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The city of Salinas California is the birthplace of John Steinbeck and the setting for his epic masterpiece East of Eden but it is also the home of Nuestra Familia one of the most violent gangs in the United States Born in the prisons of California in the late s Nuestra Familia expanded to control drug trafficking and extortion operations throughout the northern half of the state and left a trail of bodies in its wake Award-winning journalist Julia Reynolds tells the gangs story from the inside out following young men and women as they search for a new kind of family quests that usually lead to murder and betrayal Blood in the Fields also documents the history of Operation Black Widow the FBIs questionable decade-long effort to dismantle the Nuestra Familia along with its compromised informants and the turf wars it created with local law enforcement agenciesReynolds uses her unprecedented access to gang members both in and out of prison as well as undercover wire taps depositions and court documents to weave a gripping comprehensive history of this brutal criminal organization and the lives it destroyed.