April 22, 2001
By MIKE GENIELLA
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Leaders of the rival Nuestra Familia and Mexican Mafia, the two largest prison gangs in California, have become especially adroit at circumventing state restrictions on the flow of mail and legal documents in and out of maximum-security Pelican Bay State Prison.
Because inmates are banned from corresponding directly with each other, the Latino gangs use a sophisticated three-way mailing address system with the help of supporters on the outside.
A LETTER FROM THE INSIDE
In a letter from inmate Daniel Hernandez to female gang follower Kalyn Santiago of Boise, Idaho, Hernandez wrote:
"This is being sent in order to explain some very important issues with you so you understand completely what must be done and directions must be followed.
"As you already know, I am committed to Nuestra Familia. We are a organized group both in and out of the prison system. We are not a prison gang, or any other type of gang. However, we are a mob involved in both legal and illicit business. Both business levels are despised by law enforcement just like any other crime familias. Therefore we must take strict measures to avoid a spotlight being put upon our actions. This is why we must take extreme precautionary measures on all business we speak about through our letters.
"This especially is in regards to the money you will be handling. This money is mob money so we must be very secretive on how we speak about it and to ensure that we do place security on ourselves and the actions that will be taken. I have put together a variety of codes that must be used."
A gang leader housed in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay can send coded messages to an outside mail box address set up by a gang follower, who then re-directs the message to a second inmate housed in a separate unit at Pelican Bay, or another state prison.
One such exchange of information via a Sonoma County mailbox foreshadowed a deadly prison riot on Feb. 21, 2000, at Pelican Bay.
Four months earlier, an inmate housed in the prison's less restrictive general population unit transmitted to a Windsor post office box a written warning about rising tensions between Latino and black inmates in the prison's general population. The message went to Daniel Hernandez, an imprisoned "lieutenant" in the Nuestra Familia prison gang.
Noting prison guards apparent inability to defuse the tense situation, the inmate wrote Hernandez in coded language, "Administration acting desperate to stop violence, and as they do it spreads."
The inmate's predictions proved correct. Before the worst riot in Pelican Bay's 11-year history was quelled, guards shot 13 inmates, killing one, in a prison yard attack orchestrated by Mexican Mafia gang leaders.
Dozens of black inmates were slashed and stabbed with homemade weapons sneaked into the prison yard by Mafia followers, according to prison authorities.
Inmate Hernandez, who was tipped off to the expected clash through the mail, at the time was being held in a cell near where Gerald Rubalcaba, a top-ranking Nuestra Familia gang leader, was housed. Investigators believe the coded message received by Hernandez was actually intended for Rubalcaba.
During an earlier search of Hernandez' cell, numerous gang-related documents, including a hit list called "Nuestra Familia's Wanted," were found.
Investigators say the Windsor communication connection used by Hernandez is typical of an underground communications system developed by Rubalcaba and others in the Nuestra Familia leadership, and is especially difficult for investigators to detect.
The return address on the envelope, postmarked in the North Bay, simply read: R. Berto, P.O. Box 1454, Windsor, Ca.
"R. Berto" turned out to be prison parolee Robert Haas, who was arrested earlier this month and accused of overseeing a string of Sonoma County robberies and drug dealing on behalf of Rubalcaba.
In another example involving Hernandez' use of the underground communications network, investigators learned that he had written approximately 75 coded letters to a female gang follower identified as Kalyn Santiago who lives in Boise, Idaho.
Gary Joseph, an FBI special agent involved in the prison gang probe, noted in a Feb. 15, 2000, document: "Although many of the coded letters between Santiago and Hernandez cannot be interpreted in their entirety, there is sufficient detail to show there is discussion of Nuestra Familia business, money transfers, and illegal prison communications which could ultimately lead to violence."
In a piece of correspondence between Hernandez and Santiago that was seized during a search of another gang member's house in Stockton on Dec. 18, 1999, Hernandez instructed Santiago on the need to maintain secrecy about money transactions on behalf of the gang leadership from what he described as legal, and illegal gang activities.
Enough evidence was intercepted from the Nuestra Familia's underground communications system to support federal racketeering charges aimed at toppling the current leadership and disrupting the gang's outside criminal activities.
Included were dozens of gang leaders' coded messages to and from Diana Vasquez, one of those indicted for aiding Nuestra Familia.
Investigators tracked numerous messages, including copies of a confirmation to imprisoned leaders of the 1997 gang-directed murder of former gang captain Michael "Mikeo" Castillo in Salinas.
In addition, a search of her residence uncovered computer files and records of Nuestra Familia leaderships and Aztec code names.
"We catch a lot of stuff like that. But frankly there's no way we can get to all of it, and the gang leaders know that," said Sgt. Mark Piland, one of three prison investigators assigned to monitor the communications of Rubalcaba, Hernandez and hundreds of other gang members.
