According to a press release from the Department of Justice, a federal grand jury in Oxford, Mississippi, returned a six-count superseding indictment charging five alleged members of the Gangster Disciples gang, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney William C. Lamar of the Northern District of Mississippi.
Notably, the indictment highlights the firebombing of a state prison official’s car and home in Quitman by members of the Gangster Disciples in September 2019.
In the early morning hours of September 11, 2019, the fire and police departments were called to the scene of a fire on Thompson Avenue where two Molotov cocktails (homemade incendiary bombs) had been thrown, one into a vehicle and the other into the bedroom window of the home where it was parked. The one thrown in the home thankfully failed to ignite since there were five people inside.
The superseding indictment charges Latroy Daniels, Gregory Moffett, Michael Willie, Derrick Houston, and Darrell Steele with conspiracy to commit racketeering acts and participating in several violent assaults in aid of a racketeering enterprise for their alleged involvement in violent crimes that occurred across the state of Mississippi, both inside and outside of prison facilities. The indictment additionally charges Steele with using a destructive device in furtherance of a violent crime. The superseding indictment was returned by the grand jury in October and unsealed in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Mississippi.
According to the superseding indictment, the Gangster Disciples is a violent national criminal gang, founded in Chicago, and now active in numerous states across the U.S., including Mississippi. The gang operates under the leadership of a corporate board, which is responsible for gang decisions at the national level. Each state has a state and regional leadership of “governors” and other subordinate gang leaders, who are responsible for the gang’s activities in specific geographic regions and specific substantive areas. The scope of the Gangster Disciples’ crimes is wide-ranging throughout their national operation. The gang protects its power and operation through threats, intimidation and violence, including murder, attempted murder, and arson.
An indictment merely contains allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The case is being investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and investigators with the Mississippi Department of Corrections. The case is being prosecuted by the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section and U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Mississippi.
