Feds announce massive ‘takedown’ of Nuestra Familia gang and leadership
The Bay Area’s top federal prosecutor announced a sweeping array of indictments targeting the notorious Nuestra Familia prison gang, boasting that a fiveyear operation had culminated in a “takedown” of the organization’s leadership responsible for an expanse of drug trafficking and brutal street violence spanning Northern California.
“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 Enforcement Administration, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and San Jose Police Department to serve high-risk arrest warrants Sept. 15.
Two of the indictments centered on a dozen people split between two San Josebased Norteño gangs, alleging a string of crimes involving drug running, robberies, attempted murder and murder, acting Northern California U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds said at a Thursday news conference.
The 17 indictments “target several facets of the Nuestra Familia gang and represent the most significant law enforcement action to disrupt the NF organization in decades,” Hinds said.
She focused special attention to the seven members of what she described as the Nuestra Familia “General Council,” which she said ran a massive network across 28 California counties spanning Humboldt to Kern, with major activity centers in San Jose, Salinas and the Central Valley.
“We take aim at the head of the snake,” Hinds said. “These seven individuals for years led a violent and lucrative criminal organization from their prison cells. The indictment outlines that the Nuestra Familia used hierarchical and paramilitary structures to control thousands of California gang members and counties across Northern California even while most of the top leadership was incarcerated.”
The three Generals of the gang’s leadership council were identified as David “DC” Cervantes, Antonio “Chuco” Guillen, and James “Conejo” Perez. The “Inner Council” members that round out the seven were listed as Samuel “Sammy” Luna, Guillermo “Capone” Solorio, Trinidad “Trino” Martinez and George “Puppet” Franco. All were indicted for racketeering charges.
Known as one of the most powerful prison gangs in California, Nuestra Familia has been plagued by infighting in recent years, starting in the early 2000s when a number of high-ranking members were prosecuted federally after a similar complex probe dubbed Operation Black Widow.
The end result was the creation of federal and state factions of the gang that continue to lock horns. According to multiple gang experts, one main sticking point was the so-called End of Hostilities agreement in 2012 by California’s four main prison gangs, including the Nuestra Familia and their longtime rivals, the Mexican Mafia.
The federal faction didn’t approve of the treaty but the state side entered into it anyways, prompting a deep-seated conflict that continues to play out.
“This civil war has been going on for quite a while, almost since the Black Widow convictions,” said Julie Reynolds, a journalist who authored the book “Blood in the Fields” about the Black Widow case. “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.”
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, 36 of the defendants named in the indictments were already in state prison and have been moved to federal holding facilities. It was not immediately disclosed how many of the 19 remaining defendants were arrested in the law-enforcement sweeps last week.
Craig Fair, head of the FBI’S San Francisco area field office, said the operation announced Sept. 16 was “one of the largest gang takedowns in FBI San Francisco division’s history.”
The FBI said gang commanders sent orders from six prisons in the state: Pelican Bay State Prison, High Desert State Prison, California State Prison-sacramento, California State Prison-solano, Pleasant Valley State Prison and Salinas Valley State Prison.
“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. “The arrests made yesterday, most significantly the arrests of the Nuestra Familia leadership, will severely cripple the ability of this criminal enterprise … (and) disrupt the communications and organization structure of a criminal network that has terrorized our neighborhoods for far too long.”