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Rhodes is accused of shooting and killing Christopher Jones in May 2016.
Later that month, he allegedly killed Ordway and Gordon. Police have said the two were killed at Rhodes' home in Clifton. Their bodies were dumped in the Shawnee neighborhood and set on fire.
Rhodes allegedly killed the two brothers because he feared they would tell police about his involvement in Jones' murder.
Rhodes is being held on a $1 million full cash bond.
A Manhattan police officer fired at suspected members of a violent gang dubbed Own Every Dollar as they cased a high-end restaurant in the latest of 12 jewelry heists they are believed to be behind.
The 'vicious' robbery ring's latest crime saw the group checking out Pergola restaurant in NoMad, Manhattan, at around 1.15am on Monday before a Manhattan police officer opened fire on the suspected crooks.
Officers recognized a BMW parked nearby that matched the description of a car linked with an array of jewelry heists and attempted to stop the vehicle, the New York Post reported.
The driver jumped a curb and almost ran down pedestrians before an officer stopped the car by firing through its windshield. One suspect was arrested while two suspects ran away and are being searched for by police.
The robbers, who call themselves OED for 'Own Every Dollar' and were described as 'vicious' by a Manhattan officer, are thought to be responsible for least 12 jewelry robberies across New York in the last four months.
The ring, who are linked to the notorious Trinitarios gang in The Bronx, netted in more than $4million in jewelry and watches in just one theft and are suspected to be involved in at least one homicide, according to police sources.
The group pulled of the brazen thefts in BMWs and Mercedes-Benz vehicles across Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx, and on Monday, police officers recognised a BMW parked nearby as the gang cased Pergola bistro.
The vehicle drew the attention of officers as it matched the description of a car that was tied to an array of jewelry thefts in upscale areas of the city, according to sources.
The officers are understood to have moved in after a check showed that the plate did not match the vehicle and cops tried to stop the car on West 28th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues.
a) On April 25, 1980, a Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA") confidential informant ("CI") told DEA Special Agent Seary that Claimant Glenn (as well as members of the Maddox drug organization) sold large quantities of heroin from the Maddox Cafe. b) On January 14, 1983, a second DEA CI drove to the Stop Six property with a DEA agent. While the agent remained in the car, the CI entered the restaurant and purchased cocaine and heroin from an individual who told the CI that the heroin Claimant Glenn had brought to the Stop Six property for sale was of good quality. c) On January 20, 1983, the same CI drove to the Stop Six property with a DEA agent where the CI was observed by the DEA agent to enter the restaurant and talk with Claimant Glenn and then walk out of view. The CI then returned to the car with heroin and cocaine that he said he had purchased from an individual at the direction of Glenn after giving Glenn the money. d) On August 29, 1983, a third DEA CI told two DEA agents that Butch's night club, which is part of the Stop Six property, was owned and operated by Glenn and was known as a hang out for heroin dealers. Various CIs have referred to Claimant Glenn as "Butch." e) On October 25, 1983, a fourth CI was driven to the Stop Six property by a DEA agent and a DEA Task Force officer, where the CI purchased heroin and cocaine from an individual under the direction of Claimant Glenn. f) On September 24, 1986, a Fort Worth Police Department officer, acting on information that heroin and cocaine were being sold at the Stop Six property, went there and the bartender asked her what she wanted. The officer replied, "1/2 gram of cocaine." The bartender then directed her to the bathroom where two other individuals sold her the cocaine. The Fort Worth Police Department Laboratory determined that the substance purchased was cocaine. g) On September 25, 1986, the same Fort Worth officer went back to the Stop Six property and purchased another half gram of cocaine. h) On April 21, 1987, a member of the Maddox drug organization told a DEA agent that Claimant Glenn ran the Stop Six Center and was one of Billy Ray Maddox's main lieutenants. i) On May 5, 1987, an individual who was assaulted in the Stop Six parking lot, told police that she was assaulted by a Stop Six employee who spent much of his time near his pickup truck on the parking lot selling heroin and cocaine. j) On November 4, 1987, an individual told a DEA agent that Billy Ray Maddox distributed heroin and cocaine through the restaurant on the Stop Six property. This same individual said that he had purchased heroin from Claimant Glenn on two occasions. He would go to the club on the Stop Six property, make a deal for heroin with Glenn, and Glenn would obtain the heroin from somewhere in the kitchen. k) On November 6, 1987, Fort Worth officers, acting on complaints of narcotics trafficking, went to the restaurant on the Stop Six property. While inside the restaurant, the officers observed three individuals sitting at different tables without food as if they were lookouts. One of these individuals was in possession of a loaded pistol. While on the property officers observed an exchange, arrested the suspect and recovered a clear plastic bag that contained cocaine base.
l) On March 18, 1988, another Fort Worth officer purchased cocaine in the hallway where the bathrooms were located. The individual who conducted the sale was later arrested and twelve additional dosage units of cocaine base were retrieved from the trash can inside the bathroom. m) On May 9, 1988, a member of the Maddox drug organization, told a former DEA Task Force officer that Claimant Glenn owned Maddox thousands of dollars. n) On July 12, 1988, DEA agents recorded a conversation between Billy Ray Maddox and another individual in which Maddox was heard to complain about the volume of business Butch was able to produce. o) On July 24, 1988, Fort Worth officers went to the restaurant on the Stop Six property in reference to numerous complaints that narcotics were sold at that location. The officers entered the restaurant and observed a cook give a hand signal to occupants that the police were there. The officers observed an individual run and throw something away. The officers arrested the individual and recovered one large plastic bag containing sixteen smaller bags of cocaine base. p) On July 26, 1988, Fort Worth police officers executed a search warrant at the Stop Six property and arrested several suspects in the parking lot. They recovered a total of sixty dosage units of cocaine base. q) On November 4, 1988, a DEA agent interviewed a member of the Maddox drug organization. This person formerly managed the narcotics trafficking activity at another Maddox nightclub and advised the agent that Butch's (the Stop Six Restaurant) was selling narcotics. He further advised that Butch operated the club and supervised the narcotics sales. r) Between August 1987 and July 1988, surveillance established Billy Ray Maddox's presence at the restaurant on the Stop Six property on numerous occasions.
Something went badly wrong in the life of 17-year-old Iquan Warlick of Brooklyn, a baby-faced high schooler who showed promise playing football and basketball — and who according to cops threw it away by picking up a gun and leading a gangsta life.
Warlick, who lived with his mother at the Ingersoll Houses in Fort Greene, is accused of involvement in four homicides in pandemic-ravaged 2020.
“Insane cowboy” is how a law enforcement source described Warlick.
How he became an accused adolescent killer four times over isn’t clear to investigators. But Warlick has offered at least one clue.
Several years ago, Richard Grundy III received what a federal prosecutor hailed as the “plea deal of a century.”
On Thursday, Grundy received the sentence of a lifetime. Quite literally.
Grundy, 30 was sentenced Thursday at the U.S. federal courthouse to a mandatory life sentence after a jury convicted him of charges related to a drug organization that authorities said sold marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin in Indianapolis.
During his sentencing hearing, federal prosecutor Bradley Blackington said Grundy would never have found himself in this situation if he had just learned from his mistakes and taken advantage of that previous plea deal.
Grundy had been on law enforcement’s radar since 2014. In 2015, they finally nabbed the then-accused leader of the “Grundy Crew” on five counts of murder and a slew of other felonies in Marion County.
A man behind a kidnapping case that triggered an Amber Alert in 2015 has been found guilty.
39-year-old John Thomas of Detroit was found guilty in a federal courtroom on Monday.
On March 2, 2015, Thomas and five accomplices came from Detroit to Indianapolis and kidnapped two children. The children were the younger siblings of Whitney Blackwell, Thomas’s ex-girlfriend. Investigators said Blackwell had stolen drugs and drugs money from Thomas on Feb. 28. Testimony in court indicated that Thomas was a Detroit-based drug dealer.
Whitney Blackwell was placed on probation for drug possession.
Thomas and the co-conspirators took the children, ages 13 and 16, from the home in the 1200 block of LaSalle Street in the early morning hours.
Testimony at the sentencing hearings established that DAVIS was the head of the “Sin City Mafia,” a major criminal enterprise with headquarters in Columbus, GA; Atlanta, GA; and Los Angeles, CA. DAVIS obtained cocaine from California suppliers connected to major Mexican cartels and transported that cocaine to Atlanta by way of tractor trailers, private jets and through parcel post. Once the cocaine arrived in Atlanta, it was packaged for shipment various locales along the East Coast. DAVIS’ organization had ties to the Black Mafia Family (BMF), a criminal enterprise operating in Detroit, Atlanta, Orlando, Saint Louis and elsewhere.
The evidence established GRAHAM as one of DAVIS’ primary distributors, and that GRAHAM, KING and others associated with their organization personally supplied over 500 kilograms of cocaine sold in South Carolina. The evidence also showed that DAVIS, GRAHAM, KING and GLOSTER (DAVIS’ wife) lived lavish lifestyles and laundered the proceeds of their drug business in a number of ways. DAVIS, in particular, owned several million dollar residences titled in the names of his family members and associates.
All of the defendants entered guilty pleas. GRAHAM agreed to cooperate with the Government but lied about a number of his associates and failed a polygraph examination. Judge Herlong heard evidence for six hours during the sentencing hearing about the various breaches of GRAHAM’s plea agreement. During a break in the proceeding, GRAHAM pointed at the cooperating witness, made a shooting gesture with his fingers and then pointed at his own heart.
After hearing evidence, Judge Herlong ruled that GRAHAM had made numerous false statements to Government agents after his guilty plea and had breached his plea agreement in a number of material particulars. Judge Herlong also ruled that GRAHAM had threatened a witness during the course of the proceedings, and sentenced GRAHAM to a term of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Judge Herlong sentenced GRAHAM to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He sentenced the other defendants as follows: DAVIS, to a term of 39 years, 10 months in prison; KING, 24 years, 8 months in prison; RIVERA, 3 years, 4 months in prison; and GLOSTER, 2 years in prison. Judge Herlong also ordered the forfeiture of millions of dollars in drug related assets. All of these sentences will be served without the possibility of parole, and agents have seized over $5 million dollars worth of drug related assets during the course of the South Carolina investigation.
DEA Atlanta Field Division Special Agent in Charge Rodney G. Benson said, “Drug traffickers may think they can find safe havens to conduct their filthy business, but they are kidding themselves. With the relentless cooperative efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement partners we work as one force committed to ensuring there is never a comfortable place for those who mock our laws and encourage our children to destroy their bodies. The court provided sentences today that reinforce that message.”
U.S. Attorney Reginald I. Lloyd noted that this investigation is one of the largest drug investigations ever handled by his office. He stated that the sentences handed down with respect to the leaders of this organization (GRAHAM, DAVIS and KING) send a message that drug dealing will not be tolerated.
Tommie L. Walker, a/k/a Columbia BT, and Juan Carlos Garcia-Martinez, a/k/a Carlos Garcia were arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda T. Walker on September 21, 2018 on federal charges of drug trafficking and possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Walker, Garcia-Martinez, and Samuel Anchondo-Galaviz were indicted by a federal grand jury on September 12, 2018.
“These defendants were allegedly part of a multi-state drug distribution scheme that transported and distributed cocaine worth approximately $4 million,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak. “Thanks to the work of law enforcement in Georgia, South Carolina and Colorado, this drug enterprise is now history.”
“This investigation is an excellent example of the working relationships that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Atlanta-Carolinas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) have with their law enforcement partners,” said Robert J. Murphy, Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta DEA Field Division. “The defendants were transporting large quantities of drugs throughout our neighborhoods, and the dismantlement of this criminal organization will have a positive local impact and sends a clear message that we will not tolerate illegal drug trafficking in our communities.”
According to U.S. Attorney Pak, the charges, and other information presented in court: Agents of the Atlanta-Carolina High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program began their investigation in August 2017 in conjunction with Drug Enforcement Administration agents in South Carolina and Colorado. Walker, who raps under the name “Columbia BT,” allegedly participated in a cocaine trafficking conspiracy that extended to Colorado, South Carolina, and Mexico.
Walker allegedly operated a warehouse in the Atlanta area where he received shipments of cocaine hidden in tractor-trailers. The shipments were sent by a co-conspirator in Colorado. Walker allegedly would then distribute the drugs to individuals from South Georgia and South Carolina. Garcia-Martinez is an alleged co-conspirator who facilitated some of Walker’s drug transactions.
Law enforcement officers seized more than 135 kilograms of cocaine from the organization, a quantity worth more than $4 million at current wholesale prices in Atlanta. Law enforcement also seized more than $220,000 in drug proceeds.
October 9, 2017, a tractor-trailer containing approximately 40 kilograms of cocaine, which was driven by Anchondo-Galaviz, was stopped on the way to Walker’s warehouse. Other seizures charged in the indictment took place on December 3, 2017 and February 21, 2018. Walker allegedly used his illegal drug proceeds to finance a lavish lifestyle that he displayed in his rap videos. Some of the property seized from the alleged drug proceeds included a 2016 Rolls-Royce Dawn and a 2013 Bentley Mulsanne.
Tommie L. Walker, a/k/a Columbia BT, 42, of Kennesaw, Georgia is charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and three counts of possession with intent to distribute cocaine.
Juan Carlos Garcia-Martinez, a/k/a Carlos Garcia, 37, of Forest Park, Georgia, and Samuel Anchondo-Galaviz, 40, of New Mexico are each charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Members of the public are reminded that the indictment only contains charges. The defendant is presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government’s burden to prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.
Darryl Reed, once called the “crack king” of Oakland, will be released from prison this year after President Obama this week granted him and 110 others clemency.
The former drug kingpin known on the streets as “Lil D” will be released from a federal prison in Oregon on Dec. 28, 26 years into a 35-year prison sentence for manufacturing and possessing crack and cocaine to sell.
“I said, Woohoo! Like that,” his mother, Delores Stephens, told KGO-TV. “I told myself too, I believe the Lord sent him there for a reason.”
At age 20, Reed was at the top of Oakland’s narcotics trade in the late 1980s, transporting drugs through his connections in Los Angeles to street dealers throughout Oakland, retired narcotics Officer Ken Scott said.
“He had the whole city,” said Scott, who retired from the Oakland police department in 1997. “He had people in East Oakland, West Oakland and North Oakland.”
Reed is a nephew through marriage of Felix Mitchell, leader of “The Mob” gang, one of three notorious organizations that ruled Oakland’s streets in the early 1980s. Mitchell was killed in federal prison in 1986.
Though not as flashy as his predecessors, Reed lived a lavish life funded by his cocaine sales. In December 1988, he paid $30,000 for 3,000 guests to attend his birthday party at the Golden Gate Fields Turf Club, according to newspaper reports at the time.
Days later, Reed was busted when authorities raided his Adams Point apartment in Oakland and seized 30 pounds of crack cocaine and 16 pounds of powder cocaine with an estimated street value of $3 million, a record seizure at the time, according to court records. Scott, who wrote the warrant for Reed’s arrest, was holed up in an apartment upstairs, listening to Reed cook the cocaine.
“He was caught red-handed,” Russ Giuntini, the prosecutor in Reed’s case, said. “He literally had powder all over his hands.”
Now 48, Reed has spent more days in prison than as a free man. Nicole Lee, of Urban Peace Movement, said Reed has a new perspective on life and his crime days, and has called from prison to speak to youth attending the group’s events.
“He feels it’s his generation’s responsibility to share their life stories and to steer the young people in Oakland away from the mistake he made,” said Lee, whose organization wrote a letter to Obama in support of Reed.
In an interview with KGO-TV, Reed’s son Lamar Reed said his father, though incarcerated, was always there for him.
“I want to thank President Obama, it’s been a long journey,” Lamar Reed said. “I knew I had a father who loved me and that I had someone who wanted me to be better than he was. He pushed me to be that.”
Obama has granted 673 commutations during his presidency, many of which were for people imprisoned for drug-related crimes stemming from the nation’s “War on Drugs.” The previous 11 administrations granted a combined 690.
The president’s decision in Reed’s case stunned Giuntini.
“It calls into question what the president is told during the commutation process,” Giuntini said. “This is like commuting Al Capone’s sentence, or John Gotti’s sentence. He should serve every day because of all the harm he did to the community.”
“These convictions and sentences demonstrate that by working together, federal, state and local law enforcement are systematically dismantling the street gangs that cause violent crime in our neighborhoods,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Saima Mohsin. “Detroit residents deserve to live in a community safe from violent crime.”
The gang operated around Albion Street and Seven Mile, an area its members referred to as “ABlock,” which is within a larger territory claimed by the Bloods street gang (known as the “Red Zone.” Smokecamp has had several names, including Original Paid Bosses, Paid Bosses Inc. And Runyon Boys.
In November 2017, an indictment was returned alleging that Smokecamp members were known to engage in robberies and extortion and that the gang made its money predominantly through the sale of narcotics, including cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, marijuana, ecstacy and prescription pills. The gang regularly sold these controlled substances on the “ABlock,” outside of vacant houses, known as “trap houses,” and businesses, the indictment said. Additionally, from 2014-2015, Smokecamp members regularly sold controlled substances from an apartment complex on East Seven Mile, which they branded the “Plaga,” sharing workers and firearms to distribute and protect their narcotics. However, this activity was not confined to Detroit with some of their members traveling to Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio to sell narcotics.
The gang also regularly engaged in acts of violence, including shootings and murder to intimidate rivals and maintain control of their territory, according to the indictment.
The following individuals have been convicted for their role in the gang and have received sentences ranging from 66 months to 384 months in federal prison:
Korey “No Loan Corleon,” “Stax” Sanders, 29, of Detroit, pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy, willful engagement in firearms business without a license, and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance; sentenced to six years in federal prison
Jerray “Chino,” “Dre” Key, 31, of Canton, pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy and felon in possession of a firearm; sentenced to six years in federal prison
Deshawn “Pook,” “Slips” Langston, 30, of Detroit, pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy and assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering; sentenced to 20 years in federal prison
Richard “Dub,” “Rich,” “Blow” Langston, 31, of Detroit, pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy; sentenced to 14 years and two months in federal prison
Hakeem “LB Dub” Bunnell, 27, of Detroit, pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy, and assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering; sentenced to 29 years in federal prison
Keenan “Dolla,” “Keno” Nielbock, 33, of Taylor, pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy; sentenced to seven years in federal prison
Caraun “Luch,” “Ron,” “Slick” Key, 29, of Detroit, convicted of RICO conspiracy; sentenced to six years in federal prison
Darryl “DB,” “Big Baby” Key, 30, of Detroit, convicted of RICO conspiracy; sentenced to five years and six months in federal prison
Tyree “Snoop” Williams, 27, of Detroit, pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy and assault with a dangerous weapon; sentenced to 17 years and six months in federal prison
Romale “Santana” Gibson Jr., 27, of Detroit, convicted of RICO conspiracy, sentenced to six years in federal prison
Cary “Cease” Dailey, 31, of Detroit, convicted of RICO conspiracy, sentenced to six years in federal prison
Antonio “Tone” Langston, 32, of Detroit, convicted of RICO conspiracy, sentenced to eight years in federal prison
Carlos “Los,” “Loso” Davis, 28, of Detroit, convicted of RICO conspiracy and assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering; sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.
Darnell Quincy Lindsay, was an American rapper from Detroit, Michigan. Icewood was raised on the Westside of Detroit in the vicinity of 7 Mile Road and Evergreen. Later in life, he moved to Southfield and attended Southfield High School. He was a member of the rap group Street Lord'z and is considered as an influential rapper of the Detroit underground rap genre. On April 19, 2005, he was fatally shot due to gang-related violence in Detroit, Michigan, United States.
Blade Icewood debuted as a rapper in Detroit with Street Lord'z on their album Platinum Rolees Don't Tic Toc. The group members were Yacht, Jesse James, O Dolla, Brick, Baby Lj, Juan, TJ Da Thug, G Rock, Fat Mike, Lil Kuz, Rook, Cashout Calhoun, HG, K Doe (aka K Deezy), Dj Mark G, Pook, J'Oneal, and Starstrukk. He performed with Street Lord'z of the ring and Chedda Boyz throughout his career
The conflict over the name "Chedda Boyz" started after the formation of the rap group Eastside Chedda Boyz. After the second album released by the Street Lord'z, Platinum Masterpiece, boasted the subtitle, "Original Chedda Boyz," became the cause of conflict between the Street Lord'z and Chedda Boyz. Icewood released a bonus DVD with his "Stackmaster" solo album that featured an interview discussing the origins of the name Chedda Boyz. A retaliating diss song was later released by the Eastside Chedda Boyz titled "Boss Up and Take They Money" (an allusion to the Icewood song, "Boy Would You")
Rudy Rangel Jr. liked to keep his hair short. So Rangel, a leader of the Latin Kings, one of Chicago’s biggest street gangs, had been going several times a month to Nationwide Cutz, a barbershop operating out of a trailer near Roosevelt and Sacramento on the West Side.
On June 4, 2003, late in the evening, the gang leader known as “Kato” was in the barber chair, his back to the open door, Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New Jersey Nets on the TV.
Outside, a 21-year-old, recently paroled ex-con named Donell “Squeaky” Simmons walked through the alley to the shop, a red, white and blue Nets cap on his head and a pistol at his waist.
Two men were sitting on the stairs to the barbershop, waiting to get in, when Simmons walked up. “Let me get by,” Simmons told them.
In a few moments, Rangel, 30, lay dying.
Now, 15 years later, 11 members of the Four Corner Hustlers, including Labar “Bro Man” Spann, leader of the gang, await prosecution next year in one of the biggest gang trials ever in Chicago. Rangel’s killing and five other murders are at the heart of the sweeping racketeering conspiracy case set to be heard in federal court in September 2019.
Though Simmons and two others went to prison in Rangel’s death, some details of the high-profile killing — rapper DMX later recorded a tribute to Rangel called “A’Yo Kato” — never came out.
Authorities said the shooting resulted from an attempted jewel robbery. But interviews and thousands of pages of records from the U.S. attorney’s office, the Chicago Police Department, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and the Cook County medical examiner’s office reviewed by the Chicago Sun-Times suggest another possible motive: that the murder was contracted after Rangel stole 150 kilos of cocaine. Based on those records.
Staten Island's bash brothers are down for the count.
On Monday, a federal jury found Anthony and Harvey Christian, 41 and 42, who were accused of using murder and violence to run the crack cocaine trade in the Park Hill Apartments in Clifton for two decades, guilty on all the counts against them in a racketeering trial.
A third defendant, Jason Quinn, 40, described as their underling in the drug conspiracy, was also found guilty. The three could face life in prison when sentenced.
Their conspiracy included the 1999 murder of 17-year-old Jerome Estrella, and plots to kill two other men, prosecutors said.
The Christian brothers, along with a third brother, James, were dubbed "a scourge on the Island community" by a law enforcement source in 2004, after they were arrested on charges they slashed and beat another man in a pot deal gone wrong.
Anthony (Nitty) and Harvey (Black) Christian were charged in prior assaults, but the brothers beat the charges in separate slayings. In July 1999, James Christian was cleared in Estrella's slaying after after a witness failed to pick him out of a lineup; and in January 1997, a jury acquitted Anthony and Harvey Christian and their co-defendant, Fred Marks, in the May 26, 1995, slaying of John Kennedy III in Clifton. The panel also cleared them of the attempted murder of Carlos Serrano.
On Monday, James Christian sat in a courtroom in Brooklyn federal court and watched as a federal jury read aloud guilty counts for his brothers, Anthony and Harvey.
Anthony Christian occasionally turned and smiled to family members in court, mouthing the words, "I love you," and at various points looked down into the pages of a tattered Bible.
Closing arguments in the trial ended Thursday, and the jury deliberated late into the night both Thursday and Friday.
Federal prosecutors said Anthony and Harvey Christian established themselves in the early 1990s as the men who controlled crack-dealing action around the Park Hill Apartments in Clifton, and fought to keep control of their turf.
They used the building at 55 Bowen St. as their home base throughout their reign, and in the mid-1990s, waged war on Park Hill Avenue to win control of more buildings, prosecutors said. Kennedy was shot dead on May 26, 1995, in one of the gun battles in that war, according to prosecutors.
In 1999, Anthony Christian and Paul (Uncles) Ford sent their enforcer, Brian Humphreys, to kill rival drug dealer Corey (Shank Bank) Brooker, prosecutors said.
Brooker escaped death, but Humphreys killed Estrella, with Anthony Christian's blessing, so he wouldn't warn Brooker about the murder plot.
Humphreys and Ford both testified for the prosecution.
The brothers also conspired with Anthony Britt -- who also testified for the government -- in a failed 2010 bid to kill William (Buddha) Jones, and chased off and assaulted police officers who tried to make arrests on their turf, prosecutors contended.
A search of their apartment in February 2010 turned up bulletproof vests, crack cocaine and marijuana.
Quinn, who was tied to the overall conspiracy, wasn't specifically linked to the murder plots. He was convicted on racketeering charges, and on drug and gun possession charges.
Anthony Christian faces a mandatory life sentence, while Harvey Christian faces the prospect of 40 years to life in federal prison. Quinn, meanwhile, could be sentenced to 65 years to life.
"For all of their adult lives, the Christian brothers and their associates terrorized the residents of Park Hill, forcing them to live in fear of violence," said United States Attorney Loretta Lynch in a written statement. "Today, their ability to earn money through crime comes to an end, and so does their rule of the streets. This verdict sends the message that that violence and drug-dealing have no place in our communities."
The Christian brothers' defense lawyers had argued that the government's cooperating witnesses, eight in total, lied so they could get assistance from prosecutors that could shave years off their own prison sentences.
"I'm shocked that a jury could believe the testimony of Brian Humphreys and Anthony Britt, both of whom admittedly lied many times," said Jeffrey Chabrowe, who represents Harvey Christian. "I don't understand how the jury could find Mr. Christian guilty based on the testimony of liars like Paul Ford, Anthony Britt and Brian Humphreys."
Chabrowe said he expects to appeal the verdict.
Anthony and Harvey Christian's mother, Janice Pierce, and brother, James Christian, made similar statements outside the courtroom.
"It's totally wrong. I don't understand it. I don't get it. After listening to the evidence, and listening to the eight cooperators that were clearly telling lies, I don't get it. I just don't get it," Ms. Pierce said. "I don't get it, but I know that God knows that they didn't do that.'"
James Christian, meanwhile, said his brothers were a force for good in the community, often breaking up fights before they boiled over.
"I believe it was injustice," James Christian said. "How do they believe these guys? They lied on the stand a thousand times.... They never killed anyone, conspired to kill anyone."
Jivens seems to be enjoying his life sentence at the Supermax Federal Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado. In a personal ad on a German "Friends Behind Bars" website, he brags about going to prison at a young age. He even calls himself a legend in the Southeast.
Jivens goes on to say that he's writing a novel, and says it will be a bestseller just because of his name.
"I've been around long enough not much shocks me, but this shocked me," said Barton, who has been reporting on Jivens and his gang from the beginning in 1990.
"Ricky Jivens was a one-man crime wave," he said. "He was responsible for the deaths of 15 to 20 people. He didn't pull the trigger but he influenced those who did."
He says this personal ad is proof that Jivens hasn't changed and isn't sorry for what he did. "His ego is still intact, but he deserves to be in prison for the rest of his life," Barton told us. "Like I said in my column, he should rot there."
Maj. Everette Ragan agrees. Ragan was one of the Savannah police officers who brought Jivens down.
"There were a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of history, a lot of people were impacted by his actions," said Ragan.
He wasn't surprised to see Jivens looking for attention. On the website, Jivens promises anyone who corresponds with him won't be disappointed.
"Ricky Jivens disgusts me, whether he's on a website or not," said Ragan.
Ragan and Barton both hope women won't waste their time on someone like Jivens.
"I'm all for friendship, but Ricky Jivens' closest friend should be the devil he meets in the afterlife," said Barton.
The Supermax penitentiary where Jivens is serving his life sentence is also home to Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols and Unibomber Ted Kaczynski, and 9/11 terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui is headed there.
Two men have been charged with killing potential witnesses in a drug trafficking operation.
A federal grand jury indicted 25-year-old Antwan Hutchinson and 24-year-old Michael Favors in the deaths of three people who potentially had information on Hutchinson’s drug trafficking activity.
Officers and ATF agents had executed a search warrant on February 10 at 68 Whitehorne Avenue. Authorities recovered several guns and drugs including cocaine, marijuana and oxycodone.
According to court records, Hutchinson, Favors and others severely beat Cody Campbell on February 12 at the same residence to prevent him from cooperating with the investigation. Campbell died shortly after.
Hutchinson and Favors are accused of killing Sidney Campbell and Marie Stamp at the same residence on February 23.
A neighbor, who was able to identify Hutchinson and Favors, told investigators Cody assisted Hutchinson in trafficking drugs and the drugs found inside the home were Hutchinson’s.
In the indictment, both men are charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, two counts of conspiracy to murder a witness, two counts of murder of a witness, two counts of murder through use of a firearm in relation to drug trafficking crime, conspiracy to tamper with a witness and use of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Hutchinson is also charged with an additional count each of conspiracy to tamper with a witness, use of a firearm during a crime of violence and use of a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime.
The indictment includes death-eligible specifications under the Federal Death Penalty Act.
Hutchinson and Favors were arrested on March 27 and remain in custody.
“Heroin dealers like Karon Peoples sell death and despair. Heroin is one of the leading causes of death in Maryland—and many victims are teenagers,” said Maryland U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur. “We will continue to work with our local, state, and federal partners to attack this problem from all sides to reduce overdose deaths. Federal defendants, like Karon Peoples, face stiff federal sentences, and there is no parole in the federal system.”
According to Peoples’ plea agreement, during the fall of 2017, law enforcement began conducting an investigation of Peoples after learning that he was supplying significant quantities of heroin to customers throughout Maryland who traveled to Baltimore City to obtain the heroin. As part of the investigation, law enforcement conducted controlled purchases and undercover purchases of heroin from Peoples.
On December 7, 2017, search warrants were executed at Peoples’ residence, at a stash location on West Lexington Street in Baltimore, and on his vehicle. Law enforcement recovered 900 grams of heroin; $405,156 in cash stored in a blue checkered Louis Vuitton bag; a Rolex watch; a money counter; and digital scales and other drug paraphernalia from the stash location. Law enforcement also recovered 68 grams of heroin from the vehicle.
On December 7, 2017, and on January 9, 2018, when Peoples was arrested as the result of a federal arrest warrant, law enforcement seized a total of 49 cellular phones from Peoples and the search locations. A court-authorized search of the phones revealed hundreds of text messages between Peoples, his co-conspirator, and his customers arranging for the acquisition, purchase, and sale of heroin. The text messages also established that Peoples was part of the conspiracy from no later than May 2015 until his arrest in January 2018.
The Harford County Narcotics Task Force and DEA coordinated with other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies through the assistance of the HIDTA Investigative Support Center to collect information about customers of Peoples who were heroin overdose victims. After running searches for the 49 cellular telephones possessed by Peoples, law enforcement found links between cases involving a total of 27 overdose victims—nine who died as a result of the overdose and 18 who survived. The victims, who resided in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, had contacted Peoples’ drug phones prior to their overdoses in order to arrange for the purchase of heroin.
I-Dean Fulton, also known as Jeff, Lil' Jeff, Red Fox or Fox, is a drug dealer accused of fatally shooting Michael Toll, a customer, when Toll made a move that Fulton interpreted as reaching for a gun. Before he died, Toll told responding officers that "Jeff" reached into the car and shot him several times. Officers recovered two fired cartridge casings (a Winchester casing and a Cor-bon casing) and also examined Toll's cell phone. They found Toll had repeatedly called a number identified as "Jeff" in the contacts list.
Two days later, officers responding to a "man with a gun" call found four men in or near a sedan, including Fulton and Eric Adams. When the officers saw a gun, they arrested all four men, seized a smartphone from Fulton, and took several other phones from the sedan.
A detective later powered on each phone and identified the respective assigned phone numbers. He learned that one of the phones had the same number Toll had called (the number identified as "Jeff" in Toll's contacts list). The detective left the phone on and later answered an incoming call. The caller met with the detective and admitted she regularly bought heroin from "Lil' Jeff" and contacted him at the same number. She identified a photo of Fulton as Lil' Jeff.
The series of events that began with turning on the phones led to other witness interviews. Adams admitted he was with Fulton when Fulton shot Toll. A search warrant for Fulton's residence turned up a box of Cor-bon bullets. Fulton was charged with murder.
Fulton argued that discovery of all the evidence against him began with the detective turning on the phone without a search warrant. The trial court ruled that turning on the phone was a "minimally invasive search." The court also ruled that Fulton lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy for incoming phone calls, including the call answered by the detective. The court further stated that any error in the search was "harmless" and did not warrant evidence suppression. Fulton was convicted of murder.
The state supreme court overturned Fulton's conviction. The court applied the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Riley v. California and United States v. Wurie (134 S.Ct. 2473 (2014)), which held that officers must obtain a search warrant to search cell phones of people they arrest. The Pennsylvania high court identified three separate warrantless searches of Fulton's phone: powering it on, finding the assigned number, and answering incoming calls and monitoring messages.
The court agreed with Fulton that the critical evidence all flowed from searches of his phone. The court held that the very act of turning on the phone and examining the screen was a "search." Applying a strict interpretation of the Supreme Court Riley/Wurie decision, the court held the search required a warrant. Thus, all the evidence tied to the phone in any way should have been suppressed.
Michael Anthony Salters, described by law enforcement officials as a drug dealer and mediator among competing District drug organizations, was shot and killed late Tuesday near First and Bryant streets NW when an unidentified gunman opened fire on Salters's car, D.C. police reported.
Salters's body, still inside his bullet-riddled car, was left outside the entrance to Washington Hospital Center shortly after 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, said 5th District Capt. James Coffey.
Salters was pronounced dead about 1 a.m. yesterday, said Officer Daniel Straub, a D.C. police spokesman. The police department released few details of the incident yesterday. Sources said Salters had been shot at least six times.
Law enforcement sources said Salters was one of the city's largest drug dealers but that his real power was in his ability to referee turf disputes among rival drug dealers.
A law enforcement source said Salters had been implicated in drug deals of more than 200 pounds, but that he had proved too "well insulated" from direct involvement to be charged. Agents at times put Salters under intense surveillance, and interviewed drug dealers who said they had worked with and for him, law enforcement sources said. His name also came up in wiretapped conversations, they said.
Federal drug officials say they have been told by several drug dealers that some dealers ceded to Salters the power to assign drug territories for PCP, heroin, cocaine and other drugs.
In a pretrial hearing in the cocaine distribution case of drug gang leader Rayful Edmond III, Salters was identified as the person who in August 1988 imposed a cease-fire in the bloody warfare between Edmond's organization and a breakaway faction operating in the Trinidad section of Northeast Washington.
Drug Enforcement Administration agent John Cornille testified that Salters met with the two rival groups and told them to stop killing one another because it was bringing increased police pressure and cutting into drug profits in the city. A law enforcement source said that after the meeting the killings stopped.
Salters was not charged in the Edmond case, but federal sources said he pooled money with Edmond and partner Tony Lewis to buy cocaine from the Los Angeles drug broker who was Edmond's pipeline to Colombian dealers.
Salters was also allied with a drug gang headed by Eddie Mathis, now serving a 15-year sentence on gun charges. The gang was involved last year in a bloody battle with a rival gang for control of drug sales in far Southeast Washington.
On Tuesday night a relative of Salters's was driving a van behind Salters's car east on Bryant when he was cut off by another car near First, police said. An occupant of the vehicle that cut off the van then opened fire on Salters, the sources said. An uninjured passenger in Salters's car then drove to the hospital, sources said.
Police listed a Fort Washington address for Salters, who federal authorities believed had several residences in the area. When arrested last year in Montgomery County on a variety of charges, Salters listed his address as in the 5100 block of Seventh Street NW.
In October, Salters was convicted in that case of carrying a handgun and resisting arrest, and sentenced to one year of probation. The charges stemmed from an April 1990 incident in which county police stopped a car in which Salters was a passenger. Police said Salters tried to flee after a police officer frisking him found a bulge in his pocket.
Law enforcement sources said Salters's main drug operations were along Kennedy Street NW, stretching at times from North Capitol Street to Georgia Avenue.
A law enforcement source said last night that Salters's killing may have been related to a fatal shooting hours earlier on Seventh Street between O and P streets NW. The victim's identity has not been released by police.
Tyler and Jacob Huffhines are now charged, accused of operating an "empire of illegal drugs." The two were busted in connection with a ring of illegal THC vaping cartridges worth millions of dollars.
The two brothers appeared in Kenosha County court on Monday one after the other. Prosecutors say the two are accused of taking a major trip side-by-side.
"Jacob Huffhines did go to California with his brother Tyler Huffhines with $300,000 in order to purchase the THC distillate that was found at the condominium," said the prosecutor in court.
The complaint says Tyler Huffhines' Snapchat showed "he posted videos of him sitting in first class on the airplane" on his way to California. A confidential informant was able to provide information that the mason jars indeed made their way back to Wisconsin and they were being used to manufacture "between 4,000 and 5,000 cartridges per day," the complaint says.
A baby girl and her 2-year-old brother were alone for three days with the corpses of their murdered parents inside a Virginia house, according to new evidence released in a 2019 case.
Police bodycam video played in court on Wednesday showed deputies arriving at the gruesome scene of the May 26, 2019, slayings in Spotsylvania County, WRC-TV reported.
Inside, they found the bodies of Rachel Ozuna, her 14-year-old son Kyrrus Ozuna and her boyfriend, Michael Coleman, bound with their throats slashed.
Ozuna, 34, was discovered face-down on the blood-spattered nursery floor, with her and Coleman’s toddler son standing beside her in a diaper, the report said.
Two men connected with an ongoing and violent gang rivalry in Atlanta during the summer of 2007 were convicted of aggravated assault charges stemming from a so-called “ambush attack.”
Marco “White Boy” Moses and Moerise “Mo” Williams were found guilty in Fulton County Superior Court of shooting at three men in the Mechanicsville neighborhood in September 2007.
The retaliatory shooting was part of a heated rivalry between a group known as the Campellton Road crew and the violent 30 Deep Gang and the International Robbing Crew. Authorities say the fighting between the gangs was a leading cause of violence crime in Atlanta, with some referring to it as the "Bloody Summer of 2007," the Fulton County District Attorney's Office said.
Moses, 25, and Williams, 29, were among eight arrested in October 2007, one month after the shooting. The eight men were believed to have been involved in three killings in Atlanta earlier that year.
Moses and Williams were linked to the Campbellton Road Crew, the district attorney’s office said. They were convicted of shooting at three people -- one of whom was hit seven times in the arm. The two others ran off and were not hit, the D.A.’s office said.
The people who were shot at are connected with the 30 Deep gang, the district attorney’s office said.
Moses and Williams were convicted on three counts of aggravated assault and weapons charges. A third man, Prentice McNeil, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
McNeil, who also was one of the eight arrested in October 2007, already is in jail having been convicted of murder, aggravated assault and weapons charges for a shooting death that happened six days before the Mechanicsville incident.
The D.A.’s office said the majority of the members of those gangs have been arrested and prosecuted, and there has been no other signs of violence between them.
A shooting and crash incident on the Las Vegas Strip resulted in the death of three people in 2013. Ammar Asim Faruq Harris, the 29 year old man convicted in relation to this crime was sentenced to death today, as the judge decided to accept the jury’s recommendation.
As Kathleen E. Delaney, the District Court Judge conveyed the sentence; Harris showed no reaction and remained quiet.
The jury, which comprised of four men and eight women, took around two hours to come to a decision regarding the sentence. The jury decided to convict Harris of 11 charges of felony, which included three counts of first-degree murder.
It was three years ago that the tragic incident occurred that resulted in the death of three innocent people. On Feb 21, 2013 a car chase was happening between Harris in his Range Rover and Kenneth Cherry Jr. in his Mazerati near Flamingo Road, on the Las Vegas Boulevard. During the chase, Harris shot the 27 year old Cherry, whose vital organs got severely damaged with the bullet, thus killing him. As this happened, Cherry’s car slammed into a taxi nearby, which caused an explosion that killed Michael Boldon, the taxi driver and Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, the passenger inside the taxi. There was also a passenger in Cherry’s car who suffered from a minor gunshot wound. After the shooting and crash incident, Harris fled from Las Vegas and was later found in Los Angeles, where he was arrested.
Tehran Boldon, the brother of the taxi driver who died was the only family member related to the victims who was present at the formal sentencing today. As the court clerk announced the sentence, Tehran wept. “My faith in human nature is restored,” he said. “I didn’t know what to think throughout the whole trial. My brother deserved to live, and Ammar deserves to die.”
The trial had become too difficult for Cherry’s family to attend, according to Cherry’s cousin Shanna Cherry; therefore none of them appeared for the final sentencing. Shanna’s husband, Trevor Carson said that Cherry possessed a “good heart” and he never hesitated to help out his friends.
Chiko Juan is reportedly dead after a shooting, which took place in Atlanta. Chiko Juan was affiliated with rapper Meek Mill and Love and Hip-Hop star Tommie.
The details surrounding Atlanta shooting that allegedly left Chiko Juan dead are scarce. According to a Fox 5 Atlanta report, one person is dead and two others are injured following a shootout in an apartment.
It is unclear who lived in the apartment where the shooting took place or whether Chiko Juan is the victim in the story as no names were released at the time of this reporting.
On December 24, 1988, Rivera threw a black tie party for his entire organization aboard a chartered yacht. Rivera paid for the tuxedo rentals, dinner, open bar, and entertainment (including a raffle with luxury prizes). The partygoers were seated at tables organized by "spot" location. At trial, the government introduced in evidence a photo album seized from Rivera's apartment that contained pictures of the occasion.
At the party, Rivera gave $50,000 in cash and a Rolex watch to Johnson, a customized BMW automobile to Cook, and solid gold belt buckles with the recipient's name inscribed in diamonds to a number of the spot owners and managers. The government introduced some of the belt buckles into evidence at trial. A buckle for Cruz was not introduced into evidence, and there were no pictures of Cruz receiving a buckle.
The ex-prison guard impregnated by convicted cop killer Ronell Wilson was sentenced to a year and a day in prison by a Brooklyn judge who acknowledged that she is out of touch with reality, but a jail term was necessary because the crime was so serious.
Nancy Gonzalez, 30, could have received up to 16 months for having sex with the notorious prisoner and was seeking a sentence of probation so she could deal with a multitude of mental issues.
"I hardly needed the extensive psychological reports to reach the conclusion ... this is a person with severe emotional dysfunction," Federal Judge Brian Cogan said Wednesday.
"Everyone seems to agree this is a person who doesn't quite see things as other people see them," the judge continued.
"She certainly expressed remorse, but I don't think she understands all the things that are wrong with her," Cogan said.
Gonzalez was sexually abused by family members as a child and was also victimized while serving in the National Guard.
The judge referred to Family Court records in which Gonzalez's father admitted abusing her "like it was almost OK" and family members blamed her later "like it was her fault."
Prosecutors said Gonzalez was manipulated by Wilson, a cunning and violent member of the Bloods gang, while he was being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center awaiting re-sentencing for the 2003 murders of undercover NYPD Detectives Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin in Staten Island.
The U.S. Court of Appeals had thrown out the first death sentence due to prosecutorial error.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Celia Cohen said Gonzalez's sex romps created a security risk at the facility for fellow guards and the inmates in Wilson's unit suffered intimidation from the thug emboldened by his illicit relationship with a jailer.
"To this day, she doesn't regret what happened, she wanted to help Wilson with his predicament," Cohen said.
Gonzalez declined to testify at Wilson's resentencing and was blamed by the killer's family for the second jury's verdict of death by lethal injection.
Wilson's relatives convinced her to bring their baby son, Justus Liam Gonzalez, to visit them and plied her with alcohol.
Gonzalez made a tearful bid for lenience.
"Give me a chance to pick up the broken pieces of my life and mend it for Justus' sake," Gonzalez told the judge.
"I held a position of public trust and I betrayed that trust. This does not define who I am," she said.
The MDC warden sent a letter to the judge, which was not made public, asking him to slam her with the maximum sentence allowed under law.
Gonzalez was allowed to self-surrender at a jail to be determined on April 2. Wilson is on Death Row in Terre Haute, Indiana, but no execution date has been scheduled.
A suspect in 40 murders – who ran a drug gang that preyed on Brooklyn residents like wolves – sheepishly turned himself in after 10 years on the lam, authorities said.
“I’m tired of living that lifestyle,” said the hulking Chaka Raysor as he was led out of Brooklyn federal court yesterday. Asked why he finally gave up running, he replied, “It’s the right thing to do.”
U.S. marshals, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the NYPD have been hunting for Raysor since he bolted from Brooklyn in 1996.
The television crime show “America’s Most Wanted” has also prominently featured Raysor, who the marshals say in a wanted poster is a suspect in 40 murders.
“I never saw ‘America’s Most Wanted.’ My neighbor told me about it,” said Raysor, adding: “I miss my life and I miss my kids.”
He would not disclose how many children he has or their ages.
The bespectacled Raysor, 39 – who has a glass eye – pleaded not guilty to a score of charges, including the 1993 murder of rival drug dealer Madestos Gaston, arson and distributing crack through Bedford-Stuyvesant for 10 years. He was held without bail.
He skipped out when he, his brother and eight other members of the gang were indicted in 1996 on charges of raking in more than $90,000 a week in crack sales and committing a number of murders.
He quietly and unexpectedly arrived at the 79th Precinct station house Sunday night.
“He walked into their precinct and broke down,” said Louis Savarese, a recently retired NYPD homicide detective who worked on the case. “He said, ‘I can’t take it anymore. My face is all over.’ ”
Savarese described Raysor as the gang’s “mad scientist” who cooked the product, while his brother, Umeme, was the enforcer.
Umeme, 35, and another gang member, Ronald Stanley, are serving life sentences for murdering three people mistakenly believed to be witnesses against Stanley and accidentally killing a young boy in 1988 as they tried to gun down a rival.
Investigators had searched high and low for Raysor, who told authorities he had spent time in and out of Brooklyn, traveled to Antigua, and once lived in a mosque.
Ivory 'B Stupid' Harris was arrested more than one dozen times as a juvenile. When Harris was 16 prosecutors charged him with killing 24-year-old Alphonse McGhee in the courtyard of the Magnolia Projects. A grand jury indicted Harris as an adult and charged him with first-degree murder. Two years elapsed as the district attorney considered Harris's mental competency. When a key witness's testimony was ruled inadmissible, the district attorney's office dropped the charges against Harris. Less than one month later, Harris was arrested for a weapons charge.
Police arrested Harris on June 19, 2005; Harris faced charges for shooting 30-year-old thrift store owner Yoshio Watson to death at a birthday party of a child at the 2600 block of Philip Street in Central City on May 12, 2005. On August 22, 2005, one week before Hurricane Katrina struck, the district attorney dropped the charges after a witness refused to cooperate. Harris remained in prison due to an aggravated battery case. After Katrina struck, Harris was placed in a prison in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Two weeks before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Jim Bernazzani, the Federal Bureau of Investigation agent in charge of the New Orleans field office, and the New Orleans police composed a list of 112 people who had proportionally committed the most crime in New Orleans; the police and FBI planned to build cases against them so they would be put in prison. Harris was one of the people on the list. When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Bernazzani retrieved a disc from the remains of the FBI building before being rescued; using the disc Bernazzani sent the list to the FBI headquarters in Washington, DC.
On November 3, 2005, Harris was released from the Shreveport prison.
At 4:20 A.M. on December 17, 2005, a man was shot to death at a Houston freeway intersection after he was involved in a fight in a nearby pool hall. Houston authorities wanted to question Harris about the murder. Sergeant Brian Harris (no relation), a Houston Police Department homicide investigator, described Harris as "the axle at the center of our wheel. He kept coming up.
On December 28 a man named Steven Kennedy was killed; police said that the murder was likely a revenge killing in response to the 2003 murder of a New Orleans rapper named James "Soulja Slim" Tapp; police charged Harris and Jerome Hampton for that crime.
In January 2006 Houston courts charged Harris, then 20 years old, for aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping charges. Harold Hurtt, chief of the Houston Police Department, said that Harris was "an extremely dangerous individual and we believe responsible for several murders." Hurtt believed that Harris traveled between Houston and New Orleans. Police arrested Harris on January 4, 2006 on a criminal trespassing charge in New Orleans and released him with a $2,500 bail At the time Harris was a suspect in three murders in Houston. Houston police launched a manhunt on February 16.
At around 1:30 AM on February 28, 2006 a man named Jermaine "Manny" Wise died of gunshot wounds inside a vehicle during Fat Tuesday February 28, 2006 at the 5300 block of Constance Street in New Orleans. Wise's death was the sole recorded homicide in New Orleans on that day.
On March 19, 2006, members of the New Orleans Police Department and the Kenner Police Department arrested Harris at a Kenner apartment complex using a warrant for Wise's murder. According to the police Harris had three and one-half ounces of heroin, three and one-half ounces of crack cocaine, a .45-cal. semiautomatic handgun, two loaded assault rifles, and $5,800. The U.S. attorney's office said that Harris boasted about being a drug dealer on his MySpace page.[15] A man named Calvert "Soulja" Magee, with Harris, also was arrested. By March 27 a news article stated that Houston police suspected him of being a "common denominator in a wave of bloodshed" that involved eleven murder suspects who are evacuees.
Police also discovered that Harris had traveled between Houston and New Orleans between his release from the Shreveport jail and the arrest in the apartment; he used it as a base for dealing narcotics and keeping weapons Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms special agents discovered during a follow-up investigation that Magee convinced a woman to rent the apartment in her name so that Harris's and Magee's names did not appear on the lease. While in prison for these charges Harris smuggled a mobile phone into his cell so he could communicate with Magee. He placed telephone calls asking for his associates to find the witness that saw him kill Wise; the associates did not find her and law enforcement authorities relocated her after discovering the calls.
Street legend has it that Benjamin ``Killer Ben″ O’Garro once used a little boy to shield himself from a hail of gunfire.
Two years later, in 1990, a youngster was killed when someone came gunning for O’Garro’s alleged drug-dealing partner, younger brother Jerome ``Mister″ O’Garro.
Benjamin O’Garro, 26, was shot to death himself this month, but his legacy in cheapening the lives of innocents around Brooklyn housing projects apparently lives on.
On Wednesday, detectives were investigating the slaying of 4-year-old Shamone Johnson as she rollerskated outside the Prospect Plaza project in Brooklyn’s Brownsville section. Police suspect the little girl was the innocent victim of an effort to avenge Benjamin O’Garro’s slaying.
One of the alleged shooters, Terrance Morgan, 19, was arrested Monday at a hospital emergency room after accidentally shooting himself in the leg.
Morgan was charged with murder. He and O’Garro were members of a loose-knit crew of drug dealers feuding with a rival group, police said.
Police believe Morgan and another man sprayed the Prospect Plaza entrance with gunfire, aiming for members of the rival crew. They allegedly killed Shamone instead and wounded four other children and teen-agers.
The bloodbath harkened back to the height of the crack wars of the late 1980s and early ’90s, when crazed dealers shot at each other _ and often anyone nearby _ with abandon. The semiautomatic gunplay helped drive the city’s murder toll up to a record 2,245 in 1990, nearly double what it is today.
In Brooklyn’s crack-ravaged neighborhoods, the O’Garro brothers were known as ruthless villains.
Benjamin O’Garro gained notoriety in 1988 during a gun battle on a playground. Some witnesses alleged that O’Garro shielded himself with 4-year-old Dazmaine Russ, who was hit in the head and left in a coma.
O’Garro was never implicated in the human shield incident, or _ despite his nickname _ convicted of any murders. He was convicted in 1988 of assaulting a police officer.
While O’Garro was in prison, his 3-year-old half-brother, Ben Shulka Williams, was killed by gunmen who fired 18 shots through the family’s apartment door. Their intended target was Jerome, police said.
Outrage over the boy’s killing, and others like it, fueled public support for a police officer hiring spree and enactment of tougher drug laws.
Ben O’Garro was paroled in March after serving 6 1/2 years. On Aug. 17, he was on a pay phone when unidentified gunmen killed him.
Investigators are working on a theory that he had robbed a member of the rival drug crew of a Rolex watch and a gold chain.
He apparently believed he was owed something when he came out,″ said Deputy Inspector Martin Johnson.He was looking for respect.″
The robbery victim later sent some of his underlings to kill O’Garro, according to the theory. O’Garro’s associates sought vengeance Sunday night. A little girl on rollerskates apparently became part of the legacy of ``Killer Ben.″
Charles Wingate, better known as Max B, was found guilty of manslaughter and robbery charges from a stick up gone wrong on September 22, 2006, in which David Taylor was shot and killed execution-style at a Holiday Inn in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
Max, along with his girlfriend Gina Conway and step-brother Kelvin Leerdam, devised a plan to tie up, gag, and rob Allan “Jay” Plowden, but ended up shooting Taylor point-blank in the head when he returned to room 408 from running an errand. Taylor didn’t possess any of the money. Plowden called the police to report the murder and was discovered by the police attempting to remove $30,000 in cash from the room. He was eventually charged with identity theft and money laundering.
Max was originally sentenced to 75 years behind bars in 2009 but had his sentence reduced in 2019 from 20 years to 12 years and is scheduled to be released sometime this year.
Members of a brutal drug gang dubbed the “Bushwick Crew” tortured, killed and torched the corpses of two armed bandits captured during a botched heroin heist, authorities charged Friday.
The 2013 double-murder typified the cold-blooded operations of the gang accused in a superseding Brooklyn Federal Court indictment with operating a violent multimillion-dollar heroin ring in Brooklyn and Queens.
“Not only are these gang members pushing deadly drugs in our most vulnerable communities, they’re allegedly killing rivals and bystanders in their attempts to maintain power and control,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney Jr. of the New York office.
The new 19-count indictment added five new defendants to the charges already brought against four other alleged gangsters — including the horrific March 5, 2013, executions of Gary Lopez and Ruby Superville after their attempt to rob a “Crew” stash house went wildly wrong.
The dealer inside the location with one kilo of heroin and $150,000 cash managed to grabbed his gun and shoot the two bandits, court papers said.
Five of the defendants were then summoned to the apartment where the wounded pair were held — with the desperate Lopez at one point managing a fruitless call to 911, begging for help. Lopez was finally shot in the head, and Superville fatally stabbed.
Ten members of a Southwest Washington street gang that authorities said has terrorized a housing complex for a decade with homicides, shootings and armed kidnappings have been indicted for their alleged participation in a "violent marijuana distribution conspiracy," U.S. Attorney Wilma A. Lewis said yesterday. The defendants -- all males ages 22 to 35 -- were indicted on 87 counts of racketeering and narcotics-related charges, including allegations that gang members killed two people who were government witnesses against the group. The federal indictment was unsealed yesterday.
The joint federal-local investigation focused on violence spawned by the marijuana sales at the Greenleaf Gardens housing complex in Southwest. The men charged yesterday were members of the K Street Crew, a neighborhood gang that waged feuds with rival drug gangs, such as the L Street Crew, whose federal racketeering trial is scheduled for January.
At a news conference yesterday, standing beside a chart that listed the names of 31 victims of shootings -- including 13 homicides -- attributed to the K Street Crew, Lewis said: "This is a clear example of why marijuana use and dealing cannot -- I repeat, cannot -- simply be viewed as a harmless activity or a victimless crime."
Prosecutors said the K Street Crew carried out at least 13 killings from 1989 to 1996, as well as numerous shootings, robberies and other crimes. The victims were not limited to rival gang members or people who did not pay drug debts, according to the 77-page indictment.
Crew members staked out the area surrounding the 200 block of K Street SW as their territory, authorities said. To protect themselves and their business, they carried semiautomatic weapons and often wore bulletproof vests, investigators said.
Both the L Street and the K Street crews built a thriving business selling marijuana and other drugs at Greenleaf Gardens and did not hesitate to open fire on rivals, witnesses to crimes and people who failed to pay their drug debts, prosecutors said. The marijuana trade at Greenleaf Gardens grew in the early 1990s, drawing customers from the suburbs and leading to violence more often associated with crack-cocaine sales.
At the news conference, D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey expressed concern that another drug organization will take over the area. "Organizations like this gain strong footholds in communities," Ramsey said. "It's easier to prevent another one from forming."
Indeed, drug trafficking in the area continued to thrive after the 1992 arrest of Wayne Anthony Perry, who pleaded guilty to carrying out five killings and is serving a life prison sentence with no chance of parole.
After Perry's imprisonment, the task force began a comprehensive investigation and identified the L Street and K Street crews as the primary drug dealers operating in the neighborhood, Lewis said.
Besides breaking up the K Street operation, the task force seized 18 firearms, multi-kilograms of marijuana and more than $70,000 in cash, said Bob Riley, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI field office in Washington. The 10 men charged in the indictment are in custody, Lewis said. Many already were jailed, either awaiting trial or serving time on previous convictions.
The alleged K Street ringleader, Vincent Hill, 35, beat competitors with bats or sticks when he wasn't armed with a gun, prosecutors said. The indictment accuses Hill of killing a founding member of the L Street Crew in 1989. His brother, William Hill, 34, also was indicted.
One of the slain witnesses was identified as Phillip Clayborne, 21, who was hit by a volley of gunfire in September 1994 as he left a restaurant in the 1200 block of South Capitol Street SW. The other was Chrishauna Gladden, 20, who was shot in November 1996 as she left a party in Southeast Washington.
The indictment also links crew members to a triple slaying that took place in November 1996 in Prince George's County. Authorities said Melody Anderson, 22, Alonzo Gaskins, 27, and Darnell Lenard Mack, 38, were shot to death during an attempted robbery in a town house in Hillcrest Heights.
Charges also were filed against Samuel Carson, 28; Sean Coates, 26; Paul Franklin, 28; Jerome Martin, 27; Donald Nichols, 29; Maurice Proctor, 25, who was convicted of first-degree murder last year in the killing of Clayborne; William Kyle Sweeney, 22; and Reginald Darnell Switzer, 29. The charges are a culmination of an investigation led by the Safe Streets task force, made up of investigators from the D.C. police department, the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office.
Once part owner of the Blackrock music label, Zip was proud to have songstress Aaliyah on his roster before she tragically died in an airplane accident in 2001.
As he was well-liked by many, scores passed through the doors of Benta’s Funeral Home to pay their last respects, including Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, Lil’ Kim and Big Joe. People flew in from as far away as California and represented the Midwest and Chicago as well. Anyone who passed by Benta’s on the day of his wake knew that someone “big” had passed away.
Following the wake, a horse-drawn carriage took him through Harlem, down Seventh Avenue to pass his old club, Zip Code, and then to the final stop at 118th Street, where it all began and had ended. The funeral was held at the mosque on 96th Street and Third Avenue, where Mike Tyson came to pay his last respects. The repast was held at the Hudson Grill, where the champagne flowed.
A self-described ″monster,″ a thrill killer at 15 whose reputation is that of New York’s most dangerous inmate, is defending himself at his attempted murder trial and trying to put the system on trial.
Willie Bosket Jr., charged with stabbing a prison guard, is shackled hand and foot in court but when he sits down at the defense table, he flashes a smile at reporters and surveys the scene before turning his attention to the neatly prepared files on his desk.
He’s not proclaiming innocence - he admitted in opening arguments that he stabbed the guard.
Articulate and intelligent at the trial, Bosket said he hopes his appearance will focus attention on problems he perceives within the state’s legal system. He says he stabbed the guard to retaliate against injustices committed against him in prison, but the prosecutor calls him a master manipulator.
″Each and every day I stand in this courtroom, I laugh at this system because there ain’t a damn thing that it can do to me except to deal with the monster that it has created,″ Bosket said in his opening statement.
Courtrooms are nothing new for Bosket, 26, who has been shuffled in and out of the legal system since he was 9 years old.
″I’m a monster that’s come back to haunt this system and I will dog this system until it is in its grave,″ Bosket promised in 1987.
At the time the guard was stabbed at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility on April 16, 1988, Bosket was serving 25 years to life for assault, arson and being a persistent felon. He also had three years remaining to serve on a previous conviction.
In 1978, at age 15, Bosket prompted legislators to change the way the state treats violent juveniles when he murdered two men and injured another in an eight-day crime spree.
He told authorities he did it ″for the experience.″ New York City Mayor Edward Koch called him a ″willful, mad-dog killer.″
Bosket was tried as a juvenile and sentenced to only five years. But later that year, bowing to public pressure, then-Gov. Hugh Carey and the Legislature enacted tougher juvenile laws that allow teen-agers under 16 to be tried as adults for violent crimes.
Bosket grew up in Harlem, the product of a broken home. He never knew his father, Willie Bosket Sr., who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Kansas while a federal prison inmate and eventually died in an escape attempt.
He once boasted to a detective that he had a record of robbery arrests that began when he was 9. By age 10, he had been convicted of attacking a younger child with a knife and sent to a detention center. At age 12, Bosket was diagnosed by a psychiatrist as an ″emotional zombie.″
After the guard was stabbed, a special ″box″ cell was built for Bosket at the Woodbourne Correctional Facility in Sullivan County. His meals are slipped in through a slot cut into iron bars. Television cameras monitor his every move, 24 hours a day.
When Bosket leaves his cell for any reason, he must first stick his feet through a slot to be manacled and then his hands to be cuffed. Three guards watch him when he gets his daily hour of exercise, alone in a small, fenced-in area. The prisoner’s hands and feet remain manacled.
Ulster County Judge Francis J. Vogt ruled that Bosket also must remain in shackles during this trial, his hands and legs manacled and linked to a chain around his waist.
In spite of those restraints, Bosket has conducted his cross-examinations with intelligent, articulate questions. Referring to himself in the third- person, he has strayed from a professional demeanor only occasionally, smiling or chuckling to himself when something did not go his way.
″He clearly has established intelligence and also knowledge of the courtroom,″ Chief Assistant District Attorney Donald Williams said during a break in the trial Thursday.
″I’m not surprised. He’s one of the most manipulative people I’ve ever come across,″ Williams added. ″Appearances can be deceiving.″
When it’s all over, Bosket knows he will return to his cell, where even the guards are forbidden to talk to him.
If convicted, Bosket could be sentenced to another prison term of up to 25 years to life, which would have to be served consecutively to his present sentence.
A famous New Jersey YouTuber was arrested by the FBI and charged in one of the largest illegal TV pirating rings ever.
Known to his over 800,000 Youtube followers as Omi in a Hellcat for his high-end luxury vehicles collection, Bill Omar Carrasquillo, 34, is charged with conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, tax evasion and fraud for his illegal online streaming service websites.
Partners Jesse Gonzales, 42, of Pico Rivera, California, and Michael Barone, 36, of Richmond Hill, New York, have also been charged.
According to the 69-page, 62-count indictment, the partners ran an illegal streaming service from 2016 to 2019 — at various times called Reboot, Gears TV, Reloaded and Gears Reloaded — that offered subscribers all-inclusive access to content from the likes of Comcast, Verizon FiOS, DirectTV, HBO and others for as low as $15 a month.
Prosecutors allege they collected over $30 million in subscription fees, which they tried to hide by distributing to various apps and bank accounts.
Carasquillo, who livestreamed his arrest Tuesday, claims that he paid subscription fees for all of the subscriptions and content services that he later broadcast out to his thousands of subscribers.
In November 2019, Carrasquillo’s home was raided by federal agents, who seized $35 million in assets and 57 luxury cars, including Lamborghinis, Bentleys and Rolls-Royces.
“They came back for things they alleged I did. The copyright infringement. I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong, obviously,” he told FOX 29 outside his home in Swedesboro, New Jersey, on Wednesday, just a day after his arrest. “We’re going to have our day in court now.”
He said he doesn’t believe he’s “completely innocent,” saying, “Ignorance is not an excuse for the law.”
“I found a loophole, I ran through it and I did great. There are other colleagues in the same business I was in and they never got in trouble with the FBI,” he told FOX 29.
Bradley S. Benavides, acting head of the FBI’s Philadelphia office, told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “You can’t just go and monetize someone else’s copyrighted content with impunity.”
“Theft is theft, and if you’re going to willfully steal another party’s intellectual property, the FBI stands ready to step in and shut you down,” he said.
Donte Mills, Carrasquillo’s lawyer, told the Inquirer on Wednesday that at the time, there was no law explicitly prohibiting how it operated.
“There were no regulations when he did it,” Mills told the paper. “We will prove the charges he received do not apply to his conduct.”
Carrasquillo said the arrest was a “relief.”
“I didn’t know what was going on for two years. No answers, no nothing,” he said.
“So finally, you know, I get to not be depressed, not be stressed out anymore. Now I’ll get my day in court.”
Carrasquillo seems to be prepared to go to prison, according to his videos on YouTube in which he openly discusses his legal troubles.
“You gotta be humble in victory and humble in defeat,” he said in one video after the 2019 FBI raid. “I’m gonna do a couple of years off of this. I’m going to go to jail for a couple of years.”
Then he and Baz walked up Newkirk Street and I pulled off. I drove up Dover Street to Jefferson and then down 28th Street and pulled over at Thompson, across the street from the firehouse. I shut the engine off and waited. I was probably there for a minute or two when I heard the gunshots coming from around the corner . . . . I seen Baz come running around the corner. He jumps in the van and starts yelling, we out, we out, we out, pull off. I pulled off and drove down 28th Street.
A federal jury today convicted Davante Harrison, a/k/a “YGG Tay,” age 26, of Baltimore for federal charges of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and crack cocaine; possession with intent to distribute heroin, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. The guilty verdict was returned at the end of a five-day federal trial.
The conviction was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Jonathan F. Lenzner; Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinski of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Commissioner Michael Harrison of the Baltimore Police Department; and Chief Amal Awad of the Anne Arundel County Police Department.
According to the evidence presented at his five-day trial, in October and November 2019, Harrison was part of a drug conspiracy that distributed fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and crack cocaine in Baltimore and Baltimore County. Law enforcement officers investigating the conspiracy surveilled Harrison, who is believed to be the leader of the group “Young Go Getters,” and observed him traveling from Baltimore to locations in Rosedale and Golden Ring Park in Baltimore County, where he made short stops to conduct narcotics transactions. Afterward, Harrison traveled to a casino in Delaware with the drug proceeds.
“With this conviction, our federal, state and local law enforcement team here in Maryland held accountable an armed narcotics dealer,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Jonathan Lenzner. “There is no question that in general the drug trade fuels overdoses and gun violence, and as we saw in this trial, drug dealers often possess deadly narcotics and firearms. We would like to thank the FBI and the Baltimore and Anne Arundel County police departments for their partnership and terrific investigative work on this case. At the end of the day, we are focused on making the community safer for Maryland residents, and this conviction is another step in that direction.”
According to testimony and court documents, on November 25, 2019, FBI investigators executed search warrants at locations associated with the conspiracy, including a search of Harrison. From Harrison, investigators recovered $9,277 in cash and a .40 caliber handgun loaded with an extended magazine containing 17 rounds, including one in the chamber. The $9,277 were proceeds of Harrison’s drug trafficking activity. At a stash location associated with the conspiracy, law enforcement recovered a 9mm pistol, loaded with 16 rounds, including one in the chamber; a .25 caliber pistol loaded with five rounds; a container with 386 grams of a mixture of fentanyl and heroin; several clear plastic bags containing a total of 40 grams of cocaine; a clear plastic bag containing 50 grams of a mixture of heroin and fentanyl; a clear plastic bag containing 27 grams of crack cocaine; a plastic bag containing 71 grams of a fentanyl mixture; and drug paraphernalia.
As a result of a previous felony conviction, Harrison knew that he was prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition.
Harrison faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in federal prison for the drug conspiracy; a maximum of 20 in federal prison for possession with intent to distribute heroin; a maximum of 10 years in federal prison for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person; and a mandatory minimum of 5 years in prison, consecutive to any other sentence, and a maximum of life in federal prison for possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. U.S. District Judge Paul W. Grimm will schedule the sentencing at a later date.
Co-defendant Christopher Jerry, age 30, of Baltimore, previously pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy and is awaiting sentencing.
Far too often hip hop artists claim to be connected to the streets after they find fame but few maintain those ties. Atlanta rapper 2 Chainz is certainly not one of those artists as he’s been known for consistently paying homage to his roots. When local legend, known to most as ‘Puerto Rican Johnny’ passed away last year in a car crash, 2 Chainz instantly posted a dedication to his over one million fans on Instagram and days later even got a tattoo to commemorate his fallen friend. Johnny was not only a mainstay in the custom car and street racing scene in Atlanta but all over the South as he and his Kut Da Check Racing team would travel as far as Miami for a worthy race or car show. Much respect to 2 Chainz for putting out this video, it’s appreciated!
Already facing racketeering and attempted murder charges in state court, Orlando rapper Jacquavius ‘9lokkNine’ Smith pleaded guilty to identity theft and weapons charges on Tuesday, records show.
Smith, 21, fraudulently applied for and received $10,000 in federal Paycheck Protection Program funds meant to help struggling businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, his plea agreement said.
He pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered firearm, aggravated identity theft and felon in possession of a firearm.
According to records, Smith was in possession of a sawed-off semi-automatic rifle which was not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record. The rifle was stolen during a burglary in 2019, the plea agreement said. It was found in the garage of Smith’s grandparents’ home when the Orlando Police Department served a search warrant, the document said. Smith’s thumbprint was on the rifle magazine and his DNA was on the grip area, records said.
Authorities earlier this month announced racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations (RICO) charges and conspiracy to commit racketeering charges against Smith and more than 20 other people in connection with an ongoing gang feud that has resulted in multiple shootings and homicides.
At the heart of the battle is rivalry between Smith, a key figure in the All Friends No Family gang, and fellow rapper Javarri “Hotboii” Walker, of the 438 gang, officials have said. Walker also is facing racketeering charges and was arrested Monday, jail records show.
It was 2021 when Mobile rapper Honeykomb Brazy is off to prison to serve the rest of his 15 year sentence handed down in 2016 for possessing a firearm.
Brazy, whose real name is Nahshon Jones, was ordered to go back after prosecutors showed videos of him around numerous guns and drugs, which violated his probation, according to WALA.
Brazy previously served 18 months of his 15 year sentence, but was released on probation in November of 2020.
“I wish the judge had denied the State’s motion to revoke Nashon’s probation,” Jeff Deen, Brazy’s defense attorney told the outlet. “His creativity influences and inspires others in his social circle. However, I can understand the judge’s opinion.”
Last month, Brazy’s mother revealed that she feared for her life after a shooting at her home. She wasn’t home at the time of the shooting, but said it wasn’t the first time her home had been shot at since the death of her parents in February.
Lelia and Tony Lewis died on Feb. 17 after a house fire erupted on Dr. Thomas Avenue North in north Mobile. Their deaths are still be investigated as homicides.
In mourning the deaths of his grandparents on social media, Brazy, posted that he begged them to move out of their home so they wouldn’t be “caught up in my s---.”
Adrian “AD” Lemons, 41, of Saint Louis, MO, and Virgil “V.G.” Sims, 34, of Kennett, MO, each pleaded guilty to one count of cocaine conspiracy. Each man entered his guilty plea before United States District Court Judge Henry E. Autrey on May 3 and May 1, 2019, respectively. Sentencing for Sims is set for July 30, 2019. Lemons’ sentencing date is July 31, 2019.
According to court documents, between 2012 and 2016, Lemons worked with representatives of the Mexican cartel to receive and distribute vast kilogram quantities of cocaine within the City of Saint Louis. Lemons also supplied large quantities of cocaine to large-scale, mid-level, and street-level drug dealers who also sold cocaine and cocaine base (crack) within the Saint Louis area and beyond. Virgil Sims was one such dealer who distributed cocaine supplied to him directly by Lemons in Saint Louis as well as the southeast Missouri region. Sims also undertook efforts to maintain Lemons’ drug trafficking organization once Lemons was federally indicted in January 2016.
As to the larger drug conspiracy, the Mexican cartel coordinated routine bulk shipments of cocaine from Reynosa, Mexico, through the Rio Grande Valley, and then to the Saint Louis, Missouri area. The cocaine shipments were transported via truck and, in turn, bulk quantities of United States currency were shipped back through the southern United States to Mexico as payment for the cocaine. During the course of the overall investigation, agents seized firearms; drug trafficking tools; drug ledgers; over 64 kilograms of cocaine; and over $1.3 million directly attributable to Lemons and his associates, including Sims. Lemons also owned and utilized multiple properties located throughout the City of Saint Louis in furtherance of the drug trafficking conspiracy, including, but not limited to, properties at 11553 Poeggemoeller Avenue; 824 and 1600 McLaran; 6327 Theodosia Avenue; 7230 North Broadway; 8573 Broadway; 877 Wall; and 7118 Idlewild. Lemons specifically admitted that he was the manager of this extensive criminal enterprise.
Under the drug conspiracy charge, Sims faces a term of imprisonment of not less than five years and not more than forty (40) years in prison. Under the same charge, Lemons faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years and up to life imprisonment. In determining the actual sentences, a judge is required to consider the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide recommended sentencing ranges. At sentencing the United States and Sims will recommend a five-year term of imprisonment. As to Lemons, the parties will be recommending 20 years in prison.
Lemons and Sims are two of 34 defendants named in federal indictments consisting of charges related to drug trafficking and drug trafficking related violence, including multiple homicides. In November 2018, the United States Attorney General directed the United States Attorney’s Office to seek the death penalty against one of those defendants, Anthony “TT” Jordan. Jordan has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. He is presumed innocent until the United States proves him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Big Money Addicts did more than just sell heroin in Milwaukee — they created a business model that maximized profits by putting a premium on customer service.
Using stolen cars, the gang offered round-the-clock, curbside drug delivery service across Milwaukee and even into other counties until 2015, deploying tactics detailed in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation.
The violent, destructive path they cut through Milwaukee has been at the center of a sprawling and rare racketeering trial in a Milwaukee County courtroom over the past two weeks. Roughly 50 witnesses have been called in the case of David Harris, who faces 11 counts including racketeering, operating a stolen car and drug dealing.
Closing arguments in the case are expected Monday morning.
The three other members of the BMA already pleaded guilty. The founding members of the group, Kyawn Lewis and Rashawn Smith, testified against Harris this week.
Traditionally used to go after organized crime entities like the mob, racketeering cases require prosecutors to prove that a group is a "criminal enterprise,"
A convicted murderer’s second chance at life was cut short this week by a hitman in Hasidic garb who blasted him in the back of the head in a shocking Queens execution caught on surveillance video.
Victim Jermaine Dixon — a former member of the “Patio Crew” in Brooklyn — had been out of federal prison for less than a year when the disguised gunman struck on Monday, killing the reformed gangster.
Surveillance video from S. Conduit Ave. near 132nd St. in South Ozone Park captured what appears to be the planned hit around 8 a.m.
The gunman was a Black man dressed in a Hasidic-style hat and long black robe, police sources said. Video released Thursday by the NYPD shows the shooter near Kennedy Airport, working on a white sedan with the hood up while keeping an eye out for his target.
As Dixon, 47, approached his Ford Edge SUV, the suspect runs over and shoots him in the back of the head, video shows.
A resident in the nearby Skyway Men’s Shelter heard at least three shots and saw people running.
“I just finished breakfast and came out to have a smoke,” he said. “Everybody was running away. . . . I see everybody staring at something across the street.”
The gunman then ran back to his car, dropped the hood and drove off on 132nd St., the video shows.
Witnesses told police that the gunman, who also was wearing white gloves and a white facemask, had pretended to work on the car for several hours before ambushing Dixon, sources said.
The execution cut short Dixon’s efforts at redemption.
The ex-con had once rolled with the “Patio Crew,” a name referring to a Flatbush restaurant where the gang hung out.
Dixon served 19 years for drug charges and the 1992 murder of Alphonso Gooden. Prosecutors said that Dixon was the trigger man. His brother, Emile Dixon, was also convicted for the killing and is serving a life sentence.
Papers in Brooklyn Federal Court show that Jermaine Dixon considered cooperating with the feds, but the deal fell apart after prosecutors learned of his role in the Gooden slaying.
Facing a life sentence that was later reduced to 30 years, Dixon became a model prisoner. He pursued a bachelor’s degree in business and filed for compassionate release.
“It is clear that I am not the young man that your honor sentenced 20 years ago,” Dixon wrote to Judge Raymond Dearie. “I am now asking your honor to again take a chance with me and let me re-enter society to prove to myself, my mother, children, family and also the court that I can and will do the right thing upon release...I blame no one but myself for the road I chose that put me in my current situation. ”
Dearie was persuaded.
“Do I leave Mr. Dixon to the authorities and require him to serve out the sentence he deserves, or do I grant him a somewhat accelerated release in the hope that for himself and his family he will continue on a road to a respectable and productive life?” Dearie wrote. “I choose the latter. I choose to take a chance.”
Dearie noted in his ruling that Dixon lied to investigators when he was first arrested for Gooden’s murder.
“That poor, indeed catastrophic decision was no doubt prompted in the main by his repeated concern for his own brother who faced capital offenses and by his unwillingness to testify against him,” Dearie wrote. “The government was certainly justified in its reaction, but at the same time Mr. Dixon’s efforts to protect his older brother are understandable and similarly reflect a decent side to his character.”
Dixon’s mother and son are traveling from Jamaica to mourn his death, according to three family members who declined to provide their names. They called Dixon “a good guy” but would not comment further.
A helicopter swooped inside a prison yard near here on Monday and a marijuana smuggler with a life sentence leaped aboard, but the breakout was foiled when the chopper hit a fence and crashed.
Instead of a flight to freedom, Ben Kramer--once a world champion powerboat racer--received a fractured ankle. His novice pilot, identified as Charles Clayton Stevens, broke both of his legs.
“They gave it a try, but they sure made a mess of it,” said John Clark, warden at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center, southwest of Miami.
This is what happened during the dreary, overcast morning, prison officials said. Kramer, 34, was out for a walk in the recreation yard. Only about half a dozen other inmates were nearby, playing cards or shooting baskets.
The helicopter appeared from the south, hugging the tree line. It lowered inside the perimeter. It was a tight squeeze. The yard is but 50 feet across.
The small two-seater hovered inches from the ground. Kramer made his run, then grasped one of the skids. But when the aircraft tried to lift away, it suddenly listed to the right.
One of the rotors tangled in the concertina wire that curls above the 14-foot fence. The rotor split, and chunks of blade flew hundreds of feet.
For a time, the helicopter teetered in the mesh, like a fly caught in a spider web. Then it finally fell, face down.
Two inmates got to the crash first. Some witnesses, according to Clark, say these other prisoners were actually trying to join the escape.
“But the main version--and I believe this one--is that they were trying to help,” Clark said. “Obviously, too many people weren’t going to get away in a two-seater.”
In minutes, armed guards circled the area. Fuel leaked from the aircraft. A few prison officials ran toward the wreckage.
Larry Bullard was among them. “Ooh, that pilot was moaning,” he said. “He was yelling about the pain: ‘Oh, my side’ and ‘Oh, my legs.’ ”
The prison has nearly 1,000 inmates. About 100 are classified as low-security and are used as a work force. Most of the rest are awaiting trial or placement in another facility.
Kramer was being kept in a special high-security area. He was soon to stand trial on a marijuana-smuggling charge in Ft. Lauderdale. He was already locked up for life with no chance of parole.
Last October, he and auto racer Randy Lanier were convicted of masterminding a drug ring that distributed more than half a million pounds of marijuana nationwide from 1980 to 1987.
During those same years, the brash, hot-tempered Kramer also was becoming a champion powerboat driver, steering in ocean races at speeds of 120 m.p.h. “He was an aggressive, very competitive guy,” said another racer, Bob Kaiser.
Kramer won the U.S. Open Class Offshore Powerboat Championship in 1986 and the world title in 1984. He also owned a Miami marina and boat works.
“I’m sorry to say he has really put bad light on the sport, just like when those pro football players get caught dealing drugs,” racer John D’Elia said.
Kramer was brought to the correctional center from a federal prison at Ray Brook, N.Y., in December to face another marijuana-smuggling indictment in Ft. Lauderdale and a Miami gun charge on which he already has been convicted.
U.S. Marshal John Horgan said Kramer will also be charged with attempted escape, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and the pilot will face charges of aiding an escape.
Late Monday, U.S. Marshals were still trying to find out how Kramer made a connection with Stevens, the pilot--and if anyone else was involved. Stevens took his lessons at a small private airport outside Miami. He told his instructors he wanted to be a crop-duster.
He “had taken flying lessons just over the past five-six months, and he really wasn’t an experienced enough pilot yet to attempt this kind of thing,” said Darrell Williams, of the marshal’s office.
Stevens is believed to be from Oregon, Williams said. In fact, the Bell 47D-1 helicopter, built in 1952, was reported sold in January to C. Stevens of Oregon, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Using a helicopter as an escape vehicle has now been tried with varying success more than a dozen times.
One effort, involving a love story, was made into a recent TV movie, “Outside Woman.” Another incident, in Mexico, inspired the 1975 movie “Breakout.”
Most prisons have contingency plans to deal with helicopter escapes.
“I won’t tell you everything, but if we have a clear shot at an inmate boarding, we’ll take the shot,” Clark said.
“But there are all sorts of other problems where discretion is advised. What can you do if the helicopter pilot is a civilian hostage who has been hijacked? It gets tricky.
“Fortunately, in this case, it all sort of worked itself out on its own.”
The New York City police have enlisted the help of officers in several other cities to track down a gunman whose nickname is Babyface and who they say is responsible for five killings in Brooklyn.
The suspect, Richard 'Babyface' Jameswhite, is 19 years old. But, the police say, at a height of 5 feet and with a slight build, he looks 13. They say that in addition to the five deaths in Brooklyn, he is responsible for the wounding of five other people.
For two years, Mr. Jameswhite has eluded officers. The Chief of New York City Detectives, Joseph R. Borrelli, said yesterday that people who know the gunman have told the police that he believes he is untouchable.
"He has told a number of reliable sources that he paid a witch doctor on the island of Jamaica to make him invisible to his enemies and the police," Chief Borrelli said. "As a result, he has no fear of either."
At a news conference yesterday, Chief Borrelli outlined a motive -- telling a bizarre tale of revenge for a brother's death that the police believe prompted Mr. Jameswhite's subsequent acts.
"He is extremely dangerous," the Chief said, "and is known to shoot, given the slightest provocation."
Mr. Jameswhite first came to police attention two years ago, when he was arrested in a Feb. 19, 1991 shooting that was believed to have been in revenge for the death of his brother, Glester, who was killed on an East Flatbush street a month before.
The police say that Mr. Jameswhite shot and tried to kill Kevin Smith, 19, who he believed was involved in his brother's killing. After Mr. Jameswhite's arrest, he jumped bail and has since eluded pursuers.
Member of Brooklyn Gang
He became a member of the Parkside Gang, which Chief Borrelli said congregated at the south end of Prospect Park and specialized in stealing from drug dealers.
The police believe that Mr. Jameswhite was one of five people who held up an armored car in Flatbush in April, getting away with $101,000. The robbery ended in the death of a Transit Authority worker, Robert Singleton, who was killed by a stray bullet during a gun battle between guards and robbers.
On Sept. 3, he and other gang members went to an apartment intending to rob some drug dealers, officers said. Instead, they found two teen-age girls whom they raped, according to the police. When Mr. Jameswhite spotted detectives who were with a rape victim looking for him, he opened fire and then escaped in a car.
In addition, investigators believe, he killed Javier Avila, 22, on March 29, 1992; Omark Dee, 27, on Aug. 24, 1992, Fitzroy Reid, 21, on Jan. 6, 1993, and two men, Ryan Cambridge, 18, and Dodson Sparman, 21, on May 1. Chief Borrelli said that some of the killings were rooted in revenge and disputes within the gang and that others arose from drug disputes.
In the double slaying, which occurred at St. Paul's Court and Ocean Avenue in Flatbush, Mr. Jameswhite is said to have sat on the handlebars of a bicycle being pedaled by a friend and opened fire, with a gun in each hand, killing the two men and wounding two others. Investigators are also trying to link him with with another killing.
The New York City police have sent information packets on the gang to law-enforcement officials in Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Rochester, Toronto and Washington, cities where he has been known to go to lie low.
News of Chaz "Slim" Williams' passing has begun making the rounds on social media, in spite of his family's reluctance to confirm it as such. The esteemed founder of Black Hand Entertainment was a notorious figure in the New York streets, who managed 50 Cent in the early stage of his career. Much of Williams' reputation was founded on the type of insider trading that doesn't leave much a paper trail at all. Oldish heads are likely to recall the infamous line in which 50 Cent laments losing "Slim" to an act of betrayal, in the memorable 2nd verse of "Many Men" off his classic debut Get Rich Or Die Tryin.
Rappers and roommates Fredo Bang and Lit Yoshi were arrested in Miami, Florida, this week on a fugitive warrant for incidents in Louisiana.
Arrest records obtained by PEOPLE reveal Lit Yoshi (whose real name is Mieyoshi Edwards) was arrested on Wednesday, July 21, and Fredo Bang (whose real name is Frederick Givens) was arrested on Thursday, July 22 — both on fugitive charges from Louisiana.
Edwards' attorney Ron Haley said that his client's warrant was for an attempted murder case in St. Tammany Parish, which had been "pending investigation" and came up during a bond hearing in Baton Rouge earlier this week.
"There was not a warrant for his arrest at that time. This is not new criminal behavior for him," says Haley of Edwards. "He has an ankle monitor. There's no confusion of where he is at. I've been in communication with the prosecutors. I've been in communication with the police, throughout this whole process."
He and Edwards — who are a part of the Top Boy Gorilla (TBG) rap group — were arrested at their shared home in Miami, the outlet reported.
Edwards was already wanted on attempted murder charges in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, the Miami Herald and TMZ reported.
According to WBRZ, Edwards posted bail after he was arrested on seven counts of attempted murder in July 2020. The outlet reported a part of his bond agreement was that he could not post on social media, but he recently posted a music video.
Edwards was allegedily also linked to a shooting in Slidell, Louisiana in April 2020, per The Advocate.
On February 13, Florida hip-hop artist YNW Melly was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Police said he and another rapper, YNW Bortlen, killed two of their friends and staged the crime scene to look like a drive-by shooting. The gravely serious criminal case came as Melly (real name: Jamell Demons) was in the midst of an upward career trajectory. Last month, the 19-year-old from the small South Florida community of Gifford released We All Shine, an album-length project featuring Kanye West, and his biggest hit, the chilling 2017 single “Murder on My Mind,” recently went gold. (It seems well on its way to platinum, in light of Melly’s current legal situation.)
Here’s a brief rundown of how Melly went from sharing freestyles on SoundCloud to working with Kanye and Young Thug to being held in jail without bond, charged with the murders of his friends.
In the world of undercover informants, Kenyel Brown was no altar boy.
He was a career felon who did drugs, sold drugs, assaulted people and committed gun crimes – a seasoned informant with street cred.
The feds used him. So did Detroit police. But somewhere along the way, authorities say, Brown snapped, and presumably no one saw it coming.
Brown, 38, died Friday after carrying out what police have described as a bloody crime spree that killed six people over six weeks. It ended with him shooting himself in the head in a suburban backyard while running from police.
Brown's case has triggered controversy and finger-pointing because he allegedly carried out these crimes weeks after a federal judge chose to release him – despite his multiple probation violations – rather than lock him up.
Brown was released on Oct. 29, 2020.
That same day, he was hired as an informant by the Detroit Police Department, though Chief James Craig has said that he never knew of Brown's multiple probation violations, which are publicly available and easy to find on the federal court's so-called Pacer system.
Prosecutors said that charges would be “forthcoming” related to the deadly arson case. Tanya Bui, 23, is accused of being involved in the planning before and/or after the homicide last summer. She remained in custody after her court appearance on charges of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, as well as possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense.
Investigators say Tanya Bui posted multiple photos of guns and large amounts of marijuana on social media before her arrest last week..
The Green Valley Ranch house fire on Aug. 5, 2020, killed Djibril Diol, his wife Adja, and their 2-year-old daughter. Hassan Diol and her infant daughter Hawa Baye were also killed in the fire. The family members were immigrants from Senegal.
The fire investigation remained a mystery until last week, when police announced the arrest of three suspects believed to be involved in the arson case.
Orlando Anderson--once named by police as a suspect in the Las Vegas slaying of rap star Tupac Shakur--was killed Friday in a gang shootout in Compton that also claimed the life of another man, sources close to the case said.
Police withheld formal identification of the victims, saying that the next of kin had yet to be notified. Officers said only that two men were dead, a third man was in critical condition and a fourth, who was treated for gunshot wounds, had been booked on suspicion of murder.
Anderson, whose grandmother had died of natural causes earlier in the day, told friends about 2 p.m. that he was “going to the store.” A few minutes later, he left his home in Compton and drove off with friends, the sources said.
About 3:10 p.m., Anderson and another man--both believed to be members of the Southside Crips--drove up to a carwash at Alondra Boulevard and Oleander Avenue where several members of a rival gang had gathered, police said.
“There was an altercation,” Compton Police Lt. Robert Baker said. “Both sides began shooting.”
The brief but intense gun battle scattered bystanders and left four men sprawled on the pavement, all of them gang members, according to police.
The four were taken to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in nearby Willowbrook, where Anderson, 23, and another man were pronounced dead a short time later.
A third man was in critical condition and “just clinging to life,” according to a nurse at the hospital.
The fourth--Michael Reed Dorrough, 24--was treated for lesser wounds before being booked by Compton police on suspicion of murder.
Investigators said the confrontation that preceded the shooting apparently stemmed from a dispute over money. The shootout occurred next to Compton High School, but police said that although classes were in session, no students or staff members were involved.
Although Las Vegas police say there was never any direct evidence linking Anderson to Shakur’s death, Los Angeles police said as recently as last September that they still considered Anderson a suspect in the unsolved murder.
Last September, Shakur’s mother filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Anderson, saying he was the one who gunned down the rap star on the Las Vegas Strip in September 1996.
According to the lawsuit, the rapper’s shooting followed a fight in a hotel lobby between Shakur’s entourage and Anderson. An affidavit filed with the lawsuit contends that Anderson was seen carrying a Glock .40-caliber handgun--the same type of weapon used to kill Shakur--several days after the rapper’s death.
Times staff writer Nieson Himmel contributed to this report.
Anderson says becoming a cocaine kingpin was never his plan. His dream was to play in the NFL and he was on his way to reaching that goal as a college football player in Tennessee.
"But I left," said Anderson.
Anderson says he got a phone call from his girlfriend asking him to come home because she was pregnant. He was on the next bus back to Macon.
"I should have went to my coach and he would have gotten me a job -- a night job. I had a lot of pro scouts looking at me. I could have played in the NFL," he said.
When he got back to Tindall Heights, Anderson knew he needed to make money somehow to support a child as well as his aging mother. He saw others making handfuls of cash from selling drugs and thought it could be his answer.
In a decade long criminal run, the Cutt Boyz used violence to control the drug trade within the B.W. Cooper Housing Complex in New Orleans. Washington became the main supplier of Heroin, while Benjamin grew his murderous reputation as a main enforcer and was eventually responsible for three murders. Following a unique investigation approach, federal authorities indicted 11 Cutt Boyz under the RICO statutes for narcotics distribution and murder. But federal authorities weren't prepared for Hurricane Katrina's catastrophic destruction in 2005, which damaged evidence and displaced witnesses. Ultimately, they were able to piece together the case and successfully convicted all 11 Cutt Boyz. Washington received a 20-year sentence, while Benjamin will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
An Indianapolis man is accused of stealing over $1 million in prescription drugs from a CVS distribution warehouse.
That suspect, Jesse Holloway, is now facing federal charges.
Employees at the CVS warehouse near I-70 and 465 normally work to distribute prescription medicine to CVS pharmacies across several states, but according to the criminal complaint, Holloway used his access card to smuggle more than 1,500 bottles of promethazine with codeine out of the facility.
“This is what we call a diversion case, where drugs that are prescribed for legitimate purposes are diverted, in this case the allegation is they were stolen,” said acting United States Attorney John Childress.
Federal prosecutors say the stolen cough syrup is an opioid, making it a controlled substance.
According to the DEA, the street value of each stolen bottle is close to $800 or $50 dollars per ounce for a 16 ounce bottle. The reason for the high value is because the drug would normally require a prescription from a doctor and acquiring the drugs without a prescription are illegal.
“If people can get it, they’re looking to get the same effect as if they were taking an oxy pill,” said DEA assistant special agent in charge Mike Gannon.
“As the investigation continued to mature, Mr. Holloway fled and left his job unannounced,” said Childress.
Investigators claim when they searched the suspects home, they found evidence of the thefts, but Holloway had told his roommate he was going on a trip and was nowhere to be found, until law enforcement caught a lucky break in New Mexico.
“You know we find fugitives. We find people that don’t want to be found,” said United States Marshal Dan McClain.
Dan says a deputy with the United States Marshals Service was in New Mexico working to protect COVID-19 vaccines being delivered, when he spotted Holloway driving on the interstate and made an arrest.
“He started watching oncoming traffic and the guy goes right by him,” said McClain. “What’s the chances of that happening? It worked out well.”
“The long arm of the law extended all the way from Indianapolis to New Mexico, and we held Mr. Holloway accountable for his actions,” said Gannon.
Gannon believes this bust illustrates how federal law enforcement agencies work well together which could save lives and prevent overdoses.
“A hundred percent it saves lives getting this off the street. Thank goodness CVS brought it to our attention, because who knows how long he would have continued to do this.,” said Gannon.
Holloway, who remains in federal custody, is facing charges of theft of interstate shipment and possession of a controlled substance.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced this morning that 18 members of the Bed-Stuy based Hoolies gang have been indicted on numerous charges.
The most high profile case involved was the shooting and killing of 22-month-old Davell Gardner while he was at a park barbecue with family last summer, some of whom were mistaken for rival gang members. Gardner was shot while sitting in his stroller, and became last year’s youngest gun violence victim in the city. The two men charged in this case, Dashawn Austin, who was the gunman, and Akeem Artis, who drove, wounded three additional people that day, and were firing “indiscriminately”. Both men were involved in several additional shootings as well, police say.
Austin was previously brought in as a suspect in the Gardner case, but was later released as police worked to build the case to withstand trial.
Police used a combination of tapped phone calls, security footage, forensic evidence, and social media to apprehend the members in an investigation that has spanned several years. Law enforcement obtained encrypted group instant messages between gang members that played a role in determining who had been involved.
The indictments come on the heels of 19 indictments served this January, of the gang’s main rival, the 900 gang.
“Most of these things happened in front of people, with a lot of innocent folks around. This is the type of gun violence that has made people fearful to leave their homes. Fortunately, as a result of today’s indictment, these men are off the street,” Gonzalez said.
Police and the DA say that the members, all men, indicted today are the most violent trigger pullers, as well as top leadership within the gang, and that community outreach will focus on keeping younger or potential members from following in their footsteps. The Hoolies operate primarily out of the Roosevelt Houses, police say, but span larger areas as well.
Most of the members are facing 25 years to life, with others facing even more time. Of the 18 charged, only one remains not in custody, Rasheen Parnell, whom police urge to come forward.
Police say that curbing gun violence this summer will be a major priority. Last year, shooting cases nearly doubled from 2019, and the numbers have continued their rise into 2021. Other cases involved in the indictment include shootings at the Marcy Houses and outside of a local nightclub. Investigators say that these arrests solve four murders and eight non-fatal shootings.
Other murders involved in the indictment include the killing of Tyree Walker on December 4th, 2018, Janile Whitted, an alleged gang rival, on March 3rd, 2020, and alleged gang rival Tavon Parker on September 1, 2020.
“[Long-term investigations like these] are about holding people accountable for the damage they cause in our community,” Gonzalez said. “We’re going to continue to work to get guns off our streets.”
Dwight D. York (born June 26, 1935), also known as Malachi Z. York, Issa al-Haadi al-Mahdi, et alii, is an American Activist, musician, and writer best known as the founding leader of several Black Muslim groups in New York, most notably the Nuwaubian Nation, a new religious movement that has existed in some form since the 1960s. He is a convicted child molester.
York began founding several Black Muslim groups in the late 1960s. In 1967 he was preaching to the "Ansaaru Allah" (viz. African-Americans) in Brooklyn, New York, during the period of the black power movement. He founded numerous religious movements under various names between the 1960s and 1980s. These were at first based on pseudo-Islamic themes and Judaism (Nubian Islamic Hebrews). Later he developed a theme derived from "Ancient Egypt," mixing ideas taken from black nationalism, cryptozoology, Christianity, UFO religions, New Age, and popular conspiracy theories. He last called his group the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, Nuwaubian Nation, or Nuwabians.
Around 1990, York and the Nuwaubian Nation relocated to rural Putnam County, Georgia, where they built a large complex. They came under scrutiny in the early 1990s, after they built Tama-Re, an Egyptian-themed "city" for about a hundred of his followers in Putnam County. Before York's trial, the community had been joined directly and in the area by hundreds of other followers from out of state, while alienating both Black and White local residents. The community was intensively investigated after numerous reports that York had molested numerous children of his followers. He and his group were originally based in Brooklyn, New York and some of them relocated to Athens, Georgia after his arrest. York was convicted in 2004 of child molestation and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. He is serving a 135-year sentence.
York and his wife, Kathy Johnson, were arrested in May 2002. In 2004, he was convicted on federal charges of transporting minors across state lines for the purposes of child sexual molestation, as well as racketeering and financial reporting violations. York's case was reported as the largest prosecution for child molestation ever directed at a single person in the history of the United States, both in terms of number of victims and number of incidents.
Was his Conviction Justice or Unjust?
Police released surveillance video of Rian Thal and Timothy Gilmore, seconds before they were murdered at the Navona on Saturday. The video shows the two getting off an elevator on the seventh floor of the complex. They both look around as if they hear something and then continue down the hallway. Four seconds later, two men come out of the stairwell door right by the elevator. Another shooter was at the other side of the hallway, said police.
"They're trapped because they have another shooter at the other end of the hallway, so it was very well organized," said Capt. James Clark with the Philadelphia police. "Some words were exchanged and at that point, she was shot and killed," said Clark. Gilmore was shot several times and tried to make his way back to the elevator before he died. The suspects calmly left the building and are still on the run. Here is an edited version of what police say happened:
A second part of the surveillance video shows how the gunmen got into the complex. One follows a tenant in and later lets in two other gunmen. A fourth man, who police say was the lookout, waited downstairs. And police are looking for a fifth man, a friend of Timothy Gilmore's, who was waiting in Thal's apartment. He later walks out and calmly steps over the bodies to escape, "just as the killers had done only minutes earlier," according to The Daily News.
Investigators say Thal and Gilmore were both dealing drugs and suspect that's what led to the murders. They found four kilos of cocaine and $100,000 inside Thal's apartment. Thal was kidnapped and robbed by drug dealers in 2004, police sources told The Daily News. After she was released, Thal refused to identify her captors. That elevated her "from hanger-on to one of the players," a law-enforcement source told the paper.
Police are investigating a possible link between hip-hop star Fabolous and the murder of an upstart rapper near a Queens nightclub, the Daily News has learned.
NYPD detectives aren't sure what role, if any, the Brooklyn rapper might have played in the March killing, but a surveillance video shows Fabolous leaving Club Amazura seconds before a mystery gunman blasted Greg (G-Baby) Brown in the back.
"[Fabolous] is about to get in the car as the shooting goes down," said a police source who watched the video.
Police and G-Baby's relatives say the rappers - both from Bedford-Stuyvesant - had a longstanding beef, though a source said they'd put it behind them.
"My son was going to talk to Fab in a car, and he got shot three times," grieving mother Roxanne Brown said. "I don't know what's going on. I just want to know who killed my son."
Homicide investigators have yet to interview Fabolous, whose real name is John Jackson, and won't until they get more information on his possible connection to the slaying. Police haven't made an arrest in the March 13 shooting, and Fabolous hasn't been named as a suspect.
Fabolous' spokeswoman, Tammy Brook, declined comment. His lawyer, Alberto Ebanks, didn't return calls.
G-Baby, 22, was a protégé of rapper Memphis Bleek, a Brooklyn artist who rose to stardom in the 1990s. Memphis Bleek signed G-Baby to his record label, Get Low Records. G-Baby used his ties to Memphis Bleek to schmooze with the likes of Spike Lee and Jay-Z.
News of the young rapper's murder spread on the Internet after Fabolous wrote about it on Twitter seven hours after the shooting.
"Lost a soldier in the field this morning," he tweeted. "R.I.P. G Baby."
The night of the murder, G-Baby went to Club Amazura in Jamaica, Queens, without his posse, which normally would have included Memphis Bleek. G-Baby was asked to perform onstage while the crowd of 1,900 revelers anxiously awaited Fabolous' arrival.
Fabolous got there around 3a.m., said former NYPD hip-hop crimes investigator Derrick Parker, who was at the concert helping with security. Fabolous left the stage an hour later, Parker said. Soon after he left the club, there was gunfire at Archer Ave. and 143rd St.
G-Baby was shot in the back, and a person cops said was an innocent bystander was wounded in the groin. The second victim, a 20-year-old man, survived.
Parker has worked with detectives from the 103rd Precinct and the NYPD's intelligence unit acting as a bridge between the hip-hop community and police.
"G-Baby and Fabolous had beef before, but they supposedly squashed all of that," Parker said.
Roxanne Brown said she wants to stay away from any rap-world drama and just focus on helping cops find her son's killer.
"I don't want to talk to Fabolous," she said. "I want whoever did this to pay."
At the end of a preliminary hearing that stretched over three weeks, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Vernon Nakahara also ordered 34-year-old Marc Anthony Candler of Castro Valley, the reputed leader of the Acorn gang, to stand trial on a street terrorism clause, possession of assault weapons and being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm.
In addition, Nakahara ordered co-defendant Elijah Thomas, 24, to stand trial for attempted murder with a street terrorism clause for allegedly joining Candler in shooting the alleged victim in the incident, who reputedly was a member of the rival Ghost Town gang.
Authorities asked that the alleged victim's name not be published. According to court records, the alleged victim is 27 years old, uses several different aliases and has been convicted of felony charges of burglary and receiving stolen property as well as a parole violation for beating up his girlfriend.
Nakahara also ordered Candler's girlfriend, April Williams, to stand trial on felony possession of a firearm and misdemeanor counts of having a concealed firearm and a loaded firearm, for allegedly stashing some of Candler's weapons at a home in the 1300 block of C Street in Hayward where she lived with her mother.
Williams, who is free on $75,000 bail, drew a tongue-lashing from Nakahara when she arrived 25 minutes late for today's hearing.
The judge told Williams he didn't want to hear any excuses "unless you had a brain hemorrhage or a heart attack" and said he would revoke her bail if she shows up late again.
Candler and Thomas are being held in the county jail.
Defense attorneys James Giller, who represents Candler, and Frank Lang, who represents Thomas, both told Nakahara today that they think the prosecution's case is weak because the witnesses in the case, including the alleged victim, retracted their statements to police in which they identified Candler and Thomas as the shooters in the incident.
Giller asked, "Who do you believe? Do you just say they were lying to you here in court and committing perjury?"
But prosecutor John Brouhard said a reasonable interpretation is that the witnesses denied that they had identified Candler and Thomas as the shooters because they are fearful.
One witness in the case testified that she received two threatening text messages during the hearing.
Candler was one of 54 suspected members of the Acorn gang who were arrested June 17 in a massive raid conducted by 400 officers from 17 law enforcement agencies. Police said 41 guns were confiscated in the raid.
The raids were the culmination of a three-month effort called "Operation Nutcracker" in reference to the name of the Acorn gang, whose base of operations is the Acorn Housing complex in West Oakland.
In announcing the arrests, Oakland police Lt. Ersie Joyner said the Acorn group is "the most violent gang we've seen in a long time."
Joyner said Candler was born and raised in East Oakland but at the age of 14 moved to the Acorn project and began to "flex his power."
Joyner said Candler was involved in dealing drugs and "got people to follow and idolize him and built a reputation."
A news release issued by California Attorney General Jerry Brown said Candler "has been a prolific drug trafficker in Oakland and Detroit, been shot several times and is suspected to be responsible for homicide and a number of shootings."
Another alleged Acorn gang member who was arrested in the raid was William Lovan, a 27-year-old meter repairman for the city of Oakland who is the nephew of former City Administrator Deborah Edgerly.
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums fired Edgerly on July 1 amid allegations that she attempted to interfere with Oakland police on June 7 when they towed Lovan's car from a spot next to a West Oakland liquor store because he had a gun inside.
A police report on that incident describes a conversation between Lovan and Candler.
Lovan is charged with carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle and carrying an unregistered loaded weapon and is awaiting a preliminary hearing on those charges.
Antonio "Big Rico" Johnson, pausing frequently to wipe away tears, sat facing an Orleans Parish jury Thursday (Jan. 22) while telling them how his son, stepson and two of their friends opened fire on a unsuspecting group of partygoers in Central City on May 29, 2012, killing a five-year-old girl and a 33-year-old woman.
The gunfire, meant for a group of rival gang members, struck and killed little Briana Allen, who was standing on the porch of a home in the 1200 block of Simon Bolivar Avenue, celebrating her 10-year-old cousin's birthday. Stray gunfire fatally wounded Shawanna Pierce, 33, who was struck in the forehead by a bullet blocks away, while driving to return a rental car in the Central Business District.
Johnson, shackled and dressed in black prison garb, sat opposite from his son Demond "Lil D" Sandifer and stepson Sam "Lil" Newman while telling jurors that the two men and their co-defendant Tyron "T-7" Harden were members of a violent 10th and 11th Ward street gang known as the 110ers.
Harden, 21, Newman, 19, and Sandifer, 19, are on trial this month facing charges of second-degree murder in the deaths of Allen and Pierce, along with a litany of other charges including conspiracy to engage in racketeering activity, conspiracy to discharge firearms during crimes of violence, armed robbery, weapons violations and multiple murders.
Another man, Stanton "Nan Nan" Guillory, also is accused in the double-murder, but is being tried separately from his co-defendants.
Prosecutors accused Newman and Sandifer of being members of the 110er gang. The indictment accused Harden of belonging to an associated gang, the Young Mafia Fellaz.
The men were named in a sprawling, 34-page racketeering indictment announced by Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro's office a year after the murders.
The group is said to have been involved in a violent turf war with other gangs, including the Get Money Boyz from the 12th Ward and the Young Melph Mafia from the 3rd Ward, who prosecutors say were the intended targets on the evening Allen and Pierce lost their lives in the gun barrage.
While addressing the jury, Johnson sat trembling and weeping, after being asked to read from a letter he wrote to his sons after taking an eight-year plea deal in exchange for his testimony against his children.
Now that police have arrested Martell DeRouen's accused killer, we are learning more about the victim's relationship with the young woman police say murdered him.
Sasha Skare, 21, was arrested Saturday after investigators say she allegedly shot and killed Martell inside The Towers Apartments along La Cantera Parkway back in late January.
"He released a mixtape called Trunk Bang, and he wanted some girls for a video shoot and he honestly just met her online," said Joia DeRouen, Martell's wife. "When you know, the video shoot was over. He said, hey, you know, she's interested in music. I think I want to help her out."
Martell, who performed under the name Kardone, was related to Beyoncé by her grandmother Agnes DeRouen.
"He never really talked about it, bragged about it, or anything like that," Joia said. "He said, You know, I know that people other than me would try to use that to get some type of fame. You know, kind of like a latch on type person or a coattail rider is what he would say I'm not, I'm going to make my own way. I want people to know me for me."
Joia described Martell as the hard-working type with an ear for music that everyone loved.
She added that although she and Martell were separated, she admired him for his work ethic.
"Regardless of the fact that we were separated, we still were like best friends," Joia said.
So in late January, when Joia could not get ahold of Martell, she said she started to worry.
"I was blowing up his phone, actually texting, calling, trying to even FaceTime," Joia said. "You know, it happened once before where he hadn't responded to me or his family, but we found out that he broke his phone. So that in the back of our mind is what we were thinking,"
Joia also found that Martell's step-mother was struggling to contact him.
"He was supposed to have a show that he was headlining on Saturday but he didn't post anything about it," Joia said. "So, you know, we really got concerned and his step-mom was like, well, I'm going to call a wellness check."
Joia said around 1 o'clock on Tuesday, Jan. 26 she drove to Martell's apartment complex to find out what was going on.
"By the time I got there, the place was just surrounded by police officers, they wouldn't let me go upstairs, they wouldn't tell me about what was going on," Joia said. "They were only giving me little bits and pieces."
According to Skare's arrest affidavit, an officer was sent to Martell's apartment when the welfare check was called.
After arriving, the officer noticed a bullet hole in Martell's front door.
Court documents show the officer tried to get a response but eventually had to ask management at the complex for help getting inside.
The officer entered the apartment and saw Martell lying on the floor with a gunshot wound.
"I had just seen him that Thursday, and he was so happy," Joia said. "You know, he was in music school, which he's always wanted to do. He's self-taught with everything that he does. But he said, you know, to have this certificate means a lot to me."
According to an arrest affidavit, homicide detectives arrived at the complex and found evidence that a fight had taken place inside Martell's apartment.
Officers said there was evidence that suggested a gun was taken from the bedroom or closet and it was clear someone fired a gun outside the apartment and into the front door near the peephole while Martell stood on the other side.
Court documents also show investigators found surveillance video of a woman they believed was Skare walking around the apartment complex shortly after shots were fired. A witness later described Skare as the person who was banging on Martell's door.
Investigators gathered more video of Skare walking the complex hallways near Martell's apartment with a cell phone in one hand and a gun in the other.
Officers did more research and found someone placed a call to 911 on Friday, Jan 22 around 10:45 p.m.
Police said the caller claimed to be Martell's wife but the phone number did not belong to Joia and officers believed the person on the other line had a different voice than Joia.
The caller said she was locked out of her apartment and worried her husband, Martell, could be hurt inside.
According to the affidavit, police later discovered this caller was Skare after she slipped up and gave her last known address on O'Connor Road instead of Martell's address.
"After she did what she did, she got scared, or I don't know what was going through her head. Maybe it was, you know, I'm not taking responsibility for this and when she tried to call the police, she told them that this is his wife," Joia said.
Joia added she was disgusted after hearing Skare had done this.
"So not only do you commit this horrible crime, but then you try to blame it on someone else because you're a coward, and you know you that you were wrong," Joia said.
Skare is facing first-degree felony charges for murder. Her bond has been set at $500,000.
"I'm going to make sure that for the crime with Martell, that he will get justice," Joia said. "No matter if I have to be at every court date. I want people to know what type of person she really is."
The manhunt for hip-hop music executive James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond ended Tuesday afternoon (June 21), the DEA confirmed to MTV News. Henchman, who ran the Czar Entertainment management company overseeing the careers of artists like the Game, was arrested in New York City and charged with heading a cocaine trafficking ring.
Rosemond has been on the lam since warrants were issued for his arrest on May 17. On Tuesday afternoon, the onetime music manager noticed federal agents as he walked out of the W Hotel in Union Square, according to the New York Post. Henchman tried to evade US Marshals and DEA agents by taking off on foot, but was apprehended and arrested on 21st Street and Park Avenue South.
Rosemond was then arraigned in Brooklyn on conspiracy to distribute in excess of five kilograms of cocaine; he is being held without bail, a DEA representative told MTV News.
According to Rosemond's lawyer, Jeffery Lichtman, Henchman and his defense team are ready. "These charges obviously aren't surprising, we've been anticipating them for years now," Lichtman told MTV News on Tuesday. "But they're built on the backs of people that have lied and cheated, have been threatened, have been bribed by the government," he added. "Anything to get Jimmy Rosemond, but all of this is going to be exposed. We've been waiting a long time for our day in court — we finally have it."
Through the DEA, MTV News has obtained a copy of the complaint and affidavit stemming from Rosemond's arrest warrant. In it, there are details of Henchman's alleged drug ring, which is said to have shipped cocaine under accounts belonging to Czar Entertainment from California to New York in "road cases" typically used to transport musical equipment. Vacuum-sealed bags and mustard were also used to conceal the smell from drug-sniffing dogs.
Two "high-ranking members" of Rosemond's alleged organization (referred to in the complaint as "CW-1" and "CW-2") helped the DEA in their investigation. The document does confirm that both men agreed to cooperate with the government after their respective arrests in the "hope of receiving a reduced sentence."
It is also noted in the complaint that while on the run, Henchman avoided the use of cell phones and suggested to one of the members of his organization that he should go into hiding. "N----r stay low, move like you on the run right now 'cause that is what I'm doing n----r, trying to get some ID, some new paperwork, all that sh-- right now," Rosemond said during a telephone conversation recorded by agents.
Dexter Isaac, who is believed to be cooperating with the government in its case against Henchman, told AllHipHop.com that he was paid $2,500 by Rosemond to rob Tupac Shakur at Quad Studios in a November 1994 incident that resulted in the near-fatal shooting of the rapper, two years before his death in 1996. Lichtman told the New York Daily News that Isaac's claim was a "flat-out lie."
"When you got witnesses like that against you, it can make anybody paranoid and believe that they won't be getting a fair trial," Lichtman said about his client. "When the case starts, we'll be ready to go."
Charly Wingate (born May 21, 1978), better known by his stage name Max B (short for Max Biggaveli), is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is best known for his solo Public Domain and Million Dollar Baby series of mixtapes, and introducing the term "wavy" as a slang in popular lexicon.
He made his mixtape debut in 2006, and signed a recording deal with fellow Harlem-based rapper Jim Jones' label/group ByrdGang. Following a streak of financial and ethical grievances, Max B parted ways with Jones in 2008. The two became embroiled in a bitter feud which pitted Jones and his associates on one side, and Max B and his affiliates on the other. Max B is closely associated with producer Dame Grease, and fellow rapper French Montana where the two collaborated on the Coke Wave mixtape series.
In mid 2009, he was sentenced to 75 years in prison on conspiracy charges pertaining to armed robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault and felony murder. While in prison, he secured a deal with Amalgam Digital to publish his debut album Vigilante Season which was released in 2011. On September 16, 2016, it was announced that Max B took a 20-year plea bargain for aggravated manslaughter and was set to be released on July 1, 2029. In July 2019, Max B had his sentence reduced from 20 years to 12 years. He is scheduled to be released sometime in 2021.
After King Pee Wee was killed Wayne “Jack Bobo” Edwards took control of the organization. This was the time when Black Souls merged with the Soul Brothers to create the “Mad Black Soul Brothers” and this is how this organization first took over Fifth City. The Black Soul Brothers name did not last long before they became just the Black Souls or went by just “Mad Black Souls.”
After Horace Willis’ death in 1970, the Souls then spread their influence into the southern part of the West Humboldt Park neighborhood at the same time that the Supreme Gangsters arrived and vicious gang rivalry ensued.
Jack Bobo was a former member of the Supreme Gangsters and kept his beliefs in making money that came from being Supreme Gangster or BGD. At some point he flipped to become a Black Soul and after Pee Wee’s death in 1970 Bobo took over control and as he did he introduced “Gangster Black Soul” concepts in 1976. Bobo set up business with the Supreme Gangsters in 1976 and the Souls became a money making organization especially tapping into the west side heroin trade. Jack Bobo was really close with Larry Hoover before Larry was incarcerated so this allowed business to happen. They would eventually evolve into a complex syndicate that would have one of the most complex drug distribution networks in the city. I’m not sure exactly when the Soul Brothers and Black Souls merged but I think it happened in 1976 when Jack Bobo took over.
8:03 AM PT -- Just hours before he was gunned down, Pop Smoke mugged with a pal in a car -- the friend holding a fortune in bills -- in the driveway of the home where he was shot.
7:32 AM PT -- Law enforcement sources tell us there was a party or gathering at the house prior to the shooting. It's unclear what motive the shooters had in showing up at the house.
7:08 AM PT -- Nicki Minaj just posted a message about his death ... "The Bible tells us that jealousy is as cruel as the grave. Unbelievable. Rest in Peace, Pop."
6:56 AM PT -- The home is owned by 'RHOBH' star Teddi Mellencamp and her husband, Edwin Arroyave, who owns several homes in Los Angeles. It's possible Pop Smoke was renting the property.
Pop Smoke, an up-and-coming rapper, was shot and killed Wednesday morning in what appears to be a home invasion robbery ...
The rapper was at a home in the Hollywood Hills at around 4:30 AM when 2 men wearing hoodies and masks broke into a house ... this according to law enforcement sources. We're told the 2 men fired multiple shots, striking and critically wounding Pop Smoke. The men were seen fleeing on foot.
Ella Blount's sons, Ronald Jr. and Corey, along with four uncles were convicted of running a drug ring that went from Houston to south Louisiana. They were sentenced to life in federal prison in 1999.
"The crime, you have to pay for. I just don't think they should've had life sentences," Ella Blount said.
Pres. Obama cuts short the sentences of 111 federal inmates President Barack Obama has cut short the sentences of 111 federal inmates in another round of commutations for those convicted of nonviolent drug offenses
Corey Blount, who was the youngest in the group, was supposedly the leader of the drug ring.
"If my son had been the leader of a criminal enterprise, he would've had a whole lot of money and property and everything else which he did not have," explained his mother.
His daughter Courtney was eight when he went away.
"It used to make me cry sometimes because I played basketball. I did dance. I was always on honor roll and I never had my dad," she told Eyewitness News.
Their appeals failed. But Tuesday, they were on the list of 111 federal inmates whose sentences President Obama commuted.
Corey's life sentence was dropped down to 30 years. Ronald Jr. will get out on December 28.
"It was very much a surprise," said their mother. "I just couldn't stop thanking God because my daily prayer has been to please let them get out before I die."
"What Obama has done is no different than what the Bushes did, what Reagan did, what other presidents have done," said Eyewitness News legal analyst Joel Androphy.
Androphy says commuting sentences is the president's way of acknowledging that the justice system didn't work for a lot of people. He tells us the requirements to even be considered are lofty and violent offenders are excluded.
"He was trying to give people an opportunity to have a second chance in life. Maybe because they had poor representation. Maybe because the laws and sentences were too strict," Androphy added.
President Obama has now commuted the sentences of 673 prisoners, which is more than the previous 10 presidents combined. More than a third of them were serving life sentences.
FULL VIDEO
MOBB TIES: Sandra 'Queen Of The South' Beltran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6Q5RcheFDk
A Mexican woman convicted of being an accessory after the fact in aiding cocaine traffickers, and known to international media outlets as the "Queen of the Pacific" for her alleged ties to the Sinaloa drug cartel, was deported to Mexico Tuesday morning by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Avila Beltran, 52, a convicted aggravated felon, was among 129 ICE detainees flown from El Paso to Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City, where she was turned over to Mexican authorities on Aug. 20.
In August 2012, Avila Beltran was paroled into the United States to face U.S. federal charges of conspiring to distribute cocaine in Florida. ICE officers in Miami placed a detainer on Avila Beltran while she was in custody at the Miami Federal Detention Center.
On April 23, Avila Beltran pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to the crime of drug trafficking, and on July 25 she was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison, with credit for time served.
Avila Beltran was released from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons July 30 and turned over to ICE custody. At that time, she was processed to be administratively deported to Mexico as an aggravated felon.
"The deportation of this convicted aggravated felon, and thousands of others, is the result of the robust working relationship ICE has with the government of Mexico," said Adrian P. Macias, field office director of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations in El Paso. "The partnership goes hand-in-hand with ICE’s commitment to smart, effective immigration enforcement that targets serious criminal aliens who present the greatest risk to the security of our communities, such as those charged with major drug offenses."
Avila Beltran was repatriated via an Interior Repatriation Initiative (IRI) flight. The IRI is a joint agreement between the governments of the United States and Mexico to provide the humane, safe and orderly repatriation of Mexican nationals.
The goal of the IRI, which began as a pilot program in 2012 and was signed as a permanent initiative April 18, is to return Mexican nationals to the interior of Mexico. Having this framework will reduce recidivism and border violence by returning Mexican nationals to their cities of origin, where there is a higher likelihood that they will reintegrate themselves back into their communities, rather than fall victim to human trafficking or other crimes in Mexican border towns.
Two men have been charged with killing potential witnesses in a drug trafficking operation.
A federal grand jury indicted 25-year-old Antwan Hutchinson and 24-year-old Michael Favors in the deaths of three people who potentially had information on Hutchinson’s drug trafficking activity.
Officers and ATF agents had executed a search warrant on February 10 at 68 Whitehorne Avenue. Authorities recovered several guns and drugs including cocaine, marijuana and oxycodone.
According to court records, Hutchinson, Favors and others severely beat Cody Campbell on February 12 at the same residence to prevent him from cooperating with the investigation. Campbell died shortly after.
Hutchinson and Favors are accused of killing Sidney Campbell and Marie Stamp at the same residence on February 23.
A neighbor, who was able to identify Hutchinson and Favors, told investigators Cody assisted Hutchinson in trafficking drugs and the drugs found inside the home were Hutchinson’s.
In the indictment, both men are charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, two counts of conspiracy to murder a witness, two counts of murder of a witness, two counts of murder through use of a firearm in relation to drug trafficking crime, conspiracy to tamper with a witness and use of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Hutchinson is also charged with an additional count each of conspiracy to tamper with a witness, use of a firearm during a crime of violence and use of a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime.
The indictment includes death-eligible specifications under the Federal Death Penalty Act.
Hutchinson and Favors were arrested on March 27 and remain in custody.
Former Tekashi 6ix9ine manager Kifano “Shotti” Jordan has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after previously pleading guilty to one count of firearm possession during a crime and one count of firearm discharge during a crime, as the Southern District of New York confirms to Pitchfork. The charges stemmed from two separate incidents from April 2018, all of which also involved 6ix9ine.
The first incident, which took place on April 3, saw Jordan, 6ix9ine, and other associates rob a rival gang member and rapper while Jordan was brandishing a pistol. The second incident took place in the afternoon of April 21, during which an individual approached Jordan, Hernandez, and other associates at a restaurant and shouted a derogatory comment at them. Jordan, 6ix9ine, and the others got into their car and drove away. When the individual and one other person followed them, Jordan got out of his vehicle and fired two shots at their car.
Jordan was originally arrested in November 2018 at the same time as 6ix9ine. He was originally charged with six counts, including racketeering conspiracy, violent crimes in aid of racketeering, and firearms use. Following a plea agreement in March 2019, Jordan pleaded guilty to the firearm possession and firearm discharge counts. The month prior to that, 6ix9ine pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, multiple firearms offenses, narcotics trafficking, and other charges.
Yarmel "Melly" Williams was a well-known gang member in the streets of Chicago, but his fame did not come from rapping or sports, it came from the work he put in and the way he carried himself. He was born on the 19th November 1991 on the Southside of Chicago. He has 2 other siblings and he is the oldest of the 3; 1 brother (Woo) and 1 sister (Kenjae). Melly is the son Yamur Williams & Angie B Williams, he is also the stepson of the notorious Black Disciple member Jerome Golden aka Fido who is now locked up for quadruple murder & robbery. But it doesn’t stop there because Melly has a very big and infamous family. His cousins are the 051 KD, TYMB Cortney, TYMB Cortize, TYMB Big Dre, TYMB Face; Lamron Lil Rob, Ace Boogie etc… He also has 2 very well-known uncles: MUBU Curt Mac & No Limit G-Slim; and loads of other well-known people from the South & Eastside.
Yarmel grew up in the "Met" Buildings/Randolph Towers (the Black Disciple HQ/Stronghold on 6217 S Calumet Ave that got tore down). He later moved to 59th & Calumet (600) with his mother and siblings. Melly used to hoop a lot and went to Dusable High School, that’s how he became affiliated with the MC’s that be on 50th/51st from King to Cottage. Soon he would start repping 051 Young Money after the death of Zeko. He never flipped to Mickey Cobra even though most of YM’s opps were BD. He moved to different addresses throughout the South & Eastside of the city. His last known address is 6425 S ELLIS AVE (DRO City Sno Block), where he lived with his grandma Allecia and his father Yamur. He used to stay a lot with his uncle Curt Mac (killed in 2017) and Krump (killed in 2018). Melly is pretty much plugged in throughout the whole city, he has connections with Maul Town GD’s (friends of his father who is GD) where he frequently stayed and gambled (this is also the location where he got arrested the most 67th/68th EAST END AVE, mostly for gambling.) It is also known that some members of NLMB fucked with him because of his uncle No Limit G-Slim (one of the founders of NLMB). He also had ties with the foes on the Eastside, he can be seen in pictures with Bump J and other famous 4CH members.
Before I start off this part of the thread I am going to say that everything on here is speculation and could easily be wrong, but this is what the word in the streets is and what we can find out ourselves throughout social media and other things.
We do not know if Melly is implicated in any murder before 2012 but we can be sure that he was a shooter and active in the THF – YM war.
Chinx’s 2015 murder devastated the family, friends and fans of a Far Rockaway rapper on his way to music superstardom, leaving countless questions unanswered. After an investigation that spanned more than two years, police arrested two suspects yesterday (Dec. 14) and have settled on a motive, claiming the killing stems from a conflict that dates back nearly a decade, an NYPD official tells XXL exclusively.
According to Lt. Richard Rudolph, Commanding Officer of the Queens South Homicide Squad, Quincy Homere, 32, and Jamar Hill, 26, “hunted” and killed the budding rap star due to a clash that took place while Chinx (born Lionel Pickens Jr.) was incarcerated. According to Rudolph, Chinx and Homere—an aspiring rapper himself who went by the name Qwality—fought each other on Sept. 27, 2009, while both were housed on Rikers Island.
“We're not exactly sure what the fight was about but our perpetrator Quincy probably got the worst of it and he wanted to get back at Chinx,” Rudolph tells XXL. Chinx had previously served more than three years in jail on robbery and drug charges from June 2005 to October 2008, but was taken back into custody shortly thereafter due to a parole violation. “When he saw Chinx's career starting to blow, he took it real personal and figured that his [own] career was going south... It just festered inside of him.”
Rudolph says the feud picked up again years later, when Homere showed up at a Chinx performance at SoundGarden Hall in Philadelphia on April 24, 2015, a night when French Montana, Uncle Murda and Neef Buck were all slated to hold court. There, the two men were involved in a verbal altercation. “[Quincy] was blacklisted from the other rap stars,” Rudolph said. “Quincy's steaming since that concert... I think that's when he started to feel a fire inside of him to take his revenge out on Chinx.”
Less than one month later, Homere and his friend Hill learned that Chinx would be performing at the now-defunct Red Wolf Lounge in Brooklyn on May 16, 2015, presumably thanks to a flyer that he shared via Instagram. The two followed Chinx after the show to a hookah bar, and continued to tail him as he drove Queens Boulevard. When Chinx pulled up to a red light at 84th Drive around 4 a.m., Rudolph says Homere fired a 9-mm handgun into the rapper’s Porsche, striking and killing Chinx and wounding his friend and Coke Boys affiliate Yemen Chee$e (real name Antar Alziadi).
“Jemar Hill, he took part in the whole execution of Chinx... but there is only one shooter, and that is Quincy Homere,” says Rudolph. “They were just waiting for an opportunity. So they both acted in concert to kill this kid.”
Hill and Homere have each been charged with second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, and two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Homere was already in federal custody on charges of robbing a bank in November 2015. Hill was also locked up on a five-year sentence for a robbery conviction that he began serving in May. Both face 25 years to life in prison if convicted for Chinx’s murder.
The report of Homere’s arrest was first broken by Lisa Evers yesterday morning. TMZ followed shortly after with a report about Hill’s charges. Both plead not guilty to their charges yesterday at Queens Criminal Court.
“There was nothing about this investigation that was easy,” states Rudolph, who commended Det. Thomas Scalise and Det. Vincent Santangelo for their work on the case. He cites yesterday’s arrest to extensive research, interviews with Chinx’s family and affiliates, cell phone data and link analysis. “We chased literally hundreds of investigated leads and hit a lot of brick walls. But the guys just kept on digging. I take pride in my people, the job that they did, that they never quit, they never gave up when most detectives would've walked away from the case.”
Rudolph denied earlier police speculation that Chinx’s murder was related to his friend and music peer Stack Bundles’ shooting death in 2007.
“I'm happy for their family,” he says. “It doesn't help that Chinx's baby is without a father and Chinx's mom is still without a son and Chinx's wife is still a widow. We can only do what we can do, so I'm happy that they have some closure in this.”
Three alleged members of a violent Hill District street gang that police say was led by slain rapper Jimmy Wopo have been indicted in federal court on racketeering charges that include murder, robbery and drug trafficking.
The indictment names Dionte Griffin, 22; Sydney Pack, 20; and Richard Kelly, 23, all of whom are alleged to be members of the 11 Hunnit gang.
All are in U.S. custody.
The case, brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, was indicted Aug. 2 and unsealed Tuesday. Jimmy Wopo, the stage name for Travon Smart, was murdered in June. He was not among those charged but is identified extensively in the indictment under his initials, "T.S.," as a leader who directed others to carry out shootings and robberies, including killing members of a rival gang called the "Wavy Boyz."
According to the RICO charges, the defendants conspired to commit homicides, drug robberies, shootings, and trafficking of heroin and prescription pills from 2015 to this month.
The gang did not have a strict hierarchy, but police said Kelly and Pack were leaders along with Wopo, who had particular power because of his rap videos.
"T.S. held the greater influence within the group largely due to his notoriety as a regionally popular rap artist," the grand jury said.
"Members attempted to curry favor with T.S. by carrying out criminal acts at his direction. In return, T.S. often rewarded those that committed criminal acts at his behest by including them in his music videos and providing them with items of monetary value."
The indictment says T.S. gave orders to shoot rival gang members and inflict violence on 11 Hunnit members who "fell short of his expectations."
The gang's name, 11 Hunnit, is a combination of two blocks in the Hill where the members live - the 800 block of Memory Lane and the 300 block of Burrows Street. The numbers 800 and 300 were combined to come up with 11 Hunnit, according to the grand jury.
The gang has been operating since 2012.
Police said the members were required to commit acts of violence to maintain membership and discipline within the gang, used money from robberies and drug dealing to fund their lifestyle, and boasted about their prowess in rap videos on YouTube.
The indictment recounts a long litany of shootings, killings, home invasions and other violence attributed to the gang in its battle with the Wavy Boyz.
U.S. Attorney Scott Brady said the gang had terrorized city residents.
"Today it ends," he said in a statement. "We will use every tool, including federal RICO conspiracy, to put an end to these violent street gangs and offer justice to those harmed by 11 Hunnit and their associates.”
The federal case began with the investigation by Allegheny County police into two 2016 murders in Green Tree and McKees Rocks that detectives said involved 11 Hunnit members. County police then teamed with Pittsburgh police, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. attorney's office to put together a historical case that could bring life terms in federal prison for those charged.
According to the indictment, 11 Hunnit's origins stem from a dispute over stolen heroin in 2012 between two groups in the Hill. The rivals became 11 Hunnit and the Wavy Boyz. The gangs traded insults on social media and their hatred for each other intensified when the Wavy Boyz allegedly killed an 11 Hunnit member known as "Lumber."
Since then, the 11 Hunnit gang has engaged in a series of shootings, according to police and ATF.
In April 2015, Pack and another gang member identified as "T.D." killed a Wavy Boyz member identified as "C.R." and wounded two others.
In December of that year, police said, Wopo ordered the gang to kill a Wavy Boyz associate identified as "M.B.B." The following month, Pack and Griffin were among a group of 11 Hunnit members who attacked M.B.B. and Pack fatally shot him, according to the grand jury.
In October 2016, Pack and Griffin shot and killed Wavy Boyz member "J.H." and injured a 7-year-old in a vehicle passing by.
The following month, according to the charges, 11 Hunnit member "J.P." was shot twice in the head by Pack in the presence of Wopo.
The indictment lists numerous other crimes allegedly carried out by 11 Hunnit, including robberies, shootings, traffic stops involving heroin and straw purchases of guns.
The gang did not make a secret of its activities.
References to shootings and killings are mentioned in several videos made by Wopo or featuring him and other members of the gang.
One posted in March 2017 called "What U Know," for example, features Wopo, Pack, Griffin and others holding guns and talking about their life of crime.
"The lyrics of the song also make reference to the shootings of [gang members] C.R. and J.H., and alerted 11 Hunnit members to the consequences of disloyalty to the gang, to intimidate rivals, and to enhance the reputation of the gang as a violent enterprise," the indictment says.
Pack and Griffin will appear Wednesday in U.S. District Court to answer the charges before a federal magistrate judge. Kelly is due to appear Sept. 11.
Carlos Rico Walker (March 22, 1976 – September 21, 2016), better known as Shawty Lo, was an American rapper from Moultrie , Georgia.
He initially came to prominence as a founding member of the Southern hip hop group D4L, and in 2000 founded D4L Records. The group reached national status in 2005 when their single "Laffy Taffy" topped the Billboard Hot 100 and went on to be certified platinum thrice by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
In 2007, Walker began pursuing a solo career with his debut single "Dey Know", which was included on his solo debut album Units in the City, released in February 2008.
On September 21, 2016, Walker died in a car accident. His second studio album, R.I.C.O., was released posthumously in March 2017.
St. Pete Police have arrested a man connected to 230 pounds of pot, $187,000 in cash and several guns.
Officers also confiscated extravagant jewelry from 24-year-old Vaughn Matthews' apartment.
"He doesn't have a job and the watch you see there... has been appraised at $55,000," Chief Anthony Holloway said during a news conference Friday.
Police say they received a tip last year saying Matthews was planning to hurt police officers.
Undercover cops started watching his apartment on Ibis Walk Place North in 2015. Officer say they quickly realized something else was going on.
The North Side rapper who was the target of at least two fatal shootings in Rogers Park in recent years was gunned down Friday morning in Uptown, authorities said.
Two bullets to the back killed 20-year-old Shaquon Thomas, aka Young Pappy, while he was standing in the 4800 block of North Kenmore Avenue at about 1:30 a.m. Friday.
Witnesses told police a shiny, black four-door car was driving west on Lawrence Avenue with its rear driver's side door open. After passing Kenmore Avenue, the driver hit the brakes, reversed east down Lawrence and turned onto Kenmore before stopping.
That's when a thin man in a gray hoody was seen sprinting to the car and getting in, police said.
Thomas was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 2:04 a.m., police said.
No one else was injured in the shooting that appeared to be gang-related, police said.
The high-profile rapper had been shot at before, according to police officials.
Ben Woodard discusses the rapper's past troubles on the North Side:
Police have said the rapper was the target of two shootings since 2014 that left innocent bystanders William Lewis, 28, and friend Markeyo Carr, 17, dead.
Lewis had been waiting for a bus last July on Devon Avenue when a gunman opened fire at Thomas, who was unscathed.
A few months before that, Carr was killed by a masked gunman outside a Rogers Park McDonald's. Thomas was struck by a bullet in the arm.
His father at the time said he "got the least of it" in that shooting.
Thomas survived the shooting attempt last year that left Carr dead outside the McDonald's, and later was unscathed when a bullet intended for him instead killed Lewis, who was waiting for a bus, police have said.
Thomas had recently ran into trouble when he threw a wild mixtape release party that was broken up by a SWAT team on a quiet residential street. He and 30 other people were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
Police said someone at the party fired shots from the rear of the two-flat while officers were conducting a traffic stop outside.
Less than a week later he was hauled into jail on an outstanding warrant for an unrelated reckless conduct charge.
Ald. Harry Osterman (48th) said in an email to constituents Friday afternoon that police are working to increase patrols "to curb the possibility of retaliatory actions."
Thomas appeared to have made references to his run-ins with gunfire.
Shortly after the rapper was shot at in the slaying of Carr, he posted on Twitter, "Im Still Here."
Fans of the rapper took to social media Friday morning to lament his death.
Baton Rouge rapper Lil Boosie (real name Torrance Hatch) is no stranger to trouble with the law. Already incarcerated for probation violation on drug and gun charges, the Trill Entertainment rapper and two associates (one of them only 17 years old) were indicted on first-degree murder charges by a grand jury on Thursday, June 17.
The men are accused of being involved in the shooting of 35-year-old Terry Boyd in his own house in October. District attorney Hiler Moore stated that the killing seemed to be "over turf" and that if Lil Boosie is convicted the death penalty is not out of the question. The same day, Hatch was also indicted on multiple drug and conspiracy charges for smuggling large amounts of codeine, ecstasy and marijuana into prison with intent to distribute. His girlfriend, a prison guard and a fellow inmate were also charged as co-conspirators. In addition to these charges, prosecutors believe the 27-year-old rapper may have been involved in at least five other slayings.
"I'm innocent," said the rapper when asked if he has anything to say to his fans. However, his lyrics indicate otherwise. The track "I Know" carries violent and aggressive messages, such as, "So put yo fist up in yo pockets and them bullets in the chamber" and "I'm itchin to kill, gimme a reason I will. I'll end up grippin a steal." Boosie was in the midst of releasing his last album, "Superbad: The Return of Boosie Bad Azz," during his last set of legal troubles, but a follow-up may be a long time in coming.
William James Bosket Jr. (born December 9, 1962) is an American convicted murderer, whose numerous crimes committed while he was still a minor led to a change in New York state law, so that juveniles as young as 13 could be tried as an adult for murder and would face the same penalties. He has been in either prison or reformatories for all but 18 months since 1971, and has spent all but 100 days of his adult life in custody. He is currently serving a sentence of 82 years to life at Five Points Correctional Facility
Bosket was born in Harlem. His father, Willie Sr. (Butch), killed two people in a Milwaukee pawn shop shortly after his son was conceived and was sentenced to life in prison, where he earned a degree in computer science and psychology. Butch was released from prison and went on to get a job as a computer programmer for an aerospace company but was charged with a crime. He shot his girlfriend and committed suicide to avoid being caught.
Bosket had a traumatic childhood. When his grandfather was released from prison, he raped Willie many times. When he was 9 years old, his grandfather had him perform anal sex to "teach him about girls". His mother, Laura, had different live-in boyfriends who beat her and, as a boy, Bosket often jumped in to defend her, in one incident hitting a man with a pipe and slashing him with a knife and in another threatening "I'm going to burn that motherfucker up". He also suffered a head injury when he ran out into the street, and was hit by a car. This was all before he was ten years old.
When he was nine years old, his mother, heeding advice, petitioned he be placed in a center, stating he was "a person in need of supervision". He was placed at The Children's Center in Manhattan, but escaped and quickly ended up at Spofford which was a "secure detention center" and a child's equivalent to an adult doing time in Attica State Prison. He would be in and out of detention centers and reformatories except for a short time when he turned 21 and had served out his time for murder.
His mother had told him "Don't be bullied... Hit back. To get respect, you've got to be the toughest." In the different centers, he developed a reputation for violence, upon which he prided himself. He told juvenile authorities that one day he would be a killer, just like his father.
On March 19, 1978, Bosket, then fifteen years old, shot and killed Noel Perez on a train operating on the New York City Subway's 3 train during an attempted robbery near the Harlem–148th Street terminal station. Eight days later, Bosket and another accomplice shot dead another man, Moises Perez (unrelated to his first victim) in another attempted robbery at the back of another 3 train at the 145th Street station, one station south of 148th Street. In between, Bosket and his accomplice shot a New York City Transit employee working in the Lenox Yard adjacent to the Harlem–148th Street station and committed two other armed robberies, one of them on the A service.
Bosket was tried for the murders in New York City's family court. As the trial was underway, Bosket surprised his own lawyer by pleading guilty to both murders. He was sentenced to a maximum of five years in the Goshen Youth Facility. Although prosecutors tried to get a longer sentence, five years was the most they could get under the law, at the time.
The short length of Bosket's sentence caused a public outcry. Governor Hugh Carey had opposed efforts by his opponent in that year's gubernatorial election, State Assembly Minority Leader Perry Duryea, to have juveniles tried as adults for certain crimes. However, after reading a report on Bosket's sentence, Carey called the state legislature into special session to pass the Juvenile Offender Act of 1978. Under this act, children as young as thirteen years old could be tried in an adult court for crimes such as murder, and receive the same penalties as adults. New York was the first state to enact a law of this nature; all of the other states have since followed suit. Because it was Willie Bosket's case that was used to push laws allowing juveniles to be tried as adults, it is sometimes referred to as the Willie Bosket Law.
A year after he began serving his sentence for the two murders, Bosket escaped from the youth facility. He was caught after two hours, tried as an adult for the escape and sentenced to four years in state prison. He was returned to the Division of Youth in 1979, and was released in 1983. After 100 days he was arrested when a man living in his apartment complex claimed Bosket had robbed and assaulted him. Then while awaiting trial on that crime, Bosket assaulted several court officers. He was found guilty of attempted assault for the dispute in the apartment and sentenced to seven years in prison.
At this point, his escape from the youth facility nearly came back to haunt him. He was 16 years old at the time, meaning he was now considered an adult for criminal purposes. In New York, escaping from a correctional facility is a felony, even if the facility is a youth facility. If he had been convicted of assaulting the court officers, it would have been his third felony conviction. Under New York's habitual offender law, he was facing an automatic sentence of 25 years to life. However, he was acquitted.
Convinced that he would die in prison, Bosket took out his rage on correction officers, getting into numerous altercations. Arrested for one of those incidents, he was convicted of assault and arson, and sentenced to 25 years to life. In 1989, he was sentenced to an additional 25-years-to-life sentence for stabbing corrections officer Earl Porter at the maximum-security Shawangunk Correctional Facility.[10][6] After the 1988 assault, Bosket was transferred to Woodbourne Correctional Facility, where in April 1989 he drew a third 25-years-to-life sentence for assaulting a correction officer with a chain. All three sentences are consecutive. His earliest possible release date is September 16, 2062, when he will be 100 years old–all but assuring that he will die in prison.
Since his conviction for the 1989 assault, Bosket (NYSDOCS inmate number 84A6391) has been housed in solitary confinement. While at Woodbourne, nominally a medium-security prison, Bosket was housed in a specially-built plexiglass-lined cell stripped of everything but a cot and a sink/toilet combination, with four video cameras watching him at all times. He was only allowed out of his cell for one hour a day, apart from medical visits and haircuts. Although he was allowed visitors, they could only speak to him through a window in his cell.
Bosket once declared "war" on a prison system that he claimed made him a "monster," and was cited for almost 250 disciplinary violations from 1985 to 1994. However, he has not had a disciplinary violation since 1994. According to a 2008 report in The New York Times, due to his numerous incidents of violence during the 1980s and 1990s, he was initially not slated to move into the general population until 2046, when he will be 84 years old. Department spokesman Erik Kriss told the Times, "This guy was violent or threatening violence every day. Granted, it has been a while, but there are consequences for being violent in prison. We have zero tolerance for that."
He has since been transferred to Five Points, a maximum-security prison. Although he is still in solitary confinement, he is evaluated periodically, and due to his clean disciplinary record in recent years may join the general population sooner than 2046.
In 1994 Supreme Team lieutenant James "Bimmy" Antney was freed when his $2 million bail was paid by R&B stars Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown. Due in no small part to his relationship with childhood friend and Hollis, Queens neighbor, rapper James "LL Cool J" Todd Smith, Antney would go on to have a successful career in the music industry, most notably as an A&R at Def Jam Records. He served as executive producer on rapper Richard "Slick Rick" Walter's gold album The Art of Storytellingand LL Cool J's chart-topping G.O.A.T. and G.O.A.T. 2. Antney's nephew is rapper Juaquin "Waka Flocka Flame" Malphurs and his sister is successful music manager Debra Antney, whose clients include her son, Malphurs, Radric "Gucci Mane" Davis, Karim "French Montana" Kharbouch and Onika "Nicki Minaj" Maraj.
a young man named Nard Jones who started his life of drug dealing on the streets of Jamaica Queens New York until he and some friends was falsely accused of a crime that had not happen which made him one of New York City's most wanted Men.
During the week of 4-20-20 while the nation was in quarantine and most states were on A mandatory lockdown, I had A chance to get on the phone with Douglas ‘Duke’ Shine from Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (Lucasville) where he is serving A Life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Words During the week of 4-20-20 while the nation was in quarantine and most states were on A mandatory lockdown, I had A chance to get on the phone with Douglas ‘Duke’ Shine from Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (Lucasville) where he is serving A Life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Telly Hankton, a man described by Police Superintendent Warren Riley as one of the city's most dangerous wanted suspects, turned himself in to police on Monday.
Hankton, 33, was freed April 9 after posting a $1 million bond, cobbled together with mostly property bonds and some cash, and awaiting trial for a 2008 murder when he committed another streetside murder over the weekend, police say.