A former Baltimore Safe Streets employee who also was a member of the Black Guerrilla Family gang has pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges, authorities announced Tuesday.
Ricky “Dorsey†Evans, 38, of Baltimore, served as a BGF gang leader while working for the city-funded program that hires ex-felons to mediate disputes, the Maryland U.S. attorney’s office said. Prosecutors said Evans worked out of the Safe Streets office in the 2300 block of Monument St., where he also held BGF meetings and used it to store and distribute drugs as well as firearms used in crimes.
Evans and co-defendant, Shawn “Bucky†Thomas, also 38, admitted to serving as high-ranking members of the gang, which sold drugs through BGF-controlled open-air drug shops in their territories in East Baltimore and the 2700 block of Greenmount Ave., according to their plea agreements.
Their attorneys did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Baltimore police charged Evans and eight others in 2015 after a raid found seven guns and drugs at the Safe Streets office. Baltimore prosecutors later dropped all charges against all nine defendants, after prosecutors said they received "exculpatory information that called into question the identity of the defendants."
According to court files, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was investigating an armed drug-trafficking organization operating at Monument and Rose streets in McElderry Park, which was led by Evans. Investigators conducted surveillance at Evans’ apartment in November 2016, attached a GPS tracking device to his vehicle and in February 2017 began wiretapping his cellphone.
Court records show he was arrested again and detained in March 2017 and charged with drug and gun-related offenses. He was later charged with racketeering.
According to his plea agreement in the federal case, Evans accepted payments to have violence committed against individuals, and then assigned other BGF members .
2 BGF Leaders Indicted
