Feds indict 26 from 2 gangs plaguing N. Side
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Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment Wednesday against 26 members of two North Side gangs who agents said formed an alliance to protect their drug territory with violence, bribery and intimidation.
The 91-page indictment, brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, says the Brighton Place Crips and the Northview Heights/Fineview Crips joined forces in 2002 and 2003 to increase their power and eliminate their rivals, particularly the Manchester Original Gangsters.
The 26 were indicted Feb. 12. The majority were already in jails and prisons, but agents and police rounded up the rest early Wednesday morning and hauled them into U.S. District Court for initial appearance hearings. A 27th suspect, identified as Cheryl Chambers of Perrysville Avenue, was charged with obstruction of justice but is not part of the RICO case, the penalties for which include possible life in prison.
"We consider the Brighton Place/Northview Heights Crips one of the most violent street gangs operating in southwestern Pennsylvania," said Robert Cessar, acting U.S. attorney.
Hopefully, he said, "they have preyed upon our community for the last time."
Mr. Cessar said the two gangs engaged in robbery, attempted murder, assault and carjacking to further their cocaine and heroin enterprise and kept people quiet with intimidation and threats of retaliation.
The gangs "maintained a strict code of noncooperation with law enforcement officers," the indictment says. "Members and associates who did not comply with this code of conduct were ostracized, prohibited from the enterprise's territory and trap houses, physically assaulted and threatened with acts of violence."
According to the indictment, the two groups supported each other while various members were in jail, contributing money for lawyers' fees, bond, jail commissary accounts and phone bills in addition to payments to family members. They also maintained a series of "trap houses," abandoned homes or the homes of women associated with the gang, to store guns and drugs. Street soldiers, referred to as "gorillas," would drive out into the neighborhoods to seek "work" -- their term for drive-by shootings of rival gangsters.
Five of those charged are accused of attempted murder or assault of opposing gang members.
Prosecutors said Arthur Davis, 22, of Shadeland Avenue, tried to kill rivals, including two Original Gangsters, in 2005 and 2006. Karl Anger, 21, of Woodlow Street, is accused of trying to kill an Original Gangster in 2005 at the direction of another indicted ring member, 28-year-old Robert Colbert, formerly of Summerdale Street but now in jail.
First Published February 25, 2010 12:00 am
