Pelican Bay...
Sgt Walt
Pelican Bay inmates communicated via
underground mail
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 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.
You can reach Staff Writer Mike Geniella at 462-6470 or e-mail
mgen...@pressdemocrat.com.
Fraternally,
Walt
Sgt. NYSDOCS
"The last refuge of someone with nothing to say is Ad Homenim."
stomps
> underground mail
> 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.
DUHHH...
Gee, imagine that.
And it only took them that long to discover
how it was being done ?!?!?
The state - and nation know middle men are used for mail forwards.
And it's done regularly. Not only ay that place everywhere and by everyone.
Sometimes in collusion and sometimes unwittingly.
How in the world could it have been done besides that ?
The C/O's ? Maybe...
And "CODED" messages ? LOLOLOL
That's doubtful.
I'd be willing to bet the majority of the letters were plain and simply
written in Spanish and mail room staff either didn't care or may not have
taken time to see the foreign language correspondence was held for an
employee/staff member who was bi-lingual.