GOULA BOYS MAFIA

Also known as the Goula Boys Mafia in the past, the GBMs are mostly made up of younger adults, some still in their teens, who are engaged in alleged gun-running, drug-trafficking and other violent crime.

In a March 31 stop involving two of the alleged members, cops found marijuana, a pot grinder, two guns and a couple of face masks.

Those who forced their way into a side door in the armed home-invasion and killing in Moss Point also donned similar masks, something authorities believe the gang members wear while committing crimes.

The GBMs identify mostly as a subset of the Bloods street gang, originating out of Los Angeles in 1970s to protect criminal interests and maintain control of the streets, especially against the rival Crips gang.


Local authorities say the GBMs’ primary rival gang are members of the mostly Moss Point-based gang, Money Over Bitches, or MOBs.

Less is known about the MOB’s, authorities say, because they do not use social media like the GBMs to boast about their activities.

However, authorities say, the MOBs identify as a subset of the Crips street gang and similar subsets of that gang, such as the Black Gangster Disciples. Like the GBMs, the MOBs are also believed to be involved in alleged gun- and drug-trafficking.

AN ATTACK ON GANGS

Some of the alleged members of the GBMs are among those who have been arrested in the last year and half on mostly federal charges of being known drugs users in possession of firearms.

U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst has touted the ongoing efforts of local, state and federal authorities as an attack on organized criminal activity by alleged gang members.

The work has led to the successful federal prosecutions of various gang members that, Hurst said, gets them off the streets and away from their home base to serve time in out-of-state federal prisons.

Another key advantage to federal prosecutions, authorities say, is that the charges carry stiffer sentences that allow less communication between inmates and the outside world, limiting the ability of these offenders to maintain control over the streets they once led.


It also results in lesser crime in communities, Pascagoula Police Chief Kenny Johnson said, such as what his agency sees, which he described as mostly gang-on-gang crimes.

According to authorities, a lot of the intelligence they have gathered on the GBMs has come to light in investigations, tips from the public and through other intelligence gleaned from their music and their messages on social media.

“With our multi-prong enforcement, we haven’t seen as much criminal activity,” Johnson said. “We haven’t seen anything we feel warrants the need to issue any special warnings to the public.”

However, in the last two years cops doubled their presence at Pascagoula High School when rumors started about a possible gang fight allegedly involving members of the GBMs and a rival gang that never happened.

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