NEW YORK—Fifteen gang members, part of a sub-section of the famed Crips, were arrested and indicted on 69 counts, police announced Thursday. City police also seized 21 guns as part of the investigation.
The fifteen were part of the “GS9,” also referred to as “G Stone Crips,” based in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Members of the gang typically ranged from ages 18 to 25.
After numerous shootings in public places between GS9 and rival gangs in the city and in Miami, Florida, police finally caught the fifteen, in an investigation that involved “all these little facts stitched together,” said Bridget Brennan, special narcotics prosecutor.
Early Wednesday morning, police arrested eight members outside Quad Recording Studios, where several of the gang recorded their music as rappers. Five others were arrested at the same time in other parts of the city, and two others were taken into custody outside of New York.
Several of the members had also been part of a rap group under the name GS9, including Ackquille Pollard, who performs as “Bobby Shmurda” and is also known as “Chewy,” and Chad Marshall, who went by the name “Rowdy Rebel.”
The gang had operated around East 95th Street from Kings Highway to East New York Avenue in East Flatbush. They bought guns with money obtained through crack cocaine sales. As violence with rival gangs surged, members had been plotting to shoot them in retaliation, including members of a gang that went by the acronym “BMW,” which stands for Brooklyn’s Most Wanted.
The 69 indictment counts include charges of conspiracy, murder, attempted murder, assault, criminal use of a firearm, and narcotics sales, etc.
Shootings
In looking to arrest the GS9 members, police pinpointed two particularly violent incidents.
On Feb. 8 last year, a 19-year-old member of Brooklyn’s Most Wanted was shot dead allegedly by Rashid Derissant, a GS9 member, inside a bodega. Derissant had been accompanied by another GS9 member, Alex Crandon, and both face charges of unplanned murder and attempted murder.
