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Nuestra Familia gang members plead guilty
Monterey
County Herald | SEPTEMBER
28, 2004 Tuesday
Copyright 2004 Monterey County Herald. All Rights Reserved. Posted with
permission.
By GEORGE B. SANCHEZ
Herald Staff Writer
The U.S. Department of Justice's costliest and longest investigation
of a California prison gang came to a quiet close Monday as top Nuestra
Familia leaders pleaded guilty to criminal racketeering charges in a San
Francisco courtroom.
The multi-agency, multimillion-dollar prosecution started in 2000 with
the indictment of Salinas Nuestra Familia members Hector Gallegos, Caesar
Ramirez, Rico Garcia and others by U.S. Attorney Robert Mueller, now director
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The pleas bring an end to Operation Black Widow, a controversial investigation
that began in 1997 and aimed to break the leadership of the Nuestra Familia,
the notorious prison gang with extensive operations in Salinas.
The FBI was the lead investigative agency in the operation that involved
nearly 30 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, including
the Monterey County District Attorneys office and Salinas police. Seventy-five
people have been prosecuted as part of Operation Black Widow and spin-off
state and federal prosecutions, said U.S. Attorney Steven Gruel.
Eight Nuestra Familia gang leaders agreed to prison sentences Monday in
federal court. Five men agreed to federal life sentences and another three
agreed to 10 years in federal custody.
The goal of the prosecution, said federal Judge Charles Breyer, was to
take the gang's leadership out of California's prisons and "disperse
them to the four corners of federal jurisdiction."
"I am no expert but I hope that the federal Bureau of Prisons will
be able to curtail or eliminate the level of gang activity," Breyer
said.
With the pre-trial guilty pleas, the organization and inner workings of
the upper echelon of the Nuestra Familia will not be brought to public
light in a jury trial. It also means that the integrity of the government's
informant, Danny Hernandez, one of the highest ranked criminals ever to
cooperate with the FBI, will not be questioned by federal defense attorneys.
Gerald Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristan, James Morado, Tex Hernandez and Joseph
Hernandez, all of whom are currently serving life sentences in state prison,
agreed to life in federal custody. A global settlement allowed for 10-year
federal sentences for Henry Cervantes, Daniel Perez and Alberto Larez,
a former Salinas resident. Gruel said the defendants have all been in
and out of prison since 1979.
All defendants pleaded guilty to one count of criminal racketeering, which
Gruel said included conspiracy and murder, specifically the 1998 Salinas
murders of Michael "Mikeo" Castillo and Vincent Garcia-Sanchez.
By 2001, 22 members and associates of the Nuestra Familia were indicted
on more than 30 charges including murder, racketeering, assault, drug
trafficking and conspiracy. It was the last major investigation led by
Robert Mueller before he was picked to head the FBI. By last November,
13 of the defendants had pleaded guilty. On July 21, the only defendant
facing the death penalty, Rico Garcia, of Salinas, pleaded guilty and
agreed to a federal life sentence.
"It remains to be seen ultimately whether this prosecution was warranted
in the long run," Breyer said. Acknowledging the possible risk of
introducing prison gang leaders into the federal prison system, he added,
"This disposition is the only one that makes sense."
The case has been controversial in part because the leading government
informant, Hernandez, was found to have engaged in unauthorized criminal
activity while under the FBI's watch, including gun trafficking and drug
dealing. Lawyers involved in the case also have contended that Hernandez
ordered the May 2001 execution of Raymond Sanchez at Cap's Saloon in Salinas.
Prosecutor Gruel said the pleas entered Monday were conditional and dependant
on the defendants' state sentences being commuted by the California Department
of Corrections, Gov. Schwarzenegger and the state Supreme Court. Federal
defense attorneys expect the state sentences to be commuted by early December,
when the defendants new federal sentences will be handed down.
Freelance reporter Julia Reynolds contributed to this article.
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