La Nuestra Familia
La Nuestra Familia was formed in Folsom Prison around 1968, constructed as a force that could
combat the existing oppression of the traditionally dominant Mexican Mafia. Since then the Familia has moved eastward across the
United States and developed prominent ties in Colorado state prisons.
According to Robert Koehler (2000), an ex-convict and past member of
the Nuestra Familia, the Family operates as a "mutual aid society,"
committed to providing commissary goods to fellow Familia members in
prison at inexpensive or "face value" costs, and providing
commissary goods to members placed in administrative segregation. This
is considered "welfare" The Family operates a "capitol,"
or "power base," in the Limon Correctional Facility in Colorado,
considered the most concentrated facility housing the longest-serving
Familianos and Familiano leaders in the state.
In Colorado prisons, the Familia is an attempt to protect and preserve Chicano culture in the face of a majority white culture saturating both Colorado
prisons and the American criminal justice system. The Familia operate
with a "cause," an ideology that places great emphasis on
the psychological and physical protection of its members as well as
the preservation of the Familia culture itself.
In 1997 an FBI investigation revealed that top-ranking Nuestra Familia
leaders were creating new recruits and turning them into organized criminal
operatives upon release, also known as "wolfpacks."
From their thrones in California's Pelican Bay, they controlled the intra-prison drug and sex
trade, while communicating with their members on the outside, ordering
hits and organizing smuggling rings. One Neustra Familia leader recently
released from Pelican Bay was ordered to kill a member of his own gang,
top-ranking Salinas gang leader Michael "Mikeo" Castillo,
who was in charge of Sonoma County's drug operations. Five days after
Castillo was released from a short, DUI jail sentence, he was shot at
close range in the head.
The FBI task-force, dubbed "Black Widow," was the largest
investigation into prison gang activities in California's history. It
soon became a multi-agency endeavor, including the FBI, the California
Department of Corrections, and the US attorney, operating out of their
command center at a downtown high-rise in Santa Rosa.
Location
The Nuestra Familia have a strong base in Northern California, Sonoma
County, Mendochino County, Santa Rosa, Windsor, and San Jose. Ukiah,,
became a meeting place for gang leaders in March of 2000, including
the 3 "highest-ranking" Nuestra Familia leaders in the Bay
Area. Northern California, or Norte, is the original homeland of the
Familianos. In the 1970s, many Familianos migrated to Colorado, where
they were later incarcerated and subsequently developed prison gangs
in Colorado's prison system. As the Chicano prison population grew in
the 1970s and 1980s, so too did the Familianos, and their influence
within the prison subculture. The Limon Correctional Facility, whose
purpose was to house the more dangerous and violent offenders serving
the longest sentences, served to concentrate the Familianos under one
roof, strengthening their power within prison.
The Nuestra Familia share allegiances with their Northern California-area
affiliates the Nortenos, rivals of the Mexican Mafia's affiliated
Sorenos, which operate out of Southern California. Pelican Bay parolees
were reported by informants in 2000 to be instructed by their Familia
captains to "re-energize" the Nortenos in Sonoma County.