* From a June 2012 press release…
House Bill 1907, sponsored by Sen. Tony Munoz (D-Chicago) and Rep. Mike Zalewski (D-Chicago), is modeled off the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act that was designed to help law enforcement fight organized crime by treating criminal acts committed by members of the group as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise. Under this legislation, law enforcement in Illinois can more effectively target the street gang leaders who order and benefit from the crimes of lower-ranking members.
The bill is here. It had bipartisan support in both chambers. Just one Senator voted against it (Annazette Collins) and 18 House members did so (mostly members of the Black Caucus, but also some white liberals).
* The new law is apparently working well so far. Tribune…
Local authorities, armed with a powerful new state RICO law, said they charged dozens of leaders and senior members of a notorious West Side street gang with operating a violent, $11 million-a-year heroin and cocaine operation responsible for seven murders and untold violence since the 1990s.
In unsealing the charges Thursday, authorities said the probe began after a victim of violence at the hands of the Black Souls gang was shot to death in a daylight street attack in October after he had refused a bribe of $3,000 to drop charges against several gang leaders for his earlier beating and robbery.
Before sunrise Thursday, Chicago police gang specialists and FBI agents armed with “no knock” search warrants fanned out across the Chicago area to arrest suspects accused of being high-ranking leaders of the gang as well as “top runners” and supervisors who authorities said control its street operations. In all, 23 people were charged with racketeering conspiracy and criminal drug conspiracy in the first use of the tough new state RICO law, while 18 others face more traditional drug or weapons charges, authorities said. […]
The Black Souls operation is centered near West Madison Street and Pulaski Road and is thought to have a half-dozen factions with about 750 members, a fraction of the size of gangs like the Latin Kings or Gangster Disciples, according to law enforcement.
“They’re small, violent and hard to infiltrate,” said Chicago police Sgt. Charles Daly, who helped run the investigation. “Tightknit. We never had any luck infiltrating this group.”
* Sun-Times…
The leaders of a West Side gang accused of ruthlessly enforcing a “no-snitch” code — and shooting two Chicago Police officers in the head in 2011 — were arrested Thursday in a massive roundup under a new state racketeering law.
The Black Souls are accused of at least six murders, kidnapping, gunrunning and drug dealing. The investigation, called Operation .40-Cal, began in October after the gang allegedly killed a West Side man who complained to the police about illegal activity on his block.
Authorities said the gang is among the most difficult to infiltrate because the leaders use murders to keep witnesses from testifying against them.
Secret recordings earlier this year captured reputed Black Souls chief Cornel “Corn” Dawson saying he held meetings with younger Black Souls to warn them not to cooperate with the police — and was worried he was under investigation for murder, prosecutors said.
“These leaders tend to insulate themselves and this law helps law enforcement penetrate the veil of secrecy,” Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said.
Dawson, 38, was among the 41 reputed members charged in Operation .40-Cal. […]
The racketeering case accuses the gang of at least six killings dating to 1999. The June 24, 2002, murder of Charles Watson highlights the gang’s use of violence as a disciplinary tool, authorities said.
- crazybleedingheart - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 11:38 am:
Golly gosh, I hope nobody shows this story to Senator Kirk. How embarrassing for him.
Time will tell whether the bill was a good idea, but Alvarez is putting a good face on it for now.
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 11:49 am:
I’m all for it. That’s my local open-air heroin market.
Maybe pop some more of the folks from the suburbs and downstate who are the customers (they show up in the Oak Park blotter after being found passed out in their cars) and we’ll have something going.
In reading the bill, the predicates listed would seem to rule out use of the state act for white collar crime, labor rackeetering or political corruption. They’re all street crimes; nothing about money laundering or bribery or such.
I imagine that’s not an accident, lol.
- dupage dan - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 11:59 am:
Yeah, wait’ll Rush gets a load of this. Man, will he give Alvarez a piece of his mind.
- Formerly Known As... - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 12:04 pm:
Chicago Tonight actually had an interesting take on this last night.
One of their reporters raised the point that this may be viewed as an iteration of Kirk’s plan to round up all the bad guys.
RICO cases are labor and manpower intensive, so only time will tell how large a scale these roundups become.
But whether it ultimately resembles Kirk’s plan or not, one thing is certain: he issued a press release congratulating Alvarez and company on rounding up so many of the alleged “bad guys”.
- Fed up - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 12:04 pm:
I’m with Wordslinger, every exit off the Eisenhower exp on the west side has a open air drug market for the kids coming to get their heroin. Start taking thier cars, and letting mom & dad know what’s going on. As long as thier are customers gangs in the city will kill over the good drug corners.
- Just Me - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 12:13 pm:
How embarassing is it that you have a blog post to celebrate that something actually worked in state government?
- b - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 12:15 pm:
the drug war just keeps rolling right along… doing the same thing we have always done will work, I’m sure of it. /snark
- ??? - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 12:46 pm:
I’m curious, what were the reasons stated for opposition by the one senator and 18 House members who voted no?
- soccermom - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 12:56 pm:
Back when I was a reporter, the newspapers stopped printing the names of the various gangs, on the grounds that giving them publicity fanned gang rivalries and increased violence.
Should we be promoting these folks?
- Wumpus - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 1:05 pm:
Seizing cars is ridiculous. I understand the need to stop this criminal behavior, but it is over the top.
- Namaste - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 1:33 pm:
Victims of their own success. There is a direct connection between law enforcement’s successful targeting of gang leadership and the increase in murders in Chicago. Without strong leadership, the gangs have become fractured into smaller sects where younger members no longer follow accepted rules and “traditions”. Older members will tell you that they’ve lost the respect of younger members and the result has been more deaths.
- Keyrock - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 1:43 pm:
Scocermom — I’m not sure the gang members are such big newspaper readers. But whether or not they are, it is important that others understand the scope and nature of the gang problem.
- Reader - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 1:55 pm:
Assumed response from Rep. Rush: These “white boy” solutions will never work! We should be sending these guys to job training, not jail!
- 47th Ward - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 2:24 pm:
Bringing an indictment is one thing, getting a conviction is another. Proving associations with the street gangs isn’t as easy as it has been with some of the Outfit crews. Further, many of the street gangs bosses are in prison already, leading from the inside. Locking up a new group of gangsters only opens up more jobs for new members.
I hope they get some big convictions but I’ll wait until they do before calling this a success.
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 14, 13 @ 3:57 pm:
–Back when I was a reporter, the newspapers stopped printing the names of the various gangs, on the grounds that giving them publicity fanned gang rivalries and increased violence.–
Soccermom, that’s a tough call.
I know I scream at my boys when I catch them watching “Gangland,” which I think celebrates the worst street criminals.
Yet, I read everything I can on the Mafia. So there’s my hypocrisy.
Ultimately, yes, I think as a reporter, you report what you know, and let people make decisions on the information.
Plus, these groups, from the get-go, are influential within their communities. They’re not outsiders, whether you’re talking The Outfit, or GD, or Latin Kings.
Lord knows that there are a number of prominent families in Chicago and around the country that owe the start of their fortunes to organized crime. You see their names featured in Millenium Park, streets signs, charitable foundations, ambassadorships, the cabinet, etc.
On a local note related to the story, I just got off the Green Line and observed a goodly number of sick junkies getting on at Pulaski, Laramie and Cicero, heading to Harlem to get in their cars and go back to the suburbs.
I guess they didn’t read the papers today. They couldn’t cop. Nothing sadder that the sight of a sick junkie.