LA street gang used storefront to cook and distribute crack cocaine
“Street gangs use violence and intimidation as tools to control narcotics trafficking in their territory,” said United States Attorney Nick Hanna.
“We are committed to making significant improvements in our communities by targeting gangs that bring the dual scourges of drugs and violence into neighborhoods.”
If they are to be convicted, each of the defendants would face decades in federal prison. The conspiracy count alone carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a statutory maximum sentence of life without parole.
The indictment outlined how the defendants obtained cocaine, and converted a convenience store into a crack cocaine processing and distribution center. After cooking their product, they then delivered the drugs to various locations around Los Angeles including a Social Security office.
The process used to process the crack cocaine is commonly referred to as “cooking”.
The indictment targets the leadership and key members of the 92 Osage Legend Crips (OLC), a violent street gang that allegedly manufactured and distributed crack cocaine from the “Stop and Shop Market” in a strip mall on South Prairie Avenue.
Various defendants charged in this case, some of them previously convicted felons, allegedly possessed firearms in relation to their drug-trafficking activities. The street gang members and their associates “used violence and intimidation, including firearms, to maintain and expand their drug-dealing territory, to protect themselves, their drugs, and their drug proceeds from rival gangs and drug-dealing organizations, and to collect payment from drug customers,” according to the indictment.
The indictment charges 15 defendants, 10 of whom were arrested last night and this morning. Out of the remaining five defendants, one was already in state custody, and four are currently fugitives.
“This multi-year investigation began in partnership with the Inglewood Police Department following a spike in violence in the city involving the Osage Legend Crips and indications that the gang had evolved from a local street gang to an organized criminal enterprise,” said Paul Delacourt, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The FBI and our local partners will continue to target the most violent gangs whose members hijack Los Angeles neighborhoods in furtherance of their illegal narcotics sales and criminal interests.”
The lead defendants in the indictment:
- Glen Dwight Love, also known as “Big Luck,” 46, of Pasadena
- Deshay Lewann King, also known as “Shay Bone,” 45, of South Los Angeles
- Wiley Venoy Ivory II, also known as “Slim,” 38, an Inglewood resident who was already in state custody on unrelated charges
They allegedly ran the Stop and Shop, which from the exterior appeared to be a convenience store, but in reality was nothing more than a drug processing and storage facility.
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According to the indictment, several defendants “discussed attempting to make the shop look like an actual retail store and getting window signs to tell drug customers and co-conspirators when to avoid going into the shop.”
Various members of the conspiracy allegedly sold crack cocaine by driving in and around Inglewood, making stops at regular locations where street-level customers knew they could find dealers.
Many of the gang’s narcotics sales were for small amounts, but the indictment discusses a series of larger transactions, some involving ounce quantities of crack cocaine. Intercepted communications during the investigation revealed members of the conspiracy discussing a transaction involving four kilograms of cocaine.
Wow.
This is California folks, where you don’t know if your local convenience store is a mom and pop shop owned by a nice family of legal immigrants, or a fake shop owned by gangs where pop just overdosed on crack cocaine and mom is in the back shooting up an 8-ball of crystal mixed with gun powder playing Russian Roulette with four stray cats….
Please California, you must vote for law and order candidates in November, or else our Liberal leadership pardon these criminals and get them back out on the streets selling drugs and regularly donating to and voting for the Democrat party. The rejection of law going on here is out of control, and thank God we elected Trump when we did, otherwise California might have went completely off the deep end…instead of just slightly off the deep end.
CaliConservative.com 