJob OpportunitiesPrivacy Policy. and manufacturers. 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. According to Lewis, gang members have been linked to an estimated three hundred homicides across Northern California. His bike frame was made by Dyno, so the kids at school called him Dyno Dave. By the time he turned twenty, though, youthful angst had sunk in, and Too $hort cassettes found a home in Dyno Daves music box. Chained to their seats on a triple-tiered bleacher facing the jury box were fourteen men dressed in blood-red jumpsuits. Lizard himself adamantly denied Zilversmits claims, insisting that he pressed for peace in the case of Sanchez. But Lizard hadnt exactly gone straight. And I did my time for what I was doing. Daniel "Lizard" Hernandez helped Nuestra Familia run a criminal empire from inside state prison. For now, at least, the final guilty pleas appeared to have pruned back the Blooming Flower. The former leaders include James "Tibbs" Morado, Joseph "Pinky" Hernandez, Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristan, and Tex Marin Hernandez. By 1965, Sureos outnumbered Norteos by roughly seven to one inside the prison system. There was also the lean and smooth figure of Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, the gang's most powerful captain, whose job inside Pelican Bay, a fellow gang member told the feds, was to "keister" the syndicate's constitution in his rectum, along with the master hit list which, by now, read fifty names long. Though vastly outnumbered, Nuestra Familia distinguished itself by organizing its troops along strict paramilitary lines. Lizard said Bob was marked because hed stuck his nose into matters that didnt concern him. He always offered to learn more and do more to serve the organization. Sureos tended to be more-recent immigrants who often disparaged Norteos as second-generation Latinos who groveled for agricultural jobs and neglected their mother tongue, according to Joseph Hernandez, a criminal justice professor at Sacramento State University and expert in Latino gangs. Theyre trying to say that when I met Robert Gratton I started selling drugs for him, and to finance the G.U.N. On his first day of freedom, according to Grattons account, a norteo named Big Smokey met him at the bus terminal, set him up with $5,000 in cash, a 9mm pistol, and a condom. While awaiting sentencing for armed robbery, he said, he knifed a member of the Aryan Brotherhood in self-defense. When he entered Corcoran State Prison in 1989 for selling cocaine, he joined Nuestra Raza, a recruiting gang for the more esteemed Nuestra Familia. He arrived on time, with one of his friends waiting in the lobby. Its not like her life used to be.. Rap is an exaggeration of life, he says, just like in a movie. Nuestra Familia (Spanish for "our family") is a criminal organization of Mexican American (Chicano) prison gangs with origins in Northern California. But while prosecutors were assembling their final case against the gang, Lizard was drug-tested as part of the terms of his release. Cuete was among the final holdouts. 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. 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. At night, he ordered rows of Nuestra Familia inmates to recite aloud Aztec war chants to rattle guards and enemies. By the time Dyno got to the specially constructed federal courtroom, he was fifteen minutes behind schedule. (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). The risks had Lizard thinking. In May of 2001, Lizard met with Martin Ramirez, a gang member from Salinas. Inside the state prison system, norteos side with Nuestra Familias syndicates, and sureos with La Eme, aka the Mexican Mafia. But one day on the yard, he was approached by Juan Nato Gurule, a long-lost cousin from the East Bay. They moved together into a Pittsburg apartment, and Nato continued his cousins indoctrination in Nuestra Familia. 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 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. This is a combined effort to enlighten the worthy, as the time is now that we must leave old attitudes to the past, and adopt new and more meaningful and fulfilling ideas. He told the young man that if he wanted to be recognized by Nuestra Familia, he could appeal to the 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. , Just as knowledge can be the key, there is strength in numbers; therefore, we norteos can no longer continue to fight against one another. For the first time in decades, one man sits alone at the helm of the criminal organization that for more than 30 years has called the shots for thousands of Norte-o gang members in the Salinas Valley. I could rap political, I could rap street, it doesnt matter, Sir Dyno says. 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. When it concluded in April 2001, after a $5 million investment, it was one of the largest takedowns on a prison gang in US history. Whatever you want. That 50 percent looked like gold., Sir Dyno claims he never asked where Gratton got his money, and whether or not the jury believes that could be key to his fate. If they come for him, he said, he worries only for them, his enemies. This was reported to the informants state parole officer. Not just in rap, but everywhere. And in every fashion when necessity called for it, I wanted the NF hierarchy to recognize my loyalty and dedication to NF. Frias used a pay phone to call another gang member, Roque Boxer Martinez, who said he would bring a .22 and meet Frias in the parking lot. interacts online and researches product purchases crimes from Salinas to the Oregon border. We cut off the head of the snake, but it will grow back, said Special Agent Holguin. The cells are bone-white and feature little more than a chrome toilet and cement platform with thin mattress and pillow. 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. But he was undergoing a lot. Former leaders include James "Tibbs" Morado, Joseph "Pinky" Hernndez, Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristn and Tex Marn Hernndez. Hed loaded up the hit list and was feuding with two of the generals while angling for a promotion. I was ready to go, he recalled. 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 all ready to go, Lizard recalled later. Lexipol. Besides directing the tone of the project, Gratton asked to narrate the intro. Holguin was well known to Nuestra Familia members hed interviewed hundreds of them during his three decades in the system. They knew I had them., He still hasnt been reunited with his family. And he had better news: Nuestra Familia pot and speed were piping through Modesto, Stockton, and Sacramento. Most importantly, he showed a willingness to draw sureo blood. Looking to score one night in early 1994, Lizard headed to an intersection known for the sale of chiva. Sir Dyno was born. It's the most comprehensive and trusted online destination for law enforcement agencies and police departments worldwide. As a kid I didnt know anything but religion, he said. If you ever want to help yourself, you can. I was doing it as a smokescreen. The amount of violence attributed to the men inside the courtroom and their associates on the outside was staggering: fifteen killings, eighty conspiracies to murder, ten attempted murders, ten felony assaults, one hundred assaults, and two drive-by shootings. For the cover art, Sir Dyno says he told all his friends to tell their friends to show up at a park wearing their reds. It was a hell of an audience to keep waiting. Lizards initial work was flawless. He smoked pot and tasted alcohol. But paid parking could return, in some form, this year, as the city works to pu. Maybe hed give me one hundred bucks to shut me up, or fifty bucks to shut me up, he says, or gas money or something.. Holguin and his team came up empty that night. The prosecutors revealed that Gratton would testify Sir Dyno dealt meth on his behalf. Man, Im from the streets. Even outside prison, members were expected to remain loyal to the gang. If you continue to listen to them, then youll be in there for life, too.'. I didnt know the guy was selling drugs, too. The large XIV across his throat represented the fourteenth letter of the alphabet, N, for Norte. For penance, Cuete was allegedly ordered to write an essay on the consequences of being a gossip. But I knew more about Cuete and his family, and he did about mine. 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. Select the option or tab named Internet Options (Internet Explorer), Options (Firefox), Preferences (Safari) or Settings (Chrome). Sir Dyno wanted to make a name for himself, Lewis says, so he sold his soul to the devil. He makes drug deals here, he caps sureos there, he disses cops everywhere, all of it in the name of norteo supremacy. Violence was averted in those cases, Gruel said. He was betraying these people hed come up with, people hed been close to. Gratton, Sir Dyno says, wanted him to aim his lyrics at bringing together norteos. The founder of the failed company is Sam Bankman-Fried. No one who entered the system could safely walk alone. If he was going to hold the case together, hed need to account for his own alleged crimes as a snitch. How could he go back in with Cuete wanting him dead? 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