Free Republic

In Chicago, the price of illegal guns soared during the pandemic, but gangs were able to pay for them with COVID-19 relief money obtained fraudulently, agents say. When COVID-19 struck in 2020, the government quickly put together massive aid programs to help struggling businesses, along with the people who lost their jobs. But other kinds of enterprises with names like the Traveling Vice Lords and the Wild 100s — criminal street gangs in Chicago and across the country — soon figured out how to take advantage of that safety net. They defrauded those programs of millions of dollars that they...

"A Chicago-based group called Defund CPD Campaign is advocating for the abolition of the Chicago Police Department's "racist" gang database, stating that a vast majority of individuals listed are Black or "Latinx." "Another racist surveillance tool used to criminalize is CPD's gang database. Of the 500,000 Gang Arrest Cards recorded, 95% of the individuals designated as gang members were Black and Latinx, with 91.3% of all individuals being male," a Twitter post from the Defund CPD Campaign reads. ..."

GULFPORT, MS (WLOX) - A 5-day cooperative operation between various law enforcement divisions led to a massive crime bust in Gulfport. Forty people were arrested as a result of Operation Shark Tank, carried out by the Gulfport Police Narcotics Division, US Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force, MBN, ATF, HSI and MDOC. The arrests took place between April 16- April 20. Officials say several firearms and narcotics were seized during this operation. Operation Shark Tank is a sub-operation of Operation Triple Beam, a six-week-long violence reduction initiative for the Southern District of Mississippi under the U.S. Department of Justice....

Decades before Black Lives Matter, Ellison was a very prominent defender of cop killers associating with Sharif Willis after the murder of a Minneapolis police officer. Willis was with the Vice Lords, a black Muslim gang and one of the largest in the country. He participated in demonstrations on behalf of the Vice Lords and attended a national gang confab. In 2000, he called for the release of Kathleen Soliah of the Symbionese Liberation Army and heaped praise on Mumia Abu-Jamal and Assata Shakur- two notorious cop killers.

Leaders from three West Side gang factions allegedly met last week to discuss plans to shoot members of the Chicago Police Department in response to the fatal police shooting of Paul O’Neal. The meeting took place Thursday between higher-ups from the Vice Lords, Black Disciples and Four Corner Hustlers, according to an alert issued to department members the day after the meeting. The Four Corner Hustlers “provided guns” and have “a sniper in place” though authorities do not know where, according to the alert. The Four Corner Hustlers also are supplying the other two gangs with automatic weapons, which all...

An FBI operation into the Black Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords and Sipp Mob street gangs may provide some answers into the 2014 murder of a 19-year-old teen who was burned alive on a rural road in Mississippi. This week, federal, state and local authorities deployed multiple SWAT teams to arrest nine high profile gang members on multiple charges. In total authorities have been able to get get state or federal indictments against 17 gang members on charges ranging from child endangerment, possession of stolen firearms, narcotics sales, and felon in possession of a firearm to possession of counterfeit currency.

This pantry across the street from the JJ Peppers on the Northeast side of the corner of Lawrence and Sheridan in Uptown is one of about a dozen corners in Uptown widely suspected to be a flash point for drug dealing. Ironically enough, this meeting point for street dealers is only a block away from two of the anchors of Uptown, the Aragon Ballroom and the Green Mill. (the Green Mill once played host to the original gangster, Al Capone, who counted it among his favorite spots)

October 22, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: http://milwaukee.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/mw102209.htm Forty-One Defendants Federally Indicted in Racine Gang Case United States Attorney Michelle L. Jacobs announced today that two indictments were unsealed in federal court charging 41 defendants with various drug-trafficking offenses. The defendants, many of whom are alleged to be members of the Vice Lords and North Side Gangster Disciples street gangs, are charged with, among other things, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A) and 846. The defendants are identified as: Starsius T. Barnes, a.k.a. “Star” (32), Brian T....

The Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings and Vice Lords were born decades ago in Chicago's most violent neighborhoods. Now, their gang graffiti is showing up 6,400 miles away in one of the world's most dangerous neighborhoods -- Iraq. Armored vehicles, concrete barricades and bathroom walls all have served as canvasses for their spray-painted gang art. At Camp Cedar II, about 185 miles southeast of Baghdad, a guard shack was recently defaced with "GDN" for Gangster Disciple Nation, along with the gang's six-pointed star and the word "Chitown," a soldier who photographed it said. The graffiti, captured on film by an Army...

Police bust members of 2-6 Vice Lords on north side Milwaukee police and federal officials announced this morning 21 arrests they said will “disrupt” havoc wreaked by the 2-6 Vice Lords, a north side gang. “They set out to remove a dangerous gang from the streets of Milwaukee, and they were quite successful,” said FBI Special Agent James Finch, whose agency worked with Milwaukee police and other investigators from local, state and federal agencies in the sweep. The gang, police said, ranged from N. 20th to N. 27th Streets, between W. Lisbon and W. North Avenues, and participated in drug...