Eight indicted in investigation of gangs in Hampton Roads

Like business partners in a merger, the Bounty Hunter Bloods and Nine Tech Gangsters joined forces to maximize their profit and influence in neighborhoods in Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Suffolk, federal authorities allege.

Now, after what authorities describe as a trail of drugs and violence, the suspected leaders of the two street gangs have entered the next step in their alleged criminal careers together: federal prosecution.

A grand jury indictment unsealed Friday charges eight men in U.S. District Court with offenses ranging from racketeering to drug peddling over a decade. An underlying allegation is that two of the defendants committed a murder.

The indictment alleges violence that included gang initiations and assaults.

For Portsmouth Police, it is the culmination of an investigation that began last May into what they considered the most violent and active gang in the city, said Capt. Garrett Shelton, commander of the Strategic Investigations Division. "These two groups that combined into one are probably in the top five in the region," Shelton said.

Authorities unsealed the 108-count indictment Friday after the last four named defendants were arrested the day before. In its opening pages, the document delves into the gang's drug business, its hierarchy and membership policies.

Joining required the approval of the local "Big Homie," otherwise known as the "OG," or "Original Gangster." Induction rights ranged from taking a beating by other members for 31 seconds - "Shoot a tre one" - or completing a crime of the leader's choosing.

Special members were "blessed in." They were accepted without initiation for their knowledge or credibility, according to the indictment. Members had to learn the traditions and protocols of the gang, and for good reason. If someone was suspected of posing as a member, others would "G-Check" him, or quiz his knowledge of the group.

Members operated primarily out of Churchland and Cradock in Portsmouth; College Square, Huntersville and Burbage Grant in Suffolk; and in the Dunedin section of Chesapeake, according to the indictment. Shelton said the group operated separately from the Bounty Hunter Bloods in Norfolk.

A gang task force from Portsmouth began tracking the group last May, Shelton said. Within the next two months the FBI sent an agent from New Orleans to assist, and for the past two or three months a state trooper was working on the investigation as well. Suffolk and Chesapeake police assisted.

Investigators tried to glean details of the operation by talking to former members, victims, witnesses, girlfriends - probably 150 to 200 people in all, Shelton said.

About two dozen other members of the group had been arrested and charged in state court by last fall.

The alleged leader, James Alexander Mack, 25, was arrested in the fall after a lengthy surveillance. A Virginian-Pilot reporter and photographer witnessed his capture, and the paper chronicled the arrest in an article in November. Mack was among the eight men indicted in federal court this week, on a total of 86 charges. Some charges alleged violent acts.

One count alleges that Arous John Phillips and James Martin Harris, both 22 and from Portsmouth, were involved with the August 2006 beating death of Darius Laquan Powell, 20, of Portsmouth. Several charges involve assaults and maiming in the furtherance of the gang's enterprise, but the indictment gives few details and identifies alleged victims only by initials.

The remaining defendants include two 28-year-old men from Portsmouth: Jamel Spaights, aka Mel or Bloody Bastard, and Eric Drandell Ward, aka Lil E.

The three others are from Suffolk: Danyell Jamar White, aka Putt, 21; Craig Steven Foster, aka Light Bright, 23, and Cameron Mychal Evans, aka Cam, 21.

The U.S. attorney's office described all of the men as gang leaders except Foster and Evans. They were described as gang members, and were both charged with single counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and a weapons charge - fewer charges than the other six defendants. Many of the charges involve drugs. One allegation accuses Mack of buying 2 ounces of crack cocaine weekly from an unidentified co-conspirator between 2002 and October 2009.

Another says he distributed a quarter-ounce of powder cocaine each week between 2005 and June 2009. The indictment also alleges trafficking of heroin and ecstasy.

The arrests don't mean that someone won't come along and pick up the torch for the local Bounty Hunter Bloods and Nine Tech Gangsters crew, Shelton said. "What we're saying is, if you choose to pick it up, we're going to come get you," he said.

Dave Forster, (757) 446-2627, dave.forster@pilotonline.com