Gangs Thrive In Maximum Security

Lesley Stahl Reports On Criminal Gang Activity Behind Bars

(CBS)  They were getting so large, they began to expand their field of operations. Gruel says they started to move into Boise, Idaho, and even had some activities in Arizona: "What they were slowly trying to do, I think, is become a larger criminal organization. They certainly had the manpower to do it."

"And this is still all being run outside of this sort of high intensity prison, this lock-down kind of place," says Stahl.

"Pelican Bay served as the nerve center for all the operations for the Nuestra Familia," says Gruel.

So, a prison built specifically to put vicious gangs out of business ended up with the worst of the worst -- all in one place with nothing but time to forge fraternities that were tighter, better organized and smarter.

"How do you deal with those people?" asks Gruel. "How do you deal with someone who has impunity? They're in prison, in the worst prison. So what do you do with them?"

For the last 8 years, the FBI and Justice Department have been investigating one of the most ruthless gangs in the country – Nuestra Familia, which means "our family" in Spanish.

Founded in 1965 by Mexican-American convicts in the California prison system, it consisted of just a few hundred members, until the past decade when, with its top generals confined to SHU at Pelican Bay, it swelled into a super-gang with more than 1,000 made-members and associates.

It was built on the ethic of loyalty, discipline and fear, and law enforcement was unable to penetrate its solid walls, until one of its top "carnales" cracked.

"The Nuestra Familia is considered one of the most sophisticated prison gangs in the United States," says Robert Gratton, who joined the gang in the '90s while he was in prison. He rose to the rank of captain, but eventually defected, and told the government the gang's secrets. Now in hiding, he agreed to talk to 60 Minutes in disguise.

"To join it, murder is a prerequisite," says Gratton. "You have to make a kill or spill the blood of the enemy to be trusted into the gang's clandestine activities. … I've stabbed different people."

Gratton spent two years in the SHU going to gang university, taking orders from the Nuestra Familia leaders whom they call generals. Then he was paroled.

"I was given specific orders to organize all of the different little cities in Northern California, which at that time consisted of thousands of young kids who were straying from the goals of the leader," says Gratton.

"So I put together a gangster rap CD to reach the youth and let them know that the Nuestra Familia was still in charge."

Gratton’s CD, called "G-U-N," glorified gang life and called for death to their rivals, the Surenos. It also contained a message from Gratton for the youth of Northern California: "The primary purpose and goal of this album is to promote unity amongst each and everyone of us."

He says the CD sold thousands: "It was so popular in Northern California that the police chief in Watsonville, Calif., actually organized a boycott of Sam Goody's [music stores]."

Sam Goody's pulled the CD, but only after it helped generate about $80,000 in sales, 25 percent of which under gang rules Gratton had to kick back to the generals. He says he deposited that money in a Boise, Idaho, bank account that they controlled.

"What keeps someone in your position who's out, taking these orders from the guys in?" asks Stahl. "I mean, why not set up your own organization? Why don’t you become the more powerful one?"

"The same way that the Nuestra Familia has no problems killing the enemy, it would also kill any member who turned coward, traitor or deserter," says Gratton. "And if they can't get you, they will go after your family."