Bronx prosecutors indicted 84 people yesterday on narcotics trafficking, murder, attempted murder, and weapons possession charges, saying that they were part of four gangs that distributed crack, heroin, and the powerful synthetic opiate Fentanyl in cities and towns around New England, and brought back guns to sow mayhem. The Bronx District Attorney's Office called it the largest gang prosecution in its history, in terms of the number of people charged.
The street crews, the Eden Boys, Miami Ave., UGZ and RGZ, are allegedly responsible for 22 shootings in the Bronx neighborhoods of Tremont, Fordham, and High Bridge. One accused member, Wilfred Lora, already incarcerated and facing weapons and drug possession and attempted murder charges, is being charged with 11 attempted murders.
His lawyer, Anthony Strazza, said he has not seen the indictment, but that Lora plans to plead not guilty at his arraignment next week.
"In cases like this, oftentimes the police and the DA’s Office get their information from informants who later turn out to be unreliable, untrustworthy, incredible," he said. "So the indictment is filled with only allegations. It looks really bad, but whether or not they can actually prove that stuff is another story."
Of the 84 defendants, 58 are being charged as major traffickers, a formal designation for drug dealers managing more than $75,000 in controlled substances in a short timeframe, which can carry a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
New Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, a former appeals judge ushered into office by the borough's Democratic Party machine in January without voter input, said in a statement that these are bad people.
"With reckless brutality, these four gangs battled on the streets of the Bronx over drug profits made in New England, or purely for the sake of violence, sometimes trapping innocent bystanders in the crossfire," she said.
The investigation began in November 2014, when police started looking into crews believed to be responsible for recent violence, according to a DA's Office release [pdf]. The federal Drug Enforcement Agency got involved the following February as intelligence turned up showing some crew members were spending time in the southeastern Massachusetts towns of Bourne and Wareham. Investigators say they found that the gangs had been moving heroin and cocaine up from the Bronx to the area from 2012 to late 2014, and further probing turned up an alleged crack and heroin selling operation in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Prosecutors claim the groups were making $10,000 a week selling crack in Manchester, four times what the same amount would go for in the Bronx, and buying guns there to carry home. They say they followed the supply chain to an organization moving kilos of drugs a week through the Bronx, and traced the business's tendrils to Manhattan and Bergen County, New Jersey.
Raids turned up nine kilos of coke, four kilos of heroin, two kilos of Fentanyl, half a kilo of Fentanyl-laced heroin, 12 pounds of cutting chemicals, $260,000 in cash, seven automobiles, and 889 grams of crack. Also, 15 guns, extended magazines, and heaps of ammo.
Police and federal agents arrested 31 of the suspects on Wednesday. 35 are already locked up on other charges, and 18 are still on the run.
The Bronx DA's Office would not provide a copy of the indictment.
