The Vice Lords are social media savvy and used Facebook to communicate among members, prosecutors said. For example, in July 2017, Fordham posted on Facebook that he was the chief enforcer of the gang, according to the indictment.
"This is just the beginning," said interim Detroit Police Chief James White. The investigation, which involved personnel from Detroit Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives targeted leaders from five branches of the Vice Lords. The hits are known within the gang as Key 21 orders.
The national gang was founded in Chicago in the 1960s and operates several branches in Michigan that are overseen by a governing board that is empowered to order hits on people.
That included arranging for one felon to be stabbed in the face in early 2019, according to the indictment. The Vice Lords gang in Detroit was characterized as highly organized, hierarchal and violent, run by leaders who controlled various parts of Detroit and approved hits on inmates in Michigan's prison system, according to the indictment. "Violent crime rates continue to rise, and with summer upon us, that is likely to continue to rise," Acting U.S. The city has seen nonfatal shootings rise 87.8% since 2019 while the number of homicides climbed 47.7%. Those convicted of federal racketeering-related crimes include members of the Seven Mile Bloods gang, the Devils Diciples Motorcycle Club, Highwaymen Motorcycle Club and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.Ī court-appointed defense lawyer listed in the court filing did not respond to a message seeking comment Thursday.įederal law enforcement officials pointed to the arrests Thursday as the first of several upcoming crackdowns on violent crime in Detroit. The indictment, which also includes drug and firearms charges, is among the largest racketeering conspiracy cases in federal court history in Detroit. In recent years, more than 100 people have been charged with racketeering conspiracy - punishable by up to life in prison - as Detroit police and federal investigators tried to curtail violent crime in Detroit. "We can advance, they can lock us up or we can end up dead," the gang's alleged chief enforcer Davun Baskerville said in a recorded 2019 phone call, according to the indictment. The indictment provides an intimate view of a sprawling investigation driven by a rise in violent crime in Detroit since 2019 and the involvement of what prosecutors described as a sophisticated gang staffed by members with a fatalistic view.
#Female vice lords series#
The 172-page indictment follows a three-year investigation that led to 38 arrests Thursday during a series of raids in Detroit that disrupted three conspiracies to commit murder and led to the seizures of 15 firearms, drugs and cash. The alleged conspiracy involved murder, drug dealing, extortion, stabbings and murder plots, including hits on inmates within the Michigan Department of Corrections. The arrests coincided with prosecutors unsealing a 39-count indictment accusing alleged Michigan gang leader Kevin "Spaghetti" Fordham, 51, of Detroit and 39 other alleged enforcers, associates and high-ranking deputies of orchestrating a racketeering conspiracy since 2012. Detroit - Federal agents Thursday arrested more than three dozen members and associates of the Almighty Vice Lord Nation street gang in an attempt to stem the rise of gun violence in one of the nation's most dangerous cities.
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