A grand jury this week handed up indictments against more than 30 alleged borough gang members on charges of conspiring to murder two rival gang members and conspiring to commit robberies in order to raise bail money for an alleged gang leader on Rikers Island.
The 31 defendants, who range in age from 15 to 22, are reputed members of SNOW, Loyalty Over Everything and Young Bosses street gangs. Seventeen defendants have been charged in the retaliation-murder plot; while the other 16 defendants were charged with conspiring to commit robbery.
“In thwarting their plans, police, it is alleged, recovered a loaded defaced handgun and a vehicle that had been stolen and was being used by gang members,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. “Under the second indictment, an alleged leader of the SNOW gang is accused of brazenly assuming that he could continue to run criminal activities from his jail cell—specifically, order other gang members to commit robberies so that they could raise bail monies to secure his release from jail. Unfortunately for him his plan failed and his associates, if convicted, will join him behind bars.”
According to the DA’s office, the long-term investigation—which was spearheaded by the city Police Department’s Queens Gang Squad, the NYPD’s 113th Precinct’s Strategic Enforcement Team and District Attorney Brown’s Career Criminal Major Crimes Bureau—utilized various investigative techniques, including the monitoring of conversations spread out on more than 1.1 million Facebook pages belonging to gang members in which gang members allegedly discussed reputed gang leader Daquan Monroe’s orders to commit robberies and how to go about achieving the goal; and by listening to recorded telephone conversation made from Rikers Island by Monroe to his cousin and co-defendant, Michael Paradise.
“The arrests and indictments of these SNOW gang members and their affiliates sends a clear message that the New York City Police Department, along with our partners from the Queens District Attorney’s Office, will continue to rid our communities of gang activity and gun violence,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said.
The defendants allegedly operated generally in Rosedale, Laurelton and Rochdale Village, Brown said.
“These indictments are another example of police and prosecutors working together to eliminate gang violence that too often plagues our neighborhoods,” Brown noted, “and strikes at the heart of a unified and criminally active group of young people who threaten the lives and safety of innocent bystanders.”
By The Forum Staff
