Gary Anthony Romero, Racketeering Conspiracy, California 2024

FRESNO, Calif. – Gary Anthony Romero, a high-ranking member of the Nuestra Familia prison gang, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring to engage in racketeering. Romero, 50, of Stockton, was found to have ordered various crimes to be committed for the benefit of the gang in Stanislaus County, including aggravated assaults, robberies, and drug dealing.

According to court documents, Romero has been a member of Nuestra Familia for approximately 20 years and reached one of the highest levels of authority in the gang. He ordered a home invasion robbery in Turlock in which the robbers wielded firearms and made off with a vehicle and several other items. While Romero was in custody at the Stanislaus County Jail, he ordered the “removal” of several Nortenos who had violated Nuestra Familia rules. A “removal” involved assaulting the individuals with homemade weapons, as well as fists and feet. Several of the victims suffered stab wounds.

Romero also directed a gang member to set up subsets of the gang throughout Stanislaus County to collect money from the members, including proceeds of their drug trafficking activities, and to put the funds in Romero’s account at Stanislaus County Jail. This case was the product of an investigation by the Central Valley Gang Impact Task Force under the FBI’s Safe Streets Initiative, with the assistance of the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office, the Modesto Police Department, the Ceres Police Department, the California Highway Patrol, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Bureau of Prisons, and the Stanislaus County Probation Department.

Joe Anthony Felix, 36, of Modesto, was also sentenced today to 12 years and seven months in prison for conspiring to engage in racketeering and an additional, consecutive term of nine months in prison for a supervised release violation on a 2004 case. Jesus Gomez Felix, 32, of Modesto, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for assault with a deadly weapon in aid of racketeering.

“I would like to thank the United States Attorney’s Office and the hard work of the federal prosecutors who prosecuted this case,” said Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager. “We will remain committed to working collaboratively with our federal partners to pursue criminal gang members who commit violent crimes and pose a threat to the citizens of Stanislaus County.”

The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Louis A. Crisostomo and Kelly Pearson of the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section and Assistant United States Attorneys Kimberly A. Smith and Joseph T. Thomas of the Eastern District of California.

Nuestra Familia is a prison gang that originally formed in the California state prison system in the 1960s. Nuestra Familia leaders control and direct the gang’s criminal activities both inside and outside of the prison system.

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