Four Nuestra Familia Prison Gang Leaders Sentenced For Racketeering Conspiracy

Four men who once sat atop the violent Nuestra Familia prison gang will spend the next decade or more in federal custody after a judge imposed sentences that prosecutors say close the book on a years-long effort to decapitate the gang’s leadership.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sentenced David “DC” Cervantes, 76, and James “Conejo” Perez, 70, to 120 months each, while Guillermo “Capone” Solorio, 45, and George “Puppet” Franco, 59, received 175-month terms. All four were convicted last year of racketeering conspiracy, with special findings tying them to attempted murders and murder plots carried out at the gang’s command.

The hearing marks the final chapter of an investigation that ultimately convicted 40 Nuestra Familia members and associates, including the gang’s entire seven-member General Council. Prosecutors described the council as the “board of directors” for a sprawling criminal enterprise that ordered stabbings behind bars, coordinated street-level drug trafficking and laundered its proceeds throughout Northern California.

Cervantes and Perez were two of the gang’s three “Generals,” wielding ultimate authority over policy and discipline inside California’s prisons. Cervantes headed the “General Advocates Office,” personally approving violent reprisals against members who broke gang rules, while Perez served as “General of Prisons,” overseeing all Nuestra Familia activity behind the walls.

Franco and Solorio held seats on the Inner Council and managed lucrative territory outside prison, prosecutors said. Franco commanded the San Joaquin County regiment; Solorio ran operations in Monterey County, directing drug distribution networks fed by subordinate Norteño street gangs.

Both funneled street proceeds back to leadership, reinforcing the gang’s influence in state facilities from Pelican Bay to Salinas Valley.

“The brutal violence and drug trafficking that this enterprise ran from within state prisons touched every county in the Bay Area,” U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian said in a statement. “With these sentences, our communities inside and outside prison walls are safer.”

The convictions followed a three-month jury trial in 2024 that pulled back the curtain on more than two decades of gang rule. Jurors heard evidence of coded messages smuggled between prisons, detailed ledgers tracking narcotics profits, and internal communiqués authorizing hits on perceived rivals.

In one intercepted note, prosecutors said, leaders debated whether a member who failed to pay a drug debt should be “removed” — gang vernacular for murder — before approving an attack that left the target hospitalized.

Cervantes, Perez, Solorio and Franco faced a statutory maximum of life but received lower terms after the court weighed their advanced ages, health concerns and the fact that several decades have passed since some of the charged offenses occurred. All four, however, will remain under federal supervision for five years after release, and each must pay a $100 special assessment.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mari Overbeck, Leif Dautch and Aseem Padukone prosecuted the case with help from dozens of local and state agencies as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces program. Investigators said the takedown offers a blueprint for future joint operations targeting entrenched gangs that continue to direct criminal activity from behind bars.