Dozens of alleged warring SE Queens gang members arrested
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Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced the indictment of 33 alleged gang members from Southeast Queens accused of being responsible for a slew of violence over four years on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. Photo via Queens District Attorney’s office
By Ryan Schwach
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Tuesday a massive gang bust that resulted in the indictment of nearly three dozen alleged gang members, a little over a month after the office indicted 23 gang members in Woodside.
The 151-count indictment, possibly the largest gang indictment in the office’s history, names 33 alleged members of two warring gangs in and around Southeast Queens. The DA said that the indictment is a result of nearly three-years of investigation into guns and gang violence in the Baisley Park Housing project on Foch Boulevard in South Jamaica.
According to prosecutors, the violence between the gangs resulted in the murders of a number of bystanders over the years.
“Whether it was a young man playing basketball with friends, a schoolteacher walking his dog, or a mother running out for milk for her children, we have seen law-abiding New Yorkers peacefully going about their business killed by mindless gang gun violence,” said Katz in a statement.
“We must do absolutely everything we can to get illegal firearms off of our streets,” she added. “It is why the work of the NYPD’s Gun Violence Suppression Unit and my Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau is critically important. I commend them for their outstanding work in bringing these extremely violent and dangerous individuals to justice.”
Five of the 33 members are being charged with the murder of 14-year old Aamir Griffin, who was killed in 2019 by an alleged gang member who thought the young boy was a rival, and the killing of Sean Vance on New Year’s Eve 2020.
The oldest of the gang members named in the indictment is 40, but the majority of them are between the ages of 17 and 20.
The indicted men all come from rival gangs who the DA says were in a blood feud – the Money World gang was allegedly warring with both the Local Trap Stars and Never Forget Royalty. The gang war allegedly began in April of 2019 and violence is believed to have escalated in October 2019 with the mistaken killing of Griffen.
Griffen’s killing set off 22 more shootings, one of which was fatal, according to the charges.
Prosecutors said that the feud was fueled by social media and rap videos, both bragging about violence and taunting other gangs’ members.
In April 2019, when two Money World members attacked and slashed a Trap Stars member on Guy R. Brewer Boulevard, the “gang war” began, Katz said.
The most recent incident stemming from the gang fight was on Jan. 21, when Money World member Jokai Coy, an 18-year-old who is himself indicted on a slew of charges including murder, shot at Kobe Ruffin, a Trap Stars member, according to the charges. The shooting, which occurred in broad daylight on Guy R. Brewer Boulevard, sent Ruffin to the hospital, as well as a nearby bystander.
Coy could potentially see up to 25 years in prison.
This slew of gang related indictments comes a month after Katz announced the indictments of 23 gang members across the borough in Woodside.
That 850-count indictment brought in members of warring subsets of the Crips, and was the result of investigations that began after the murder of a 37-year-old mother, Gudelia Vallinas, who was killed by a stray bullet in March 2021.
Mayor Eric Adams was present at that announcement, and spoke of recidivism being a major contributor to crime in the five boroughs.
“You heard me over and over talk about recidivism, these men were part of a system that allows them to continue to perpetuate violence,” he said. “This case is another victory in our work to remove New York’s most dangerous individuals from our communities.”
On Tuesday, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell applauded the work that led to the indictments announced this week.
“The people of New York City are safer because of the meticulous investigation and sustained effort of the NYPD officers and Queens prosecutors involved in this important case,” she said.
“Our pledge is always to achieve justice for crime victims and to hold violent gang members who undermine public safety accountable for their crimes,” she added. “We will work every day to protect every city neighborhood and I want to thank the Queens district attorney’s office and everyone else whose dedication to justice and public safety is reflected in today’s indictment.”
The indictinted gang members, who were brought up on charges of conspiracy in the first, second and fourth degrees, murder in the second degree and additional charges, are due back in court in May with potential prison sentences ranging from one year to 25 years.
