As of November 1, 2018, Maryland’s Project Safe Neighborhood
Program has Resulted in 328 Defendants Charged so far this Year; Billboards
Installed in an Effort to Deter Criminals from Using Guns
Baltimore, Maryland – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the
District of Maryland today honored 40 police officers and federal agents for
outstanding work in the Maryland Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN) program that
resulted in significant federal violent crime prosecutions. Recipients included police officers from Anne
Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Frederick, Greenbelt,
Maryland National Capital Park Police, Maryland Department of Public Safety and
Correctional Services, Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, St. Mary’s
County Sheriff’s Office; and federal agents from ATF, FBI, and HSI.
“Local, state and federal police and prosecutors are working
together to combat violent crime in Maryland. The hard work of these law
enforcement officers and prosecutors led to dozens of convictions of dangerous
criminals,” said U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur.
“I am grateful to the dedicated and professional staff of the U.S.
Attorney’s Office and to our federal, state, and local partners for the
challenging work that they do every day to make Maryland more safe and secure.”
The honorees participated in the investigation and
prosecution of more than 17 violent crime cases involving more than 101
defendants, including armed robbers, carjackers, violent gang members, and drug
dealers. A majority of the defendants
have previous felony convictions and many are career offenders and/or armed
career criminals, which reflects how the PSN program focuses federal resources
on the more violent criminals plaguing our communities.
United States Attorney Robert K. Hur commended all the
honorees for their work on these violent crime investigations. Mr. Hur thanked the Assistant United States
Attorneys who prosecuted the cases and nominated their agents for these awards. A list of awardees is attached to this press
release.
The Maryland PSN Program is a joint effort by federal, state
and local law enforcement agencies, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland, and
local prosecutors to identify, investigate and prosecute the individuals or
organizations driving violent crime. The
program has three primary components: (1) proactive investigations and
prosecutions; (2) reactive prosecutions; and (3) training and outreach.
Proactive PSN investigations use federally-led task forces
to investigate gangs, drug trafficking organizations, and robbery crews that
have been identified as being connected to past or present acts of violence.
Prosecutors then use federal racketeering, drug, firearms, and robbery statutes
to prosecute those groups. As a part of
the reactive firearms and violent crime prosecutions, certain firearm,
commercial robbery, bank robbery, and carjacking cases are screened to
determine whether federal prosecution is warranted. The last component of the PSN program
involves training and outreach. In
conjunction with state prosecutors, the USAO provides training to local law
enforcement on a variety of issues.
The USAO is also seeking creative ways to reach out to the
community in an effort to deter violent crime.
PSN partners reach out directly to ex-offenders to prevent recidivism
through “call-ins,” making ex-offenders aware of services available to assist
them and of the consequences if they re-offend.
In an effort to deter individuals from using firearms to commit crimes,
the USAO has also recently sponsored billboards in the Baltimore area that
state “Gun Crime = Fed Time, No Parole – Ever.”
The billboards should be up for the next few months.
Since 2017, our partnerships have achieved extraordinary results. In 2017, a total of 334 defendants were
charged in PSN cases. For 2018, as of
November 1, our office has already charged a total of 328 PSN defendants. The following are just a few examples the
extraordinary work our PSN team is doing:
In June 2017, two more members of the Murdaland Mafia Piru
Bloods (“MMP Bloods”) gang were charged with racketeering conspiracy. This gang plagued their territory in
Northwest Baltimore. The recent new
charges brought to 26 the number of alleged MMP gang members and associates
charged with murders, assaults, abduction, witness tampering, and with selling
heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl. Nineteen of 26 defendants have pleaded guilty
and 15 of those have been sentenced to between 71 months and 30 years in
prison. A trial date for the remaining
defendants is scheduled for March 18, 2019.
In January 2018, three members of the Black Guerilla Family
(“BGF”) gang were convicted of federal crimes related to their drug-trafficking
activities, including murders, shootings, and armed robberies. Their sales of cocaine, heroin, ecstasy,
marijuana, and oxycodone plagued the Barclay neighborhood of East
Baltimore. The leader (Gerald Johnson)
and the chief enforcer (Kenneth Jones) were each sentenced to life in prison.
Six other defendants received between 90 and 378 months in prison. The last defendant will be sentenced in
January 2019.
In June 2018, the ninth member of the Up Da Hill gang in
South Baltimore’s Cherry Hill was convicted of charges relating to the gang’s
activities, including murder, robberies, and selling cocaine and heroin. This was one of a series of four gang
prosecutions in the Cherry Hill neighborhood; a total of 49 defendants have
been charged in these RICO and VICAR cases.
On August 13, 2018, a member of Normandie clique of MS-13
was sentenced to life imprisonment resulting from his conviction at trial of
participating in a RICO conspiracy that included three murders and four
attempted murders in Prince George’s and Frederick Counties. The RICO charges included a total of eight
members and associates of the Normandie clique.
Sentences for the defendants ranged from twelve years to life in prison.
In September 2018, the leader of West Baltimore’s violent
Pedestal Gardens gang was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison, and the
manager of a related drug organization was sentenced to 12 years in prison, for
conspiring to sell heroin and fentanyl.
Members of the organization murdered two suspected rivals and the group
brought wholesale quantities of heroin and fentanyl into Baltimore. A total of 14 individuals were charged in the
conspiracy. Thirteen pleaded guilty and
one was convicted after trial.
On September 7, 2018, the leader of the MS-13 Maryland
Program and Park View clique pleaded guilty to a violent racketeering
conspiracy that included attempted murder.
The RICO charges involve seven members of MS-13 who committed multiple
murders, extortion, robbery, assaults, threats of violence, distribution of
controlled substances. Five of the
charged defendants, including the former leader of the Weedoms MS-13 clique and
members and associates of the Cabanas clique, have pleaded guilty. Two remaining defendants, the former leader
of the Cabanas clique and a member of the Sailors clique, are scheduled for
trial in January 2019.
On October 23, 2018,
a defendant who committed a string of ten armed robberies with multiple
co-conspirators was sentenced to eleven years in federal prison. In his guilty plea, the defendant admitted to
robberies of convenience stores in Gaithersburg, Derwood, Hyattsville,
Gambrills, Kettering, Rockville, Glen Burnie, Millersville, and Morningside,
Maryland. In the course of each of the
robberies the defendant brandished a firearm and ordered the victims, convenience
store cashiers, to empty the cash registers.
On co-conspirator was sentenced to 9 years in prison, while the other
two conspirators have yet to be sentenced.
On October 31, 2018, after 24 days of trial, a federal jury
convicted eight members of Trained To Go (TTG), a violent criminal organization
which operated in the Sandtown neighborhood of West Baltimore, whose members
engaged in drug distribution and acts of violence including murder, armed
robbery, and witness intimidation. Their leader, Montana Barronette, was found
personally responsible for seven murders, and in all, the jury found the
defendants responsible for a total of nine murders in Baltimore.
On November 2, 2018, we brought to justice the killer of
three-year-old McKenzie Elliott, who was shot to death as she stood on her front
porch, when she was struck by an errant bullet during a gang dispute. Terrell
Plummer admitted that he killed McKenzie Elliott, and Tyrone Jamison admitted
that he supplied the gun used in the shooting. Both men were members of the Old
York Money Gang, a violent gang that operated in the Waverly neighborhood and
sustained itself largely through the distribution and sale of drugs, as well as
through murder and other violent crimes.
In addition to U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur, agency
representatives who participated in today’s awards ceremony included: ATF Special Agent in Charge Rob Cekada of the
Baltimore Field Office; ATF Special Agent in Charge Thomas Chittum III of the
Washington Field Division; FBI Special Agent in Charge Gordon B. Johnson; DEA
Assistant Special Agent in Charge Don Hibbert; ICE Homeland Security
Investigations Assistant Special Agent in Charge Freddie Taylor; Interim
Baltimore Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle; Baltimore City Assistant State’s
Attorney Gerald Collins, Chief of the Major Crimes Unit; Baltimore County
Police Lieutenant William Vaserlaros; Prince George’s County Police Deputy
Chief Jackie Rafterry; Anne Arundel County Police Chief Timothy Altomare;
Greenbelt Police Chief Richard Bowers; Maryland National Capital Park Police
Chief Stanley Johnson; Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional
Services Dave Reitz of the Intelligence Investigative Divisions; Montgomery
County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger; and St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office
Captain Eric Sweeney.
All the PSN partners—including the U.S. Attorney’s Office,
ATF, DEA, FBI, HSI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Baltimore Police Department,
the Prince George’s County Police Department, the State’s Attorney’s Office for
Baltimore City, and the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office—are
utterly committed to working together to reduce violent crime in Maryland. We identify and target the most dangerous
offenders for federal prosecution, bringing to bear the full range of federal
investigative resources to make our state’s residents safer. We are grateful for the partnerships that
make these results possible will continue to work tirelessly for the good of
the citizens of Maryland.
# # #
USAO PSN AWARDS RECIPIENTS 2018
Anne Arundel County Police Department
Det. Daniel DeLorenzo, FBI TFO
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives
SA David Collier
SA Lisa Christy
SA Michael Eldredge
SA Daniel Giblin
SA John Messick
SA Rebecca Tomlinson
Baltimore Police Department
Det. David Azur, ATF TFO
Det. James Bradley, DEA TFO
Det. Christopher Faller, ATF TFO
Det. Jonathan Hayden, ATF TFO
Det. Craig Jester, DEA TFO
Det. John Jendrick, DEA TFO
Baltimore County Police Department
Cpl. Shane Sammons, FBI TFO
Federal Bureau of Investigation
SA Autumn Brown
SA Sean Regan
Frederick Police Department
Det. Jorge Garcia
Det. Steven Petruzzello
Greenbelt Police Department
Det. Daniel Aguilar
Hyattsville Police Department
Det. Sgt. Zachary Nemser
Homeland Security Investigations
SA Francisco Gerardo
SA Aaron Klein
SA Austin Shaver
SA Joseph Simms
SA Jeffrey Wiedenhaft
Maryland National Capital Park Police
Officer Miguel Ureña, ATF TFO
Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional
Services
Captain Robert S. Dean
Montgomery County Police Department
Det. Diana Cobo, HSI TFO
Det. Christopher Bush, DEA TFO
Det. Ryan Street, DEA TFO
Prince George's County Police Department
Cpl. Paul A. Dougherty
Sgt. Kenneth E. Doyle
Det. Shane Goudreau, ATF TFO
Lt. Patrick Hampson
Det. Nicole McGowen, ATF TFO
Sgt. Denise L. Shapiro
Det. Wayne Tracey, ATF TFO
Det. Mike Trader, HSI TFO
Sgt. William E. Watts
St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office
Det. Cpl. Mark Howard, DEA TFO
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