846, 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(B) Conspiracy to Distribute and Possess with Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine. 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. Gov. Dzubay said that although resisting arrest is usually a misdemeanor, authorities elevated it to a felony because an enhancement charge alleged she committed her crime for the benefit of a criminal street gang.. At first, Hernandez came through, providing hours of incriminating tapes. Alberto Larez, 45, known in Salinas as "Bird," was taken into custody Thursday morning at his residence in . Authorities seized 40 pounds of cocaine, 14 pounds of marijuana, as well as other drugs. FBI informant Daniel Her- nandez at a Nuestra Familia gang meeting in Rohnert Park. All were indicted for racketeering charges. You have a potential disaster waiting to happen," Cohen said. When it concluded in April 2001, after a $5 million. Blood in the Fields also documents the history of Operation Black Widow, the FBI's questionable decade-long effort to dismantle the Nuestra Familia, along with its compromised informants and the turf wars it created with local law enforcement agencies. Gracia stepped down after publicly proclaiming her love for Hanrahan at a City Hall press conference. But police and the FBI, wanting to build their case, did not arrest the gang members for conspiracy to commit murder. From cells in Pelican Bay State Prison, Nuestra Familia's leaders have ordered murders and assaults and controlled much of the drug trade in Northern California cities, according to court and law enforcement records. San Francisco, CA 94102, San Francisco: (415) 436-7200 Federal investigators refuse to comment on the case, saying they will eventually answer in court, and at least one local law enforcer calls the charge bogus. Hernandez, as street liaison commander, previously had given a "no-bloodshed" order, and, according to the transcript, he tried to calm the situation, although he was ambiguous in playing both of his roles -- informant and gang leader. Amaro also faces life in federal prison. Montoya is one of 10 who were charged in a federal drug conspiracy case, facing a maximum of life in prison. At least 37 alleged gang members and associates were in custody after hours of coordinated raids across Monterey County, ending months of investigation that culminated in what some call the largest law enforcement operation ever to target the Nuestra Familia, one of the Wests most violent crime organizations. He was convicted of. On that day, police undercover vehicles followed the gang members through the streets while a California Highway Patrol helicopter tracked them from the air. 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. Several witnesses in the Valley Star case testified that they and others in the gangs Salinas crew often gave Huerta free drugs and helped her with her rent because she was a gang generals wife. In a $5 million crime-fighting effort dubbed Operation Black Widow, several Nuestra Familia members agreed to become FBI informants; they wanted protection when they found themselves on the gang's hit list, or they cut a deal as the government was about to indict them. She had recently worked in a Salinas sandwich shop. While the Mexican Mafia had initially been created to protect Mexicans in prison, there was a perceived level of abuse by members of La eMe towards the imprisoned chicanos from rural farming areas of Northern California. 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. but they reasoned it was the only way they could build a far-reaching racketeering case that might break up the gang once and for all. According to multiple gang experts, one main sticking point was the so-called End of Hostilities agreement in 2012 by Californias four main prison gangs, including the Nuestra Familia and their longtime rivals, the Mexican Mafia. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI (San Francisco, Sacramento, and Phoenix Divisions), the DEA, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the U.S. 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. Hitt said agents tried to serve Guzman an arrest warrant in Salinas on Thursday but were unable to find her. Watsonville police began targeting members of the California prison gang Nuestra Familia. U.S. Attorney Steven Gruel declined to comment on whether the informant might lose his protection from prosecution, because Hernandez, by his own admission, violated terms of the agreement in which he said he would not lie to his handlers, commit new crimes, or keep any illegally earned assets. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. Salinas Police photo "It's a typical defense move when the facts are against you, attack the people," said Chief Mike Dunbaugh of the Santa Rosa, Calif., Police Department, which was involved in the operation. 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. Government agents knew that working with such violent criminals was risky. For eight months, officers conducted intense surveillance and investigation of Salinas-area Nuestra Familia associates, who they believed were loyal to the two remaining factions of the gang after Black Widow split the gangs leadership. [20] The remaining leadership of the organization in Pelican Bay consists of Daniel "Stork" Perez, Anthony "Chuco" Guillen and George "Puppet" Franco. Lewis Katz, the John C. Hutchins professor of law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, said that law enforcement allowing an informant to occupy a position of authority in a criminal organization would raise ethical, if not legal, questions about the handling of an investigation. He told the young man that if he wanted to be recognized by Nuestra Familia, he could appeal to the generals. The operation began in 1997 under the leadership of the FBI and involved nearly 30 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Agency; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the state Department of Corrections; five district attorneys' offices and police departments of San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Salinas, San Jose, Visalia, Modesto, Tracy, Stockton and Watsonville, among others. 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. The judge agreed, saying "the government has presented substantial evidence suggesting that the government's role in the affairs of the Nuestra Familia was at most that of a facilitator" and, citing legal precedent, was not "tantamount to the 'engineering and direction of the criminal enterprise from start to finish.' Numerous convictions were overturned because information about informants was withheld from defendants and their attorneys. Six of the 13 are inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison. The defendants are scheduled to make initial federal court appearances before U.S. Magistrate Court Judge Nathanael Cousins and U.S. Magistrate Court Judge Sallie Kim today. 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. By disrupting gang leadership, we reduce violence on our streets. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot concedes defeat, Southern California home sales fall to all-time low, Denver just got a direct flight to this Caribbean island known for music history and vegetarian cooking, NYC Mayor Adams dismisses need to separate church and state, declares himself a servant of God, Zero-calorie sweetener linked to heart attack and stroke, study finds, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. The operation, which will continue to play out in state and federal courts, aims to disband the Salinas-area regiment of a gang that for three decades has dominated criminal activity in farm towns across Northern California. 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. If its criminal to believe in the power of love, I am a criminal, Gracia declared to local news media. As quoted in Newsweek magazine, p. 13 (June 30, 1986). Gallegos, 35, a onetime associate in Hanrahans Salinas gang crew, is charged with conspiracy like the others, and he also faces additional federal counts of using a telephone to further the conspiracy. Operation Quiet Storm was the culmination of more than 5 years of complex investigative work. 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. If I fall, avenge me. All seven members of the NFs General Council led the NF organization while incarcerated in the California prison system. FBI records indicate that he failed to record or report on phone calls with gang members and he disappeared without telling his handlers. According to the transcripts, the group discussed the purchase of black ski masks, gloves and walkie-talkies to be used for the hits, and even the type of bullets to be fired. He would wear a recording device. This event put into motion the longest-running gang war in the state of California. both faced life sentences in the FBI's sweeping Operation Black Widow conspiracy case in 2000. Members of the organization are considered to have taken a "blood oath" to join the gang, and are considered lifelong participants. ", Such is the risk the government runs in using criminal informants to help law enforcement efforts. Montoya is among a dozen of those arrested Thursday who face charges in federal court, where mandatory sentences for drug and gun crimes often mean longer prison terms. Further, the indictment describes the appointment by these leaders of NF members to positions of power over hierarchical and paramilitary structures called regiments, imposed on its gang members operating on the streets in California. With no leaders in Pelican Bay, generals began fighting for power. Once membership was achieved, this membership was for life. Summer Lin covers breaking news and general assignment for The Mercury News. For more than 10 years, one of California's most brutal criminal organizations has been operating from behind the walls of the state's highest- security prison. The gang has strict categories of military-style membership ranks, ranging from a Category One member, who might strive to be the "regiment commander" of a city, to Category Three, one of only three positions on the gang's governing board in Pelican Bay. This case is being prosecuted by the Organized Crime Strike Force of the United States Attorneys Office for the Northern District of California. Viramontes, 44, a.k.a. 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. The records indicate Hernandez did not mention that a murder plot had been discussed; it is not known when agents listened to the tape -- before or after the murder. "Operation Quiet Storm," as dubbed by the FBI's San Francisco area field office, yielded 17 indictments and 55 charged defendants, prompting an array of regional agencies including the FBI, Drug. For years, investigators have observed Huerta visiting Hernandez in jails and prisons and then delivering messages to local gang members. "The more successful your informant becomes in the gang, the better, the more information you get. State gang czar Paul Seave said he was pleased that so many law enforcement agencies came together. As San Francisco lawyer Mark Zilversmit, an attorney for one of the indicted Nuestra Familia members, notes, "That operative who's now working for the government is going to have to do some pretty bad things. A decade ago, the FBI"s Operation Black Widow targeted the gang"s top leaders in Pelican Bay State Prison, as well as its out-of-prison regiment commanders for Salinas and other agricultural. FBI surveillance photo, HO / HO. 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. It was not immediately disclosed how many of the 19 remaining defendants were arrested in the law-enforcement sweeps this week. Operation Black Widow Federal law enforcement agencies, long unable to infiltrate Nuestra Familia, began to step up their investigations in the late 1990s. In 2001, the five highest-ranking commanders of the gang were transferred to a maximum security prison in Colorado. He is duplicitous by nature. But trying to supervise violent criminals is akin to "dancing with the devil.". 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