Norte/Nortenos/Nuestra Familia

Big Bad NORTE Ganga

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Wow, that's so gangsta ese, nahmean, puro vata loca

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OP are you mexican?

Snitch-ass

ay papi, hola at me

The Norteños (Spanish: [noɾˈteɲos] meaning Northerners)‍—‌Norteñas for females, are the various, loosely affiliated street gangs that pay tribute to the Nuestra Familia while in US Federal and State correctional facilities. Norteños may refer to Northern California as Norte. Their biggest rivals are the Sureños from Southern California. The statewide north-south dividing line between Norteños and Sureños has roughly been accepted as the rural communities of Delano and Bakersfield, California.

In 1968, Mexican American inmates of the California state prison system separated into two rival groups, Norteños (northerners) and Sureños (southerners), according to the locations of their hometowns. Norteños, affiliated with the Nuestra Familia, were prison enemies of the Southern Latinos, who are composed of members and affiliates of La Eme, better known as the Mexican Mafia. While the La Eme had initially been created to protect Mexicans in prison, there was a perceived level of abuse by members of La Eme towards the imprisoned Latinos from rural farming areas of Northern California. The spark that led to the ongoing war between Norteños and members of the Mexican Mafia involved a situation in which a La Eme allegedly stole a pair of shoes from a Northerner. This event put into motion the longest-running gang war in the state of California and the founding of Nuestra Familia.

Operation Black Widow

Federal law enforcement agencies, long unable to infiltrate the group, began to step up their investigations in the late 1990s. In 2000 and 2001, 22 members were indicted on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) charges including several who were allegedly serving as high-ranking gang leaders while confined in Pelican Bay State Prison in northern California. Thirteen of the defendants pleaded guilty; the other cases are still ongoing. Two of the defendants face the death penalty for ordering murders related to the drug trafficking. The largest of the federal investigations was Operation Black Widow. In the aftermath of Operation Black Widow, the five highest ranking leaders of the Norteños were transferred to a federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.