Coach Ezra Hendrickson, Fire looking to prove doubters wrong, Baseball quiz: Remember what happened after Jackie, Kahleah Copper: Precious mettle for the new-look Sky. The gang employs a structured hierarchy, with leadership positions such as national "Board Members" and state "Governors." "The long list of violent crimes alleged in this indictment - including two murders and multiple violent assaults - make plain the threat to our communities posed by criminal organizations like the Gangster Disciples," Nicholas L. McQuaid, Acting Assistant . These charges show how a national gang like Gangster Disciples can wreak havoc here and in communities across the country, with crimes that run the gamut from murder to drug trafficking to credit card fraud. The Governor-of-Governors and Governors set member recruitment goals, enforce gang rules, collect and disperse dues and funds, and approve criminal activity to be carried out by gang members. This investigation demonstrates ATFs commitment and the commitment of our law enforcement partners to ensure that Missouri and Illinois communities remain a safe place to live, work and raise families. Gangster Disciples founder Larry Hoover appointed 2 gang leaders from prison, feds say They're now charged with killing a rival 'board member' of the notorious street gang in 2018 on the South Side. The median income of Robbins, a town of 5,400 a few miles south of Chicago, is only $13,000, according to the last census. James Yates was sentenced two decades ago to life in prison after a jury found that he was a governor of the Gangster Disciples in charge of distributing drugs for the street gang in Chicagos south suburbs. The gang employs a structured hierarchy, with leadership positions such as national Board Members and state Governors. Each of the defendants is alleged to be a member or leader of the Gangster Disciples and to have conspired to conduct the gangs affairs through a pattern of racketeering. Other acts of violence alleged as part of the conspiracy include a nightclub stabbing in East St. Louis, Illinois, a nonfatal shooting in Cape Girardeau,and multiple unsuccessful murder plots. The violence perpetrated by the Gangster Disciples in this district and nationwide has long been a particular focus of our top law enforcement agencies. Frank Smith, 47, of Naperville, Illinois, an alleged national Board Member, is charged with RICO conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, attempted murder in aid of racketeering, and related firearms crimes. They are heavily organized, using code language to communicate, and have been reported in the news to use children as young as 8 years old to smuggle guns and drugs and carry out gang executions. Hoover got arrested and went to prison and continued to run the gang from behind bars. CHICAGO (AP) _ Five members of the Gangster Disciples street gang have been indicted in the killings of two fellow gang members, in what one prosecutor Thursday called ``cold, steely, calculated business decisions. One of the victims was cooperating with investigators. Gang members had suspected the second man might do the same, prosecutors said. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS He reached in to a box and pulled out a copy of a letter from Trump on White House letterhead. Hoover is serving a life sentence in a super-max prison in Colorado. But there are far fewer people with the wherewithal to lead organizations like the Gangster Disciples. On May 18, 2018, Griffin and Dobbins are accused of killing Ernest Wilson, a rival Board Member, in Chicago, Illinois. "We can't ignore that.". Image from Chicago gang video provided by Jeffersontown Police Chief Rick Sanders, Indiana State Trooper struck, killed by driver accused of attempting to evade police, Beshear confirms 4 dead after severe weather makes its way through Kentuckiana, 'We can handle it': Fans brave the weather for Big Nita's Cheesecake. He said, I want to give back to Robbins, Roberson says. Nothing seemed to have changed in his hometown since he was arrested in the 1990s. According to the indictment, the Gangster Disciples is a violent street and prison gang founded in the 1960s that has engaged in large-scale drug trafficking and violence throughout the United States. Their children got toys. Lancaster is in Garrard County, about 100 miles east of Louisville. The Federal Bureau of Investigation today announces the arrest of Shauntay Lamarr Craig, an alleged leader of the violent Gangster Disciples criminal enterprise, at New Orleans, Louisiana. InfoTracer expressly prohibits the use of information you obtain from search results (a) to discriminate against any consumer; (b) for the purpose of considering a consumers eligibility for personal credit or insurance, employment, housing, or a government license or benefit; or (c) otherwise to affect a consumers economic or financial status or standing. Utilizing firearms to injure or intimidate others cannot be tolerated and there is no question that the public is safer today because of the hard work, dedication, and collaboration of all of the agencies that played a part in this investigation., Todays indictment is a result of investigative efforts in our Fairview Heights Resident Agency and strong partnerships with federal, state and local law enforcement partners, said Sean Cox, FBI Springfield Special Agent in Charge. Further, Gangster Disciples members would teach other members how to commit certain crimes, including frauds and would provide drugs on discount to other Gangster Disciples members for resale. The scope of the Gangster Disciples crimes is wide-ranging and consistent throughout the national operation. Within Georgia, the leadership of the Gangster Disciples resided mostly in metro Atlanta, yet the reach of the crimes committed extended into far south and west Georgia. Gangster Disciples Gang Initiation and Colors, a political action committee dubbed V.O.T.E. Prosecutors claim Griffin had discussions with Dobbins intending to kill members of their own gang that were resisting the new leadership for a chapter in East St. Louis. Several Black Disciple Gangster Nation members were sentenced to prison in 2014, for shooting up an apartment complex in Memphis in retaliation for intimidating a member. Gangster Disciples represent with the colors blue and black. The Black Disciple Gangster Nation was responsible for the death of Army sergeant Juwan Williams during a brutal initiation beating that included kicks to the head. Experts theorize that flooding the market with drugs was intentional by politicians to imprison community-oriented blacks and hippies to suppress any dissent and prevent them from voting. We hope this indictment warns the leaders of these gangs that Atlanta is not a good place to do business., As the indictment alleges, the Gangster Disciples flooded communities throughout the southeast and beyond with large amounts of drugs, and ruthlessly used fear, intimidation, and even murder to promote and protect their nationwide criminal enterprise, said U.S. Attorney Stanton. ATLANTA -- Alleged members of the Gangster Disciples, including high-ranking leaders and a former Atlanta-area police officer who prosecutors say claimed to be a . 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Fifteen individuals were taken into custody today and one remains at large. You have to harm or kill somebody as part of your initiation, there's a lot of torture that might be involved, Sanders said. The organization is ruled by a national leadership of a corporate board-style group, prosecutors said during a three-week trial. Twenty-two members of the Black Disciple Gangster Nation received indictments for murder in 2016 including one county police officer who warned gang members about police raids and acted as a hitman. The FBI, along with our law enforcement partners, are committed to seeing this campaign through, and once and for all putting an end to the Gangster Disciples' reign of violence.. Moms carted away boxes of food, clothing and blankets. While in state prison for ordering the killing of a gang member in Chicago in 1973, he was sentenced in 1998 to life in federal prison for running a criminal enterprise the Gangster Disciples . Today, hes distributing a different kind of commodity in those same suburbs: food. This prosecution underscores that coordinated criminal activity will be met with a coordinated and focused law enforcement response by the Criminal Division and our law enforcement partners at the federal, state, and local level. Khalalah Jackson, whose husband was freed from prison under the First Step Act in November, was among those at the Robbins food giveaway. On April 28, 2018, Clemon, Maxwell, and Harris, on orders from Smith, allegedly killed Leroy Allen as part of a leadership dispute at a Gangster Disciples meeting in Bridgeton, Missouri. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, were vocal advocates for the law, and Kanye West lobbied for it during a White House visit. (FBI/Contributed, YHN) Two leaders of the Gangster Disciples, a notorious national gang, were sentenced on Friday in federal court for a racketeering conspiracy involving murder . Emailassign@whas11.com, visit ourFacebook pageorTwitter feed. The results of that poll, in a word: Oof. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. "They were very disciplined, very organized," Sanders said. The notorious gang started was founded by Larry Hoover in Chicago in the 1960s but has since spread to at least 31 states and 110 cities, according to the Department of Justice. According to the Chicago police, the Gangster Disciples and other big Chicago gangs have, over the past two decades, fragmented into factions that arent controlled at the top the way they used to be. Polling Place: Is Patrick Kane the greatest Blackhawk ever? Before that, he spent several years working for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in Chicago, as the Special Agent in Charge during the early 2000s, describing the gang as having ranks, like a military. BOS, SOS: Brothers (or sisters) of the struggle. Its like 1960 or 1950, Yates says. The indictment says the two men threatened to kill anyone who challenged their authority and, on May 18, 2018, shot and killed a rival Gangster Disciples board member on the South Side of Chicago. He was accompanied to the Oval Office by Hoovers attorney, who explained that Hoover is being held in the Colorado Supermax prison alongside killers for economic crimes and that he was unfairly targeted because he was gaining political power from the Chicago community. Rapper Kanye West appealed to President Donald Trump in 2018 for Hoovers release. Yates and Harrell see it as ironic that Trump, who has refused to denounce white supremacists, signed the law that allowed Yates, a Black man, to leave prison. The BOP takes seriously our mission to protect the safety and security of our correctional institutions and the public, said Miranda Faust, Administrator of the Federal Bureau of Prisons Intelligence and Counter Terrorism Branch. The long list of violent crimes alleged in this indictmentincluding two murders and multiple violent assaultsmake plain the threat to our communities posed by criminal organizations like the Gangster Disciples, said Nicholas L. McQuaid, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Departments Criminal Division. Police search for suspects in string of armed robberies in Radcliff, Louisville man killed days before signing record deal, mother seeking justice, 'We got multiple calls': Suspect in car break-in turns himself in after WHAS11's Crime Stoppers report. They then recruited heavily in Chicago, within jails and prisons, and across the United States. of Corrections, Gwinnett County PD, and Marietta PD), Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, United States Marshal's Service and United States Postal Inspection Services. "For a long time, Louisville denied we had gangs, and I said it then, and I say it now, we have to recognize and be transparent that we have gangs, and they're committing a lot of this violence," Sanders said. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Among the crimes alleged in the indictment are two gang-related murders. 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Utilizing firearms to injure or intimidate others cannot be tolerated and there is no question that the public is safer today because of the hard work, dedication, and collaboration of all of the agencies that played a part in this investigation., Todays indictment is a result of investigative efforts in our Fairview Heights Resident Agency and strong partnerships with federal, state and local law enforcement partners, said Sean Cox, Special Agent in Charge of the FBIs Springfield Field Office. Gangster Disciples co-founder Larry Hoover (center) with top gang lieutenant Gregory Shell (left) and gang associate Keith McCain. Official websites use .gov Among the crimes alleged in the indictment are two gang-related murders. The Black Disciples Gangster Nation initiate new members with beat-downs by fellow gang members, murders, and other violent crimes. Tackling issues related to criminal enterprises and gang-related activities are paramount to addressing violence in any city. On May 18, 2018, Griffin and Dobbins allegedly killed Ernest Wilson, a rival Board Member, in Chicago, Illinois. Gang members are known to wear Georgetown Hoyas or Duke Blue Devils clothing. He says he got help for his food giveaway from bigger organizations such as Black Men United. James Yates (right) talks with Robbins Park District president Andrea Roberson about logistics for his food drive. Count: The geographic divisions of the Gangster Disciples are called "counts" or "decks.". Many were recruited while in prison. Moore questioned why prosecutors who previously have said they suspected Hoover was still involved in the gang hadnt brought up the latest accusation during arguments over Hoovers bid for a reduced sentence. At the time, the leaders of two different groups, the Black Disciples and the Supreme Gangsters, aligned their groups and created the Gangster Disciples (GD). "he was responsible for violence drug trafficking and murders, including orchestrating the murder of a . The new indictment says one member of the gang, Anthony Dobbins, told another, Warren Big Head Griffin, in September 2014 that Hoover had appointed them as board members the highest rank in the gangs leadership. Racketeering, such as the alleged charges today, brazenly facilitates all kinds of illegal dealings that negatively affect the community. The indictment. This case results from investigations by ATF, FBI, Federal Bureau of Prisons, IRS Criminal Investigation, Missouri Department of Corrections, Illinois State Police, the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis, Bridgeton Police Department, Cape Girardeau Police Department, and Chicago Police Department. The Black Disciples Gangster Nation colors are blue and black, and they use a Star of David-like tattoo with tridents protruding from the upper angles as their symbol. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.