Four Nuestra Familia Prison gang leaders convicted in RICO case that relied on prison informants

OAKLAND – A federal jury has convicted four men who prosecutors say control a vast network of street and prison gangs that exploit drugs and commit violence across California.

David Cervantes, 76, James Perez, 70, Guillermo Solorio, 45, and George Franco, 59, were each found guilty of racketeering and conspiracy, all related to their leadership roles in the Nuestra Familia prison gang. The most serious charges related to plots to control the gang by killing members and associates who clashed with the gang’s ‘generals’.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in federal prison. All four men are already serving life sentences in the California state prison system, and Cervantes and Perez are both in wheelchairs, which they have been in throughout the trial. The four have been housed in a jail in Vacaville while the trial was underway in Oakland.

“Prisons are supposed to protect the community from further crime and provide people with the opportunity for rehabilitation, but prison gangs frustrate both goals,” Northern California U.S. Attorney Martha Boersch said in a written statement. She later added: “Successful prosecutions like this send an unmistakable message that this will not be tolerated simply because it happens behind prison walls.”

Defense attorneys disputed the charges and took aim at the many former Nuestra Familia members who agreed to take the prosecutors’ stand. Cervantes’ lawyers also essentially argued that Cervantes had moved on with his life and was no longer interested in being a gang leader, but had participated in a handful of phone calls claiming that he was still a member of the Nuestra Familia, so he could save his life. respectability on a prison property for the general population.

Several of the intended assassination targets were stabbed in prison, but all victims survived. At least one of them became a witness for the government, recounting his life as a member of a street gang seeking to join the Nuestra Familia when he was sent to prison for a shooting in Salinas.

The Nuestra Familia controls the Norteño street gang, with a paramilitary structure in which everyone plays a different role, according to witness statements. It is divided into “regiments” located throughout Northern California. Profits – from drug sales, robberies and other substances – are filtered into the Nuestra Familia via bank transfers.

Some people act as accountants for the gang, and prosecutors say one Nuestra Familia bank account was worth more than $250,000. Other members specialize in making knives, smuggling contraband into prisons, or vetting potential members through background checks for things the gang considers red flags, such as previous cooperation with law enforcement or sexual harassment charges.

The targets of two murder plots included a man whose wife had testified in a criminal case, and a longtime Nuestra Familia member named Matt Rocha, who was involved in a power struggle with Perez that culminated in Rocha’s stabbing on a prison compound. After surviving the blow, Rocha agreed to testify for prosecutors and became the key witness at the trial. He said on the stand that he hopes to be released from prison one day.

Originally published: October 2, 2024 at 2:47 PM