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Press Release

Nuestra Familia Gang Member Sentenced To More Than 31 Years In Prison For Drug Trafficking

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Robert Hanrahan, aka Bubba, 41, of Salinas, was sentenced today by United States District Judge William B. Shubb to 31 years and three months in prison for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

According to facts admitted during Hanrahan’s guilty plea, beginning in 2003, he acted as a leader of the Nuestra Familia, a violent prison gang based within the California and Federal prison systems whose members exert control over street-level Norteño gang members engaged in drug trafficking and violent crime. Hanrahan oversaw the establishment of Street Regiments in San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area counties. Hanrahan was the primary supplier of methamphetamine and cocaine to the San Francisco regiment between 2004 and 2005. During the drug conspiracy, in August 2004, Salinas police served a state search warrant for controlled substances at a Salinas residence. Inside the residence, officers found Hanrahan and two pounds of methamphetamine, a pound of cocaine, drug ledgers, two digital scales, empty baggies, a stolen .40-caliber handgun, a 12‑gauge shotgun, and a rifle.

According to the plea agreement, in January 2006, while Hanrahan’s Salinas drug case was pending, he fled to Mexico. The NF funneled money obtained through drug trafficking to him for living expenses in Mexico, which included high phone bills. Western Union receipts traced the flow of NF drug money from Northern California to Hanrahan in Mexico. Ultimately, Hanrahan was apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border on November 12, 2006.

This case is the product of an investigation by the FBI’s Stockton Violent Crime Task Force, the San Joaquin County Metropolitan Narcotics Task Force (METRO), the Stockton Police Department, the Salinas Police Department, the Watsonville Police Department, and the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation into the activities of the Nuestra Familia. Assistant United States Attorneys Jason Hitt and William S. Wong prosecuted the case.

This case and a related indictment have resulted in a number of significant sentences:

On April 21, 2010, Manuel Gauna was sentenced to more than 21 years in prison.
On December 13, 2010, Richard Mendoza was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
On February 22, 2011, Bismark Ocampo was sentenced to 28 years in prison.

On May 25, 2011, the trial defendants were sentenced to the following:
Larry Amaro was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Ernest Killinger was sentenced to 362 years in prison.
Gerardo Mora was sentenced to more than 33 years in prison.
Jason Stewart-Hanson was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
On July 25, 2011, Gabriel Caracheo was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
On July 27, 2011, David Ramirez was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
On September 26, 2011, Fernando Villalpando was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
On October 17, 2011, Faustino Gonzalez was sentenced to more than 15 years.
On November 28, 2011, Oscar Campos-Padilla was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
On September 24, 2012, Rebecca Guzman was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
On January 22, 2013, Juan Gallegos, aka Wino, was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
On December 23, 2013, Carolyn Huerta, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Updated April 8, 2015

Press Release Number: Docket #: 2:11-cr-119 WBS