Syracuse Man Sentenced to 78 Months for RICO Conviction Relating to 110 Gang

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Damani Prince, age 26, of Syracuse, was sentenced today to 78 months in prison based on his guilty plea for violating the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), announced United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith, James N. Hendricks, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Chief Kenton Buckner, City of Syracuse Police Department.  In imposing sentence, Senior United States District Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr. also ordered Prince to serve a three-year term of supervised release following his release from imprisonment.

As part of his earlier guilty plea, Prince admitted that he was a member of the 110 Gang operating in the City of Syracuse, and had distributed crack cocaine and possessed a firearm in connection with his membership in the gang. Prince was one of 14 defendants indicted for violating RICO based on their membership in the 110 Gang.  The other 13 men have all pled guilty or been convicted at trial, and are awaiting sentencing. 

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),  the Syracuse Police Department, and the Gang Violence Task Force, which consists of members of the Syracuse Police, the FBI, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the New York State Police, the New York State Department of Corrections, the New York State Attorney General, and the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicolas Commandeur and Kristen Grabowski.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.