Ex-leader sees gang pipeline to Vegas

Jen Lawson

Friday, Nov. 8, 2002 | 11:04 a.m.

Robert Sanchez doesn't look like a former gang member.

He's not particularly tall or menacing. He's approaching 40, and wearing shiny patent leather shoes and a sweater, he looks like he's dressed for church.

But the gang-related tattoos on the side and back of his neck hint at a violent past.

Sanchez, who used to be one of the highest ranking members of a Northern California gang, spoke Thursday at a national gang conference for members of law enforcement at the Sahara.

Las Vegas is a favorite place for California gang members to hang out and party, said Jared Lewis, director of Know Gangs, which organized the conference. Las Vegas is also a spot where gangs recruit new members and start Vegas branches of California-based gangs.

"In California, the gangs are so bad, so violent, so deadly," Sanchez said during an interview before his presentation. "I feel I want to help people avoid making the same mistakes I made."

Sanchez, who is in the witness protection program and doesn't use his real name, became involved with marijuana at age 11 through his baseball coach. His coach taught him how to shoplift, he said, and that led to more serious crime.

He got arrested as a teenager for robbing a jewelry store at gunpoint, then again a few years later for selling drugs. He spent a total of 15 years going in and out of prison.

In the early 1980s, Sanchez got involved with a prison gang called Nuestra Familia. He had to, in order to survive, he said.

The Nuestra Familia battled the Southern California-based Mexican Mafia gang in prison and on the streets. Both are primarily prison gangs, with the street members taking orders from the higher-ranking incarcerated ones.

"When you move from prison to the street, the gang considers it to be a cell change. Your obligation doesn't change," Sanchez said. "When I got paroled, I became the highest in command on the streets of Northern California."

Although Sanchez won't speak specifically about crimes he committed, he points out that the motto of Nuestra Familia is "blood in, blood out," which means members must kill to belong, and can only get out by getting killed.

Sanchez said he had hundreds of thousands of dollars, new cars and a new house, funded almost exclusively through drug sales. He could have enemies "eliminated" at will.

He and other members made trips to Las Vegas to sell drugs, and others were commanded by gang leaders to move here.

"People were sent here to start strongholds," Sanchez said. "It's all about drugs and murder for hire."

A few years ago, Sanchez said, turmoil began brewing in the gang's Northern California-based leadership. The top leaders were killed in prison, and it caused a split between the lower-ranking members. Sanchez was married with a few children, and felt the gang life getting too dangerous. He decided to leave.

"They were jockeying for position, and it was brother against brother," he said. "Seeing my friends die made me realize I needed to make some decisions."

Leaving a gang isn't simple, because members know too many secrets, Sanchez said. Once he made his decision to leave, he quickly and quietly relocated, then ended up working as an informant for the police. He is now in hiding.

"To be a part of a chain of death, it's wrong. It's sad," Sanchez said.

Las Vegas has a strong Los Angeles-based gang population, Lewis said. People migrate here and bring their gang connections with them.

He pointed out that Tupac Shakur was murdered in Las Vegas in 1997, and the main suspect, who is now dead, was affiliated with a Los Angeles gang.

Metro Police Lt. Lew Roberts, who works in the gang crimes section, said Nuestra Familia doesn't have a strong presence in Las Vegas, but there are some other Northern California-based gangs here. More claim allegiance to Southern California gangs because it's closer.

In most of the gang shootings that happen in Las Vegas, either the shooter or the victim is from California, Roberts said.

"There are all different types of gangs here because they think this is the land of milk and honey," he said. It's easy to get a job here, and the cost of housing is low, he said.

In 2001, there were 308 gangs in the Las Vegas Valley, officials said. So far this year, the Southern Nevada Community Gang Task Force has identified 439 gangs.