Snitch caught:
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Posted on Tue, Dec. 20, 2005
Suspect in P.G. robbery on gang's hit listAuthorities had also been looking for CastañedaBy JULIA REYNOLDS and GEORGE B. SANCHEZHerald Staff WritersA man arrested in connection with the armed robbery of a Pacific Grove grocery shopper Friday is a former Nuestra Familia gang member who has been a target of slaying attempts by the gang since 1997.
Pablo Castañeda, 39, was arrested in front of a Monterey apartment building at 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Three others, including Castañeda's half brother Frank "Weasel" Olvera, 41, were arrested inside the apartment in the 600 block of Hawthorne Street.
"If we had known who it was, we would have sent more than two officers to make the arrest," Pacific Grove Police Chief Carl Miller said.
The Monterey County Gang Task Force has been trying to locate Castañeda since he was released from jail in September, Miller said.
At 7 p.m. Friday, a 37-year-old woman was loading groceries into her car in the parking lot of the Safeway store on Forest Avenue in Pacific Grove. The woman felt someone tugging at her purse from behind, officers said, and she turned to face a man in a black ski mask pointing a revolver at her.
The man took the woman's purse and jumped into a car driven by a woman, police said. The car sped off on the Holman Highway before officers arrived. But a witness described the car and a partial license number to police, said Cmdr. Darius Engles.
Over the weekend, three officers and two police commanders worked the case, Miller said, and through "good, old-fashioned police work" traced the car to the Hawthorne Street apartment building.
But they still didn't know the identity of the man they were pursuing.
The officers only discovered their suspect was a well-known gang associate "when they walked up to him and asked to see his ID," Miller said.
Alone outside the apartment, Castañeda was arrested without incident. Inside, police arrested Darlene Marie Garibai, 23, whom police suspect drove the getaway car; Tony Ralph Mejia, 20, a parolee from the California Youth Authority; and Frank Anthony Olvera, 41, Castañeda's half brother.
By 1:30 p.m. investigators obtained a search warrant and found a ski mask and a revolver with no serial number in the apartment. Miller said officers also found Norteño gang-related items.
Norteños are street gangs associated with the Nuestra Familia, a much more powerful prison-based criminal organization that controls much of the drug and robbery activity in Northern California farming communities.
In March, Castañeda was the target of a failed Nuestra Familia hit. A once-esteemed member of the gang, Castañeda has been on its hit lists since 1997.
The most recent overt attempt on Castañeda's life happened in March at a Motel 6 parking lot in Salinas, where two men opened fire on Castañeda in daylight.
A dozen shots were fired, and Castañeda was hit six times.
Castañeda agreed to testify against the two gunmen -- Jose Cardenas, 30, and Antonio Rayas, 24 -- at their preliminary hearing. Both opted to plead guilty at the last minute. When they announced their deal with prosecutors, Castañeda had been waiting to testify, secured less than 50 feet away in the courthouse.
The plea agreements avoided a trial that might have shed light on the current structure of the Salinas regiment of the Nuestra Familia.
A year before Cardenas and Rayas shot Castañeda, he was also fired at while driving on Highway 101 near Salinas.
In 1997, prosecutors charged a Nuestra Familia gang leader with soliciting Castañeda's murder while he was in Soledad State Prison.
Three months later, Castañeda's older brother, Salvador Castañeda Jr., was found executed in an artichoke field near Castroville. Salinas Nuestra Familia leader Caesar Ramirez later admitted to taking part in that killing, which was ordered because Salvador Castañeda refused to kill a gang prevention worker in Salinas, according to FBI interviews.
Ramirez told FBI agents that he and another Nuestra Familia leader shot Castañeda and drove him to the field where his body was found, his fingers arranged to show a one and a four. The number 14 is a symbol of the Nuestra Familia.
That slaying kicked off a vicious power struggle among Salinas Nuestra Familia leaders and prompted the massive, multi-agency federal prosecution known as Operation Black Widow that ended this fall.
Castañeda has said his brother's death made him leave the Nuestra Familia for good.
But he never managed to stay far from trouble.
Soon after he survived the six shots fired at him in March, Castañeda was arrested -- while still on crutches and his arm in a sling -- for allegedly shoplifting at a Salinas Wal-Mart store.
In September, he was given a year in county jail for assaulting a police officer during that arrest. He was immediately released because of time served and other sentence reductions.
A three-year suspended prison sentence was part of his probation terms, but officers say Castañeda never checked in with his probation officer after his release.
After his arrest Sunday, Castañeda was denied bail. He is facing charges of conspiracy to commit robbery, armed robbery, possession of a firearm by a felon, probation violations and being a member of a criminal street gang.
Miller said the robbery did not appear to have been committed on behalf of a gang.
Olvera and Mejia were also held without bail on parole violation charges. Garibai was charged with conspiracy to commit robbery, armed robbery and being a member of a criminal street gang.
Olvera and Castañeda may be facing third-strike charges, which a carry a mandatory minimum of 25 years to life.
Pacific Grove police are expected to forward charges to the District Attorney's office today.
Castañeda has been called lucky after surviving so many attempts on his life, but Miller said he could now be facing hard time. "He wasn't very lucky on Sunday."
Miller said he was surprised to learn that Castañeda and Olvera had been living in Monterey.
Once Castañeda had been identified, he said, "12 or 14" members of the county's gang task force descended on Monterey to help with interviews and transportation. "It seemed like an army," Miller said.
Gang-related crimes are rare in Pacific Grove, investigator Engles said, adding that he could recall only two or three cases in the past five years. Miller said the department has added gang charges to a case "less than a dozen times" in the past few years.
"It is uncommon, thankfully."
print thisreprint or license this
Posted on Tue, Dec. 20, 2005
Suspect in P.G. robbery on gang's hit listAuthorities had also been looking for CastañedaBy JULIA REYNOLDS and GEORGE B. SANCHEZHerald Staff WritersA man arrested in connection with the armed robbery of a Pacific Grove grocery shopper Friday is a former Nuestra Familia gang member who has been a target of slaying attempts by the gang since 1997.
Pablo Castañeda, 39, was arrested in front of a Monterey apartment building at 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Three others, including Castañeda's half brother Frank "Weasel" Olvera, 41, were arrested inside the apartment in the 600 block of Hawthorne Street.
"If we had known who it was, we would have sent more than two officers to make the arrest," Pacific Grove Police Chief Carl Miller said.
The Monterey County Gang Task Force has been trying to locate Castañeda since he was released from jail in September, Miller said.
At 7 p.m. Friday, a 37-year-old woman was loading groceries into her car in the parking lot of the Safeway store on Forest Avenue in Pacific Grove. The woman felt someone tugging at her purse from behind, officers said, and she turned to face a man in a black ski mask pointing a revolver at her.
The man took the woman's purse and jumped into a car driven by a woman, police said. The car sped off on the Holman Highway before officers arrived. But a witness described the car and a partial license number to police, said Cmdr. Darius Engles.
Over the weekend, three officers and two police commanders worked the case, Miller said, and through "good, old-fashioned police work" traced the car to the Hawthorne Street apartment building.
But they still didn't know the identity of the man they were pursuing.
The officers only discovered their suspect was a well-known gang associate "when they walked up to him and asked to see his ID," Miller said.
Alone outside the apartment, Castañeda was arrested without incident. Inside, police arrested Darlene Marie Garibai, 23, whom police suspect drove the getaway car; Tony Ralph Mejia, 20, a parolee from the California Youth Authority; and Frank Anthony Olvera, 41, Castañeda's half brother.
By 1:30 p.m. investigators obtained a search warrant and found a ski mask and a revolver with no serial number in the apartment. Miller said officers also found Norteño gang-related items.
Norteños are street gangs associated with the Nuestra Familia, a much more powerful prison-based criminal organization that controls much of the drug and robbery activity in Northern California farming communities.
In March, Castañeda was the target of a failed Nuestra Familia hit. A once-esteemed member of the gang, Castañeda has been on its hit lists since 1997.
The most recent overt attempt on Castañeda's life happened in March at a Motel 6 parking lot in Salinas, where two men opened fire on Castañeda in daylight.
A dozen shots were fired, and Castañeda was hit six times.
Castañeda agreed to testify against the two gunmen -- Jose Cardenas, 30, and Antonio Rayas, 24 -- at their preliminary hearing. Both opted to plead guilty at the last minute. When they announced their deal with prosecutors, Castañeda had been waiting to testify, secured less than 50 feet away in the courthouse.
The plea agreements avoided a trial that might have shed light on the current structure of the Salinas regiment of the Nuestra Familia.
A year before Cardenas and Rayas shot Castañeda, he was also fired at while driving on Highway 101 near Salinas.
In 1997, prosecutors charged a Nuestra Familia gang leader with soliciting Castañeda's murder while he was in Soledad State Prison.
Three months later, Castañeda's older brother, Salvador Castañeda Jr., was found executed in an artichoke field near Castroville. Salinas Nuestra Familia leader Caesar Ramirez later admitted to taking part in that killing, which was ordered because Salvador Castañeda refused to kill a gang prevention worker in Salinas, according to FBI interviews.
Ramirez told FBI agents that he and another Nuestra Familia leader shot Castañeda and drove him to the field where his body was found, his fingers arranged to show a one and a four. The number 14 is a symbol of the Nuestra Familia.
That slaying kicked off a vicious power struggle among Salinas Nuestra Familia leaders and prompted the massive, multi-agency federal prosecution known as Operation Black Widow that ended this fall.
Castañeda has said his brother's death made him leave the Nuestra Familia for good.
But he never managed to stay far from trouble.
Soon after he survived the six shots fired at him in March, Castañeda was arrested -- while still on crutches and his arm in a sling -- for allegedly shoplifting at a Salinas Wal-Mart store.
In September, he was given a year in county jail for assaulting a police officer during that arrest. He was immediately released because of time served and other sentence reductions.
A three-year suspended prison sentence was part of his probation terms, but officers say Castañeda never checked in with his probation officer after his release.
After his arrest Sunday, Castañeda was denied bail. He is facing charges of conspiracy to commit robbery, armed robbery, possession of a firearm by a felon, probation violations and being a member of a criminal street gang.
Miller said the robbery did not appear to have been committed on behalf of a gang.
Olvera and Mejia were also held without bail on parole violation charges. Garibai was charged with conspiracy to commit robbery, armed robbery and being a member of a criminal street gang.
Olvera and Castañeda may be facing third-strike charges, which a carry a mandatory minimum of 25 years to life.
Pacific Grove police are expected to forward charges to the District Attorney's office today.
Castañeda has been called lucky after surviving so many attempts on his life, but Miller said he could now be facing hard time. "He wasn't very lucky on Sunday."
Miller said he was surprised to learn that Castañeda and Olvera had been living in Monterey.
Once Castañeda had been identified, he said, "12 or 14" members of the county's gang task force descended on Monterey to help with interviews and transportation. "It seemed like an army," Miller said.
Gang-related crimes are rare in Pacific Grove, investigator Engles said, adding that he could recall only two or three cases in the past five years. Miller said the department has added gang charges to a case "less than a dozen times" in the past few years.
"It is uncommon, thankfully."
