114 people charged in multiagency effort to cut violent street, motorcycle gangs in Detroit


3:05 PM, March 21, 2014 | 17 Comments


U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade on Friday announced at her office the fruits of Detroit One, a multiagency effort to use state and federal resources to prosecute violent crime in Detroit, particularly involving street and motorcycle gangs. In its first year, 114 people have been charged, split between state and federal courts. / Robert Allen/Detroit Free Press

By Robert Allen

Detroit Free Press staff writer

Local, state and federal agencies cooperated to charge 114 people of crimes connected with violent street and motorcycle gangs in Detroit the past year, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade announced Friday.

Largely “worst of the worst offenders,” many of the people targeted through the investigations had violent histories, and citizens’ tips initiated many of the cases, McQuade said at a news conference at her office.

Among people charged in the cases were members of the Bounty Hunter Bloods, the Almighty Vice Lord Nation and the Phantom Outlaw Motorcycle Club.

Officials announced the Detroit One coalition at year ago, and McQuade in describing progress cited a 15 percent reduction in Detroit homicides, from 386 in 2012 to 336 in 2013. She said a similar previous effort in Washington, D.C., also coincided with a decline in homicides.

Charges were filed last month in a case against the motorcycle club; after the leader was murdered, the group was planning a revenge shooting when agents made arrests, preventing more violence, McQuade said.

“When we started a year ago, we were going after single offenders,” she said. “But the long-term goal of agencies like the FBI and ATF was to use those individual offenders to build these more serious-impact cases, and we’re seeing the fruits of their labor today.”

In a recent Detroit One case, an indictment unsealed Thursday alleges how the Bounty Hunter Bloods street gang was connected to a number of murders, drive-by shootings, carjackings, armed robberies, arson and drug trafficking, according to a news release.

Social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook were used to bring evidence to the case, which involved nine men in their 20s. Their indictment describes in detail the history of the gang and connections with others on the east and west coasts of the United States.

People indicted in that case included Ramiah Jefferson, 26; Drakkar Beral Cunningham, 25; Evan Alexander Johnson, 24; Mario Pillip Garnes, 28; Alexander Deshawn George, 20; Everette Ramon George, 21; Marcus Andre Harvey, 23; Gerald Deshawn Turner, 25; and David Lamar Gay, 22.

The gang operates mainly between Joy Road to the south and 7 Mile Road to the north, between Telegraph Road and Greenfield Road, according to the news release.

Because of limited local resources, federal agencies used criminal conspiracy and racketeering among charges to commit federal resources to prosecutions, McQuade said. Seven federal agencies and two agencies are involved with the coalition as well as Detroit Police Department, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office and the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department.

Community organizations such as Arise Detroit also work with the agencies, helping to “overcome the ‘no-snitch’ mentality,” according to the news release. Luther Keith, Arise Detroit’s executive director, said Friday that there’s more work ahead getting people to go beyond complaining about street violence and work toward change.

“Outrage does not stop criminals,” he said. “People, plans and actions stop criminals.”

He said there was one case where a woman tried to set up a neighborhood club to watch for local crime but found that people wouldn’t join, for fear of retribution from criminals.

McQuade said Crime Stoppers has been especially helpful. The tips line at 1-800-SPEAK-UP offers anonymity and cash rewards for tips leading to solved crimes.

The coalition’s first year has brought charges against 114 people; with 63 in state court and 57 in federal court, including six people who were charged in both.

To date, there’ve been 38 state-level convictions and 12 federal-level convictions

Those indicted were leaders of the Bounty Hunter Bloods gang, which was connected to the infamous Bloods gang in Los Angeles.

Among those indicted: Ramiah Jefferson, 26, known as “Nightmare”; Drakker Cunningham, 25, known as “Unkle Murda”; Mario Garnes, 28, known as “Blood Hound”; and Alexander George, 20, known as “Bullet.”

Federal authorities allege several crimes, including a May 2008 attack of a rival gang at Inkster High School; firebombing a house in August 2008; the slaying of a man during a February 2009 robbery; fatal stabbings in May 2009 and June 2010; and the murder of a homeowner during a November 2011 break-in.

Between late 2005 and early 2006, an unindicted co-conspirator, identified as “Person A” obtained authority from the gang’s leaders in New York and Philadelphia to form a Detroit Bounty Hunters chapter, according to the indictment.

Membership in the gang required each Bounty Hunter to sell drugs, according to the indictment.

detroit has alot of dope being sold

There was interesting stuff in the indictment about their ranks and connections to both the east and west coast.
http://media.mlive.com/news/detroit_impact/other/Bounty%20Hunter%20Bloods%20indictment.pdf

10. In 2010, the Detroit Bounty Hunter Bloods cut ties with the east coast BHB after learning that they were not considered an official sect by the west coast faction of the gang. The detroit faction then contacted an original general of the west coast faction of the east side bounty hunter watts 4 line and obtained sanction to establish their own sect of the bounty hunters gang. East coast literature was revised to exclude the five sided star and the colour tan as symbols of the gang.

RAMIAH JEFFERSON, a/k/a "Nightmare", "B-Dubb," and "Deuce," was the leader, i.e., The head Original General, living in michigan and was the leader of the bounty hunters in several states including Georgia and New York.

Detroit cops solve very few crimes.

7 out of 10 murders never get solved in Detroit, and the murder rate in Metro Detroit is five times the national average.

It's mostly black gangs up there, plus a few motorcycle gangs with whites, like the "Diciples" (note the deliberate wrong spelling,) plus the Detroit chapter of the Scorpions MC Club.

Also in Detroit theres the Detroit Highwaymen MC

Detroit have Latino gangs as well, Chicago's Latin Kings, MLDs(I think) , Ambrose, Few others, Surenos, Ms-13, and mostly drug crews.

I think detroits sort of similar to baltimore or philadelphia, its got a lot of neighbourhood gangs and drug trafficking organisations, like puritan avenue boys and hustle boyz gang. It also has a lot of shady politics, probably a little less now since kwame kilpatrick went down.


DETROIT, May 25 (UPI) -- Federal agents are trying to determine whether an alleged $100,000 bribe to former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was drug money, The Detroit News reports.
Detroit businessman Abner McWhorter allegedly paid Kilpatrick to secure a $10 million loan from the pension fund. McWhorter has since committed suicide.

The News, citing sources, said it has learned federal investigators believe McWhorter may have gotten the money for the bribe from Carlos Powell, who was charged in January with running a major drug ring. Joseph Brien, a lawyer for McWhorter business partner George Kastanes said the money came from an unidentified drug dealer.

McWhorter borrowed pension money in 2008 for a company that bought foreclosed property in Detroit. He hired a company run by Kilpatrick's father, Bernard, to help with the deal.

Some of the property was later transferred to Powell, the News said.

Kilpatrick and his father are awaiting trial on federal corruption charges.



Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/05/2.../#ixzz2wzBzklvy

its sad to see a city with a solid rep like Detroit jump on the copycat Blood/Crip bandwagon, especially in 2014. its not like this is the 80s or 90s. I never thought there'd be so many wannabes in places like Detroit, Baltimore, or Atlanta but I guess the allure is too strong.

^^^^^^

displaced residents from hurricane katrina (new orleans) is when bloods moved into detroit

chicago mobs moved to detroit in the late 80s early 90s

it's easy for outta towners to move in when everybody is local

You do get national street gangs but i think most of the major players are still local/regional organisations.

The guy mentioned in the article about kwame kilpatrick was a major dealer, there was like a former state senator that got arrested alongside him.

Detroit Drug Ring Bust Charges Former State Rep Kenneth Daniels, 11 Others In Conspiracy
Detroit Drug Ring Bust
The Huffington Post Kate Abbey-Lambertz
Posted: 02/ 1/2012 4:24 pm

A coalition of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies announced the indictment of 12 alleged members of a metro Detroit drug ring Wednesday. Former state Rep. Kenneth Daniels, a Democrat who represented Detroit's District 5, was among those charged with money laundering and illegal drug distribution.

Authorities say the operation sold drugs purchased in Mexico and Arizona in the Detroit area. Members of the group have been repeatedly busted since 2006, and officers have confiscated more than 30 kilograms of heroin, 12 kilograms of cocaine and 1,000 pounds of marijuana.

Federal agents are also seeking to claim a fleet of luxury vehicles from the defendants, including a Rolls Royce, Bentley, two Ferraris, four Mercedes, a Range Rover and two boats.

"We are focused on dismantling major drug trafficking organizations that bring illegal drugs into our community," U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said in a statement. "We want young people to see that the lucrative rewards from drug trafficking are short-lived and lead to criminal charges."

The drug ring's alleged leader, Carlos Powell of Eastpointe, Mich., was arrested Wednesday morning, according to the Detroit News. After pleading not guilty at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Powell was released on a $50,000 personal bond with restrictions, including GPS monitoring and a mandatory curfew. He was ordered to surrender his passport and cannot leave Michigan's eastern district.

Daniels, the former lawmaker, and another alleged member of the ring, Tamika Olivia Turner, also pleaded not guilty and were released on $10,000 bonds. Defendant Tobias John Proge has an arraignment scheduled Friday. Arraignments for the remaining eight arrested individuals are not yet scheduled. The case is assigned to Judge George Caram Steeh.

Daniels was charged with only one of the 15 counts against the 12 defendants. Police claim that in September 2010, Daniels purchased a Mercedes for Powell, but used two cashiers checks to cover up the sale.


Daniels was a representative of the fifth state House district in Detroit from 1999 to 2004. Daniels also served on the Detroit Board of Education and was a commissioner for the Detroit Water Department. He ran for state Senate in 2010, losing to current Sen. Bert Johnson.

A statement posted on Daniels' campaign website announced his commitment to stopping crime: "We are dealing with a cycle of crime, especially in Detroit and it is time for us to take our neighborhoods back."

DEA Special Agent Rich Isaacson said the sale of heroin especially is a growing problem in the region.

"Without question opiate abuse is on the increase in this region and across the country," Isaacson told HuffPost. "I don't think you're going to find a court in southeastern Michigan that hasn't found evidence of increased heroin abuse across their jurisdiction."

@scorcese


detroits drug trade is gonna stay local because who has the balls to go into detroit

mobs in chicago can't even unite decks from different chicago area neighborhoods

i'm sure the VLs indicted had their own leader with no chicago plug

You also have to remember that UBN members initially expanded to Baltimore due to the location and drug trade. Also, it's questionable in some areas of Atlanta .

How long have there been Bloods in Detroit? I heard this guy on TV saying that the small gangs there were too violent for Crips and Bloods to take over. Its not surprising though, it was only a matter of time. Its hard to believe that they haven't been active there before. Almost every major city in America has seen sets pop up and grow to be the dominate players. Most had cities had seem them fully operating by the early 90s. Gangs want that name-brand recognition, plus its protection in the pen on the street to have more heads. No one wants to be the smallest fish.

There are a lot of busters though. Only a few sets outside of California are recognized by the OGs. Obviously that is changing and now these news guys are seeking out their blessing. No one wants to be seen as fake, and word on the street is the founder of the UBN was a snitch. They formed as a prison gang in Rykers and had no real relation to the California sets. That being said, UBN were at least real "gangsters." There are "Blood" sets in small towns who made up of rich white high school kids who don't put in any work.

found this article about a detroit hit man

Vincent Smothers, Detroit Hitman, Killed 7 People, Including Police Sergeant's Wife

By Pete Kotz
Monday, July 26, 2010 at 12:49 pm

​Vincent Smothers' life was that of a made-for-TV hitman. He lived in a townhouse in suburban Detroit with his wife and baby daughter. He was the polite neighbor often seen walking his poodle. What people didn't know is that he was also a prolific killer...

Detroit police Sergeant David Cobb was accused of hiring Smothers to kill his wife. But he hanged himself in a park before the investigation concluded.
​His specialty was being hired as a tool of revenge in Detroit's drug trade. His first hit came in August of 2006. Smothers was hired to take out brothers Adrian and Carl Thornton, who were thought to have ripped off a fellow dealer.

Smothers ambushed them at their home, shooting Adrian in the head, chest and leg. Carl was shot in the head as well, but survived.

Yet Smothers was a craftsman. He wasn't about to let a target get away. He returned to the home the following January, waiting to ambush Carl Thornton again, hiding in an abandoned house. This time he took care of his mark, also shooting a 22-year-old woman who accompanied Thornton in the butt.

Only a few months later he would take out Marshall White Jr., 56, and Johnny Marshall, 64, who were thought to be informants. They were found shot to death on a freeway service road, White in the head and Marshall in the face.

By June of 2007, he was at it again. Smothers and an accomplice, Lakari Berry, stormed into a Detroit home and demanded to know where the money was. But there was only two women and two children in the house.

They ransacked the house and then tied the women up in a back room. Then they told Gaudrielle Webster to call her boyfriend, Clarence Cherry, and lure him to the home.

When Cherry arrived, the two men shot him 20 times, before turning their guns on Webster and her friend, 18-year-old Karsia Rice. Cherry and Webster both died at the scene. Rice would survive a gunshot wound to the head that left her blind in one eye.

Berry was later convicted of the killing after a witness got his license plate number. But he never ratted out Smothers, who would go on to kill again.

The murder that did him in involved Detroit Police Sergeant David Cobb, or so Smothers claimed in his confession.

Cobb was having an affair; he also wanted a payoff from his wife's insurance policy. So the hit was set up through Marzell Black, the 20-year-old son of Cobb's mistress. Cobb would pay Black and Smothers $10,000 -- to be split equally -- to take out his wife Rose Cobb.

She was ambushed as she got into her minivan outside a pharmacy while her husband remained inside the store. Smothers approached her and tried to make it look like a robbery by grabbing her purse. But Rose jumped into the backseat, and Smothers opened fire, shooting her multiple times in the head.

According to Smothers, Cobb tried to stiff him on the $10,000 payment. He initially forked over just $50, saying he would pay the rest later to avoid suspicion. In the meantime, Smothers had grown tired of killing.

He was eventually ratted out by an informant, and it wasn't long before he confessed to being a serial killer. He told police the killing hadn't bothered him when the targets were drug dealers. But something got to him with the murder of a police sergeant's wife.

Upon Smothers' confession, Cobb was suspended by the Detroit PD during an investigation. But instead of facing the possibility of prison, Cobb took a quicker route to mercy. He decided to hang himself in a park in 2008.

Last week, Smothers was finally sentenced for his murder spree that ran from 2006 to 2008. As part of a plea bargain, he was sentenced to 50-100 years in prison.

I think they have had groups like the 7 mile bloods and cash out crips that have been around for a while.
It really is about the branding, Ubn formed i think mostly because A)they were facing a large and organised latino gang like the latin kings. B) Not everyone wanted to join the 5 percenters on the east coast which was the predominant black gang, probably because not everyone could identify with the quasi religious stuff they believed in. Despite not being sanctioned by the west, east coast bloods are still a massive force around the north east with a lot of gangs in different places using their symbols and monickers. There have been cases like the one i posted where members have reached out to west coats leadership to be official but to what extent the majority of UBN leaders care about that is up for debate.

The UBN actually seems more violent than the Bloods out here on the West. They almost appear to be more organized and mobile. I could be wrong though.

Those Detroit hit men were so scary. I can't believe he went back to kill the guy he had already shot. Unbelievable. And the cop...wow I remember watching the First 48 episode where they caught those guys. I don't remember hearing all of that, though. Man, I watch too much TV. Haha

Not for such when crips / bloods hit Detroit but I'm sure it's a few legit members that expanded their drug networks. Crips/Bloods sets are as dominant in major cities in some states.

I found this stuff on the a gang called the cash out crips from detroit when a few of them were busted in west virginia for selling crack and oxy there.

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A major player in the drug world in Huntington will spend the next 17 years of his life in prison.

Deshune Calloway, 29, of Detroit, was sentenced today in U.S. Disctrict Court to 210 months in prison.

Calloway, also known as "P," was charged with possession with intent to distribute. He pleaded guilty to the federal drug charge back in May.

According to a press release, this case is part of a long-term investigation into the Detroit-based organization known as the "Cash Out Crips." Officers made a number of controlled purchases of crack cocaine and oxycodone from him Calloway over a period of months in 2009.

Investigators then searched a Huntignton apartment used by the Cash Out Crips as a stash house. They seized 491 grams of cocaine base, 121 oxycodone 80mg tablets, 17 firearms, digital scales, packaging and other materials.


UPDATE 5/25/10 @ 7:30 p.m.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Federal agents say, at any given time, there may be hundreds of Detroit-based drug dealers lording over the underworld of Huntington.
The top gangsters are very rarely out on the streets themselves. That's left to local recruits -- the foot soldiers.

WSAZ.com's Randy Yohe has news of a major player from the Motor City pleading guilty this week in federal court.

Deshune Calloway, also known as "P" and who sometimes uses the name William Burks, looks to be a key member of the "Cash Out Crips" gang, pleading guilty in one of the biggest drug busts in Huntington history.

Federal officials are explaining just how ingrained the Detroit drug gangs are in the local community -- all after nearly a quarter century of digging in to create a well-woven drug crime connection.

"They have kids in our schools," says Huntington Police Sgt. Darrell Booth, who's also an agent with the FBI Drug Task Force. "They use Western Union to wire cash back to Detroit. They have numbers of willing local girls to rent homes and apartments for them. Some people specialize in getting the utilities turned on."

Booth was in on a January Huntington bust -- seizing massive amounts of drugs and enough firearms to outfit a small militia. It was a bust that led Calloway to plead guilty in federal court to drug trafficking.

U.S. attorneys say Calloway's gang, the Detroit based Cash Out Crips -- along with several other Detroit gangs --use local rental cars and rental units to sell their drugs. They're also said to use willing Huntington residents by the hundreds to do the grunt and front work.

"Plenty of greedy landlords are willing to take three months rent in cash," Booth said.

He says the drug money is so good that some Detroit gangsters are now third-generation Huntington residents.

"They are grandparents," Booth says. "We recently locked up one who was coaching a little league team. We recently seized $31,000. The dealer made that in a few days. Nineteen year olds can make $14,000 in a day or two."

Doing the drug math is frightening. Booth says each one of hundreds of Detroit and Columbus drug dealers in Huntington can have a couple of hundred customers. That means you have to fight supply and demand.

Yohe talked with one local rental car shop manger who regularly tips off drug agents to suspicious car renters, helping to put a crimp in the devastating Detroit drug connection.

Calloway could be sentenced to life in prison.

^^^^

anyone of us could wake up tomorrow morning and start a blood or crip set

that's pretty much the way they spread across the country

Real Hitman from Detroit Nate "Boone" Craft interview

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAKWaAp9LGM[/video]