Smuggling Alleged In Md. Prisons
By Henri E. Cauvin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 18, 2009
An unlikely meeting unfolded this week not far from the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.
About 100 people gathered in a park for what authorities say was an open-air meeting of the Black Guerilla Family, the gang at the center of a newly disclosed federal investigation into smuggling in Maryland's state prisons.
After police broke up the gathering in Druid Hill Park, a leader of the gang scolded a subordinate for holding the meeting in such a way that it drew the attention of police, federal prosecutors said in an affidavit.
"I been tellin' you and tellin' you and you ain't listenin'," Eric Brown, speaking from a Baltimore prison, told Rainbow Williams in a phone conversation.
Federal agents were listening, though -- on wiretaps.
Informants had given investigators cellphone numbers for several imprisoned BGF members, including Brown, according to an affidavit filed in court.
Federal prosecutors thrust a spotlight on the gang Thursday by unsealing indictments against 24 alleged members and associates, including Brown, Williams and four current or former state prison employees.
BGF, as it is known, was founded in 1966 in San Quentin State Prison in California. It is the biggest and most powerful prison gang in Maryland, where its smuggling operation is unrivaled, authorities said.
"The BGF runs the prison system when it comes to controlling contraband," said Capt. Phil Smith, assistant director of the state prison system's intelligence unit.
In Maryland, BGF has been involved in extortion and the smuggling of drugs and other contraband, sometimes with the help of guards, often for the purpose of selling to other inmates, prosecutors say. The gang's leaders have also indulged more decadent tastes, arranging for deliveries of champagne, salmon and crab imperial.
But after decades of operating primarily behind bars, BGF has been establishing a bigger presence on the streets of Baltimore, expanding its footprint into the city's volatile narcotics trade, prosecutors said.
Like some other prison gangs, BGF fashions itself as a movement, Smith said.
"I think you do have some who generally want to educate and want to teach the guys, but . . . you have a certain group or certain faction that's all about the criminal element," Smith said.
Traditionally, the gang's members have been older prisoners, in their 30s and 40s, who are serving longer sentences, Smith said. They remain its leaders, but as the group has branched out into Baltimore, it has recruited younger members as well, Smith said. "You have to have your foot soldiers who you need to do the work," he said.
Like other prison gangs, it is also enlisting people without criminal backgrounds who can, for example, obtain jobs in prisons, Smith said.
"I strongly believe that the majority of our staff are good," he said, "but it only takes a few bad seeds to make everyone look bad."
Organized along paramilitary lines, the BGF has a charter, code of ethics and oath of allegiance, according to government documents.
Brown recently published "The Black Book -- Empowering Black Families and Communities." According to the publishing company's Web site, the book is designed to make people "aware of the vision of comrade George Jackson" -- the founder of BGF -- "and the struggle that he lived and died for."
A BGF member who is cooperating with investigators told them that the book is a ploy to make the group appear legitimate, according to an affidavit filed in support of the charges.
When the crowd dispersed from Druid Hill Park on Monday, police found copies of "The Black Book" and a gun.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Prison Guards Accused of Supplying Gang Members
Reported by: Jeff Hager
Reported by: Delia Goncalves
Last Update: 4/16 10:52 pm
Manager of troubled nightclub involved in gang arrests.
Police said it was a string of violent crime that led them to crack down on Club 410. They successfully padlocked the trouble spot last week, when manager Tomeka Harris vowed to fight the closure. She told us, “There is no drug activity going on here it's all rumors it's all lies."
Come to find out Harris, who so openly defended the club, was under investigation herself. “I'm a law abiding citizen I do what I'm supposed to do so I don't commit crime," she said on April 8th. Now investigators say Harris was a member of the Black Guerrilla Family. They arrested her - and 23 others - on drug, extortion and conspiracy charges. The indictment even alleges members coordinated hits from their jail cell - where the gang, which dates back to the 1960’s, originated. “Gang members of BGF when they're incarcerated continue to involved in gang activities using contraband cell phones in our prisons to call out to fellow members outside the prison," explained U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein.
A major crack in the case, came just a few days ago when police spotted nearly 200 gang members at Druid Hill Park. Two were arrested. Baltimore Police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld said, “It's a great opportunity for us not to wait for fire. Someone smelled smoke and we went and were able to get some bad guys off the streets."
Police won't comment on the link between Tomeka Harris' gang arrest and their efforts to shut down Club 410 but neighbors are relieved it looks like the club is gone - for good.
It’s a prison gang that dates back to the sixties, but the federal indictments suggest the Black Guerilla Family, or BMF, used modern-day, state-of-the-art technology to continue operating its drug trade and to order hits from behind bars.
"Using contraband cell phones in our prisons to call out to fellow members outside the prison... even to call other members that are located in other prisons," said U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein.
Among the two dozen gang members or associates arrested in prisons across the state, the feds busted four current or former corrections employees.
"These are bad examples of the profession and they need to be weeded out... rooted out for everybody's safety," said Maryland Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Gary D. Maynard.
In addition to contraband cell phones, here at the Metropolitan Transition Center in Baltimore, we're told gang leaders would courier in fancy food and liquor including champagne, vodka and seafood.
As the investigation inside the prisons came to a head, it left gang members on the outside in chaos.
City police, acting upon information provided by state and federal agents, broke up a Black Guerilla Family gang meeting in Druid Hill Park on Monday.
"We got great intelligence,” said Baltimore City Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld, “We responded in a good comprehensive way and we were able to capture some of the guys with guns."
In an effort to further crack down on active gang operations behind bars, prison officials are using phone-sniffing dogs to locate contraband cell phones, and in a few months, proposed federal legislation may lead to signal-blocking devices for those, which remain in the inmates’ hands.
Copyright 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Reported by: Delia Goncalves
Last Update: 4/16 10:52 pm
Manager of troubled nightclub involved in gang arrests.
Police said it was a string of violent crime that led them to crack down on Club 410. They successfully padlocked the trouble spot last week, when manager Tomeka Harris vowed to fight the closure. She told us, “There is no drug activity going on here it's all rumors it's all lies."
Come to find out Harris, who so openly defended the club, was under investigation herself. “I'm a law abiding citizen I do what I'm supposed to do so I don't commit crime," she said on April 8th. Now investigators say Harris was a member of the Black Guerrilla Family. They arrested her - and 23 others - on drug, extortion and conspiracy charges. The indictment even alleges members coordinated hits from their jail cell - where the gang, which dates back to the 1960’s, originated. “Gang members of BGF when they're incarcerated continue to involved in gang activities using contraband cell phones in our prisons to call out to fellow members outside the prison," explained U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein.
A major crack in the case, came just a few days ago when police spotted nearly 200 gang members at Druid Hill Park. Two were arrested. Baltimore Police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld said, “It's a great opportunity for us not to wait for fire. Someone smelled smoke and we went and were able to get some bad guys off the streets."
Police won't comment on the link between Tomeka Harris' gang arrest and their efforts to shut down Club 410 but neighbors are relieved it looks like the club is gone - for good.
It’s a prison gang that dates back to the sixties, but the federal indictments suggest the Black Guerilla Family, or BMF, used modern-day, state-of-the-art technology to continue operating its drug trade and to order hits from behind bars.
"Using contraband cell phones in our prisons to call out to fellow members outside the prison... even to call other members that are located in other prisons," said U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein.
Among the two dozen gang members or associates arrested in prisons across the state, the feds busted four current or former corrections employees.
"These are bad examples of the profession and they need to be weeded out... rooted out for everybody's safety," said Maryland Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Gary D. Maynard.
In addition to contraband cell phones, here at the Metropolitan Transition Center in Baltimore, we're told gang leaders would courier in fancy food and liquor including champagne, vodka and seafood.
As the investigation inside the prisons came to a head, it left gang members on the outside in chaos.
City police, acting upon information provided by state and federal agents, broke up a Black Guerilla Family gang meeting in Druid Hill Park on Monday.
"We got great intelligence,” said Baltimore City Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld, “We responded in a good comprehensive way and we were able to capture some of the guys with guns."
In an effort to further crack down on active gang operations behind bars, prison officials are using phone-sniffing dogs to locate contraband cell phones, and in a few months, proposed federal legislation may lead to signal-blocking devices for those, which remain in the inmates’ hands.
Copyright 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Gang-related bus murders rattle Guatemala capital
Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:13pm EDT
* Dozens of bus employees attacked so far this year
* Extortions said to generate nearly $10,000 a day
* Guatemala president points to international traffickers
By Sarah Grainger
GUATEMALA CITY, April 17 (Reuters) - Guatemalan police have arrested a street gang leader on suspicion of organizing the murders of dozens of bus drivers, part of a wave of attacks on the capital's public transport system.
Police say 21-year-old Axel Ramirez, alias "El Smaily" ("Smiley"), belongs to the "Mara 18" gang and ordered more than 20 shootings of bus drivers and fare collectors for not paying extortionists.
Ramirez, arrested on Thursday after a shootout, had been released from prison in December after serving about four years for murdering a rival gang member.
"He was doing a lot of harm, not just extorting our country but organizing murders and generating terror wherever he lived," Interior Minister Salvador Gandara told local radio.
Gangs have attacked more than 40 bus employees this year. Usually the killers pull up to rickety city buses on motorcycles and open fire, or climb aboard and shoot the drivers.
Some 135 bus drivers were slain last year, 50 percent more than in 2007 and more than twice the number murdered in 2006.
Buses often crash after the shootings and passengers are killed or injured in the mayhem. Some bus companies have staged transit strikes in protest.
A 2-month-old baby recently was killed by a stray bullet when gunmen boarded a bus and shot the driver. The same week, an 85-year-old man died in a similar incident.
With more than 6,000 murders last year in a country of 13 million people, Guatemala is one of Latin America's most violent countries. Still scarred from a 1960-96 civil war, it is struggling to contain youth gangs and drug cartels.
Gangs like the "Mara 18" and the rival "Mara Salvatrucha" have thousands of members in vast criminal networks spanning Los Angeles to Central America. They live off extortion, armed assault and drug dealing. Many are adolescents.
Bus extortions in Guatemala City now generate close to $10,000 a day, according to the head of the bus owner's association, and murders of drivers have exploded.
The government is phasing in a $35 million program to replace cash fares with prepaid plastic cards on buses.
This week President Alvaro Colom linked the murders with increased drug smuggling into Guatemala as Mexican cartels move south to avoid an army crackdown at home and seek new trafficking routes.
"The violence is planned and managed by those with political and economic interests who participate in organized crime and international narco-trafficking," Colom said. (Editing by Xavier Briand)
© Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved
* Dozens of bus employees attacked so far this year
* Extortions said to generate nearly $10,000 a day
* Guatemala president points to international traffickers
By Sarah Grainger
GUATEMALA CITY, April 17 (Reuters) - Guatemalan police have arrested a street gang leader on suspicion of organizing the murders of dozens of bus drivers, part of a wave of attacks on the capital's public transport system.
Police say 21-year-old Axel Ramirez, alias "El Smaily" ("Smiley"), belongs to the "Mara 18" gang and ordered more than 20 shootings of bus drivers and fare collectors for not paying extortionists.
Ramirez, arrested on Thursday after a shootout, had been released from prison in December after serving about four years for murdering a rival gang member.
"He was doing a lot of harm, not just extorting our country but organizing murders and generating terror wherever he lived," Interior Minister Salvador Gandara told local radio.
Gangs have attacked more than 40 bus employees this year. Usually the killers pull up to rickety city buses on motorcycles and open fire, or climb aboard and shoot the drivers.
Some 135 bus drivers were slain last year, 50 percent more than in 2007 and more than twice the number murdered in 2006.
Buses often crash after the shootings and passengers are killed or injured in the mayhem. Some bus companies have staged transit strikes in protest.
A 2-month-old baby recently was killed by a stray bullet when gunmen boarded a bus and shot the driver. The same week, an 85-year-old man died in a similar incident.
With more than 6,000 murders last year in a country of 13 million people, Guatemala is one of Latin America's most violent countries. Still scarred from a 1960-96 civil war, it is struggling to contain youth gangs and drug cartels.
Gangs like the "Mara 18" and the rival "Mara Salvatrucha" have thousands of members in vast criminal networks spanning Los Angeles to Central America. They live off extortion, armed assault and drug dealing. Many are adolescents.
Bus extortions in Guatemala City now generate close to $10,000 a day, according to the head of the bus owner's association, and murders of drivers have exploded.
The government is phasing in a $35 million program to replace cash fares with prepaid plastic cards on buses.
This week President Alvaro Colom linked the murders with increased drug smuggling into Guatemala as Mexican cartels move south to avoid an army crackdown at home and seek new trafficking routes.
"The violence is planned and managed by those with political and economic interests who participate in organized crime and international narco-trafficking," Colom said. (Editing by Xavier Briand)
© Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved
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