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Norteno Gangs Moving North
Related Article: L.A. Violence Crosses the Line
January 25, 2005
By Barry R. Clausen swatch@cwnet.com
Pioneer Press
12021 Main St.
Fort Jones, CA 96032
530-468-5355
To submit a Letter to the Editor: pioneerp@sisqtel.net
This does impact all our country, even though the story focuses on
Northern California.
During the last several years there have been a large volume of raids
on Mexican Mafia marijuana gardens throughout our country. Information
is now available on who these Mafia gang families are.
In Northern California, “Norteno” gangs are invading many cities
and rural communities.
One of their identifying pieces of clothing is a red bandana or a San
Francisco 49ers bomber jacket while their counterparts; the Soreno’s
from the south wear a blue bandana.
The Norteno’s are comprised of any Hispanic gang member north of
Fresno.
Lau and Pulido, along with Nuestra members, are the most
prevalent in Siskiyou, Shasta, Tehama and other northern California counties.
According to documents, these organized families are believed
responsible for the murders of upwards of 300 of their own Mexican
brothers.
Northern California has been and will continue to be one of the most
desirable areas for these cartels/gangs to produce their marijuana
crops as a result of the hot weather and access to the I-5 corridor.
Marijuana Eradication Teams (MET) are comprised of both local and
federal agents.
At the conclusion of this last summer's growing season, MET agents
from the Siskiyou County Sheriff Department, the U.S. Forest Service
and the Bureau of Land Management made arrests in Merced, California.
Unprocessed marijuana from Northern California gardens was sent to an
isolated barn just off of I-5 in Merced, where one raid resulted in
the arrests of 64 Mexican Nationals connected to the Pulido Family,
the seizure of 20 weapons including automatics, two pounds of meth and
over 4,300 pounds of marijuana.
Ceres, California, is just 50 miles north of Merced.
On January 12, 2005, that town became the scene of the shooting of two
Ceres Police Officers. During a gun battle with police, Andres Raya
allegedly injured Officer Sam Ryno and killed Sgt. Howard Stevenson.
Raya, a member of the “Norteno’s”, is also a 19-year-old Marine
that had recently returned from Iraq.
Another former Marine and a member of the Nuestra Family is Gerald
“Pistol” Rubalcaba. Rubalcaba is currently in Pelican Bay
State Prison following a “hit” on another inmate while he was
at Susanville’s California Correctional Center, which authorities
say he was held responsible for.
In Siskiyou County there have been threats against local residents of
the county.
According to Sheriff Rick Riggins, a Hispanic marijuana grower held a
man and his son at gunpoint.
The grower took down their driver’s license information and they
were told there would be consequences if they said anything.
Two years ago Sheriff Riggins said, “We lost $1.5 million from our
budget and this year we lost over $900,000 last year.”
In 2005 Riggings faces another problem -- the increased in cost
for helicopter flying time. The company that supplies the helicopter
for Siskiyou County is increasing costs by $200 per hour, and he also
facing additional budget cuts.
Sheriff Riggins has been effective with his MET operations, even with
the budget cuts. His community awareness program is allowing more
citizens to become involved.
“We have had more citizen reports this last year than any other
time,” Riggins told the Pioneer Press.
People can report illegal activity without becoming involved.
“We don't even need their name; all they have to do is give us a
direction and we will investigate,” said the Sheriff.
Last year we investigated the Lau and Pulido families. Next year the
sheriff has plans to investigate other arms of the Norteno families.
Riggins used an example from this last year, where there was a tip to
sheriff's officials, which resulted in a raid only 2 miles from the
Etna City limits, resulting in the seizure of over 3,000 plants.
This resulted in a police chase of an armed Mexican national -- who
eventually eluded capture.
Redding Police Department Sergeant John Hawkins of the Anti Gang
Enforcement unit points out that in Redding, “There is an increase
in Hispanic gang involvement and there is also an increase in drug
involvement in this area.”
Hawkins is hopeful that the existing nationwide problem in urban
communities is something we will not see in Northern California.
Commander Dan Callahan of the Shasta County Narcotics Task Force
emphasized, “There is no end of crystal meth in the area.”
In Tehama County, the drug problem with youth has caused devastation
to many families.
With Meth being the drug of choice by county youth, one only has to
look at the problems that meth has created with the minors that are
now incarcerated in the Tehama County Juvenile Justice Center.
Tehama County Sheriff Clay Parker has the same financial problems that
all other sheriffs are facing. His department does what it can,
but in order to be totally effective, all counties need more resources
and in addition community involvement has become most important.
In Tehama County there are known members of the Norteno’s and the
number of youth involved with this criminal enterprise is increasing.
One of those claiming to be Norteno is Gabriel Farias (18). In the
past, Farias was under investigation for possession of automatic
weapons. There were no formal charges filed. He is currently being
held in the Tehama County Jail under $175,000 bail. He is being
investigated for conspiracy to commit a crime, robbery, kidnapping,
firearms violations and making criminal threats.
In Del Norte County, Detective Sergeant Bill Steven explained that Del
Norte County is financially strapped and as a result, his drug
enforcement team is at a bare minimum with both resources and
manpower. Stevens did acknowledge the meth problem in his county and
is hopeful that when the California budget crisis is over, there will
be help forthcoming. He was positive that in the future there would be
changes made to help eradicate many of these illegal organizations.
A hopeful side of drug investigations comes from the Yurok Tribal
Police Chief of Public Safety, Mike Ross. Ross has 40 years in law
enforcement, including his two terms as Sheriff in Del Norte County.
He was with the Sonoma County Sheriff Department, holds a Master's
degree in Law Enforcement and consults with other agencies. Ross
verified that there has been a drug problem in the entire area for
years and that “Meth has been the white drug of choice during that
time.”
“We are aware that in the past and currently, there is a drug
problem upriver [Klamath] but our information is non-specific. The
locals want it stopped but they don't want involvement,” said Ross.
He went on to explain that the Tribe has adopted a no-tolerance drug
policy and “the Tribe is looking at a grant that will target drug
manufacturing along the river, on tribal grounds and near the Tribe's
boundaries.”
With the grant in place, one of Ross’s goals is to assign three
marine deputies to work the 44 miles of the Klamath River between the
Towns of Klamath and Weitchpec, California.
The goal is to obtain intelligence information and to ultimately
curtail the flow of drugs from that area.
Just across the border between California and Oregon is the town of
Klamath, Oregon, where the problem is a little different. The concern
there is not only local drug producers, but also the flow of drugs
from California.
As Officer James Williams with the Interagency Narcotics Team stated,
“We have a lot of Hispanic gangs bringing narcotics in from
California.”
The trail of money from these Mexican gangs through drug sales,
prostitution, extortion and other gang-related activities has now led
to Pelican Bay State Prison where some of the money is being
laundered.
Pelican Bay authorities have acknowledged that inmates have accepted
checks and money orders from Mexican drug families and distributed the
funds to their own family members.
According to a November 22, 2004, Associated Press story, “One gang
member told authorities he spent upwards of $60,000 one year on his
children’s college fund.”
All law enforcement agents interviewed agree, these dealers know no
boundaries; there are no county lines or state lines.
Whatever it takes to sell drugs and make money is acceptable.
In California the problem has become a “major epidemic” and needs
to be stopped.
Additional information/articles
(a search at www.Google.com
results in about 726 English pages for Norteno meth
OR gang
with Safesearch on:
Norteno gang member sentenced
November 17, 2004
No author given at originating website URL.
A Norteno gange member was sentenced to prison yesterday for assault
with a deadly weapon. 23-year-old Cesar Perez will spend the next nine
years in prison for assaulting a rival gang member with a box cutter.
The Seaside resident received the maximum sentence allowed for the
crime after being convicted by a jury.
=====
Marine affiliated with gang, police say
January 15, 2005
By Julissa McKinnon jescoto@modbee.com
The Modesto Bee
(excerpted)
The 19-year-old Marine who gunned down two veteran Ceres police
officers is a Norteno gang member who plotted a deadly attack on
police, not a veteran suffering the stresses of war, Investigators
said Friday. Toxicology reports show Andres Raya was high on
cocaine Sunday night when he shot Sgt. Howard Stevenson dead and
severely injured officer Sam Ryno outside George's Liquors on Sunday
night.
New facts presented during a Friday press conference painted a sharp
contrast to the image police and Raya's family initially portrayed of
the young man, that of the traumatized soldier who snapped and
committed "suicide by cop."
"The easy answer to this would be to blame it on Iraq," lead
investigator Lt. Bill Heyne said. But he said a weeklong police
investigation into Raya's background shows he harbored violent
tendencies and an anti-government attitude long before he ever went to
war.
Raya, a Marine who worked as a Humvee driver, did not engage in combat
during his seven-month stint in Iraq, Heyne said. But Raya did see a
fellow Marine suffer a leg injury when a road bomb exploded under a
vehicle in his convoy.
Raya had bragged to Marine buddies that he had bought an SKS rifle in
Modesto and left with one of his "boys." It was capable of
carrying 30 rounds of high-powered ammunition. When Marine comrades
asked Raya why he needed the weapon, he replied that a 7.62 round
could penetrate a cop's armor, Heyne said.
If Raya's fellow Marines had believed Raya's talk of gang involvement
was true, they should have reported this to superiors, Marine Lt. Col.
T.V. Johnson.
"But a lot of tough talk goes on between 18- to
19-year-olds," he said.
Several of Raya's friends and family insist that the 2003 Ceres High
School graduate did not belong to a gang, though he may have hung out
with gang members from his neighborhood.
Heyne suggested its probable Raya's parents did not know their son was
heavily involved in the Norteno gang. The teen kept his bedroom neat
and clean, Heyne said, and most of his gang paraphernalia -- photos of
Raya flashing gang signs, colors, and posing next to Norteno graffiti
-- were locked away in a safe.
Some of Raya's negative feelings toward the U.S. government were
exhibited on December 28 when he broke into the Ceres High gymnasium,
stealing $5,700 worth of computer equipment, smashing monitors, and
cutting up an American flag. ...
His fixation on President Bush surfaced as he fled into the
neighborhood off Caswell Avenue after he shot Stevenson, 39, and Ryno,
49. The rifle-toting Raya reassured several residents he wouldn't
injure them because they were civilians. But he also asked a few:
"Did you vote for Bush?" The residents didn't reply, Heyne
said.
In the CD player Raya carried that night, that police later found in
his poncho, they discovered a gangster rap album titled Season of Da
Siccness. The album is dominated by lyrics about killing, Heyne said,
in songs such as "Dead Man" and "Return of Da Baby
Killa."
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