The Justice Department has announced arrests and federal indictments against seven alleged members of the Gangster Disciples gang for a years-long conspiracy that involves alleged murders and other crimes. Four of the seven are from southeast Missouri.
The indictments were unsealed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.
“The long list of violent crimes alleged in this indictment- including two murders and multiple violent assaults- make plain the threat to our communities posed by criminal organizations like the Gangster Disciples,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas McQuaid of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division says, in a written statement.
Four southeast Missourians are under federal indictment: 50-year-old Sean Clemon, 28-year-old Dominque Maxwell and 29-year-old Perry Harris, all of Cape Girardeau. They are charged with RICO conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, attempted murder in aid of racketeering and related firearms crimes.
44-year-old Barry Boyce of Charleston, an alleged gang member, is charged with RICO conspiracy.
Federal prosecutors allege that Clemon, Maxwell and Harris killed Leroy Allen during an April 2018 Gangster Disciples meeting in eastern Missouri’s Bridgeton.
The indictment alleges that after Allen was killed, Clemon, Maxwell and Harris were promoted to state leadership positions in Missouri.
The 25-page indictment also alleges that the Gangster Disciples have been involved in an ongoing scheme to smuggle K2 into Missouri state prisons. The indictment alleges that Boyce smuggled K2 into four Missouri prisons between 2019-2020: South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Missouri Eastern Correctional Center in Pacific, Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point and Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston. The indictment says Boyce had “help from Gangster Disciples inmates at those facilities.”
The indictment also outlines the rules of the Gangster Disciples, which involves silence and secrecy and a total prohibition on cooperation with law enforcement, “with serious violations punishable by death.”
The FBI, DEA, Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis, Bridgeton Police, Cape Girardeau Police and the Missouri Department of Corrections are all involved with the investigation, according to the Justice Department.
Copyright © 2021 · Missourinet