Authorities say Nuestra Familia’s revisions mean more violence in streets
By Julia Reynolds
The Monterey County Herald
MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. — Monterey County’s deadliest gang has new leadership and a new constitution, forcing changes that law enforcement officers say is translating to increased violence in the streets.
After several years of upheaval -- stemming largely from the massive federal prosecution called Operation Black Widow -- the top leadership of the Nuestra Familia is once again firmly established.
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.
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.
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.
Three leaders soon emerged at Pelican Bay, filling the ranks of the gang’s mesa, or board of directors: David “DC” Cervantes of Chino, Jose “Huerito” Gonzalez and James “Conejo” Perez.
But in a coup d’etat of sorts, Gonzalez and Perez have been “demoted” to “Category 1,” the lowest level of the Nuestra Familia, investigators say.
That leaves Cervantes, who has always kept a keen eye on Salinas affairs, firmly in control as the organization’s only general.
The next rung of leaders in Pelican Bay includes Daniel “Stork” Perez of Salinas; Anthony “Chuco” Guillen of San Jose, who was involved in the murder of a Nuestra Familia member there and is serving a 25-year sentence; and George “Puppet” Franco, 39, from San Jose, responsible for the gang’s activities in Stockton, Tracy and Fresno.
Nuestra Familia is organized in a military-like hierarchy, with generals running the gang from inside prison and paroled regiment captains running the streets outside.
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. Roy Morales. But copies were intercepted in Pelican Bay, giving investigators a heads-up about the leadership changes.
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. 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.
One such order last year told Norte-os across Northern California to clean the streets of Sure-os.
Police surmise that the order was responsible for many of the shootings in Salinas in 2007, which increased by 50 percent over 2006 levels.
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.
“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’s trying to regroup these guys. The Norte-os are trying to establish (in Salinas) but every time they try to, there’s shootouts.”
A small minority within the gang has not transferred loyalty to Cervantes, Santa Cruz County’s Morales said.
“There’s family members still loyal to the guys in the fed,” he said, referring to the exiled former generals and captains in Colorado.
When the five were transferred out of California, Gov. 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 the transfer led to internal power struggles played out in the streets, police say.
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.
Despite the governor’s complaints, all five are still housed in the same supermax unit.
The gang’s new constitution says the five should still be respected as former leaders, but has stripped them of their power in California.
What they will do within the federal prison remains to be seen, but investigators said stabbings have increased and communication with the outside has been established through cell phones smuggled into 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