By Kevin Deutsch
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Three Bronx-based leaders of the Blood Hound Brims, a once-notorious gang responsible for violence and drug dealing across the region, were convicted this week on racketeering conspiracy, narcotics trafficking conspiracy, and firearms offenses, federal authorities said.
Latique Johnson, 39, the set’s founder, as well as Brandon Green, 36, and Donnell Murray, 39, were instrumental in the gang’s drug trafficking operations – the Blood Hound Brims sold crack, powder cocaine, and heroin across New York City – as well as acts of gun violence regularly carried out by set members to control Bloods’ territory and intimidate enemy gangs, officials said.
Johnson and Murray were also found guilty of committing assault in aid of racketeering for a 2012 shooting at a fast food restaurant in the Bronx involving an AK-47, authorities said. Johnson alone was found guilty of attempted murder in aid of racketeering for ordering a 2012 shooting of rival gang members in the Bronx.
The convictions followed a five-week trial in Manhattan federal court.
The Blood Hound Brims set was active from from roughly 2005 until 2016, operating under the banner of the Bloods street gang’s New York Blood Brim Army, prosecutors said.
The set operated in New York City, Westchester County, Pennsylvania, and other states, as well as within federal and state penal systems, officials said.
“BHB,” as prosecutors called them, used a hierarchical structure and was maintained in part through payment of member dues, authorities said.
Johnson, who members called the “Godfather,” sat atop a leadership structure than featured various branches, known in Bloods parlance as “pedigrees,” each of which had their own leadership structures approved by Johnson.
Other leadership positions within the set included treasurers, who collected dues from members of a particular pedigree, as well as those who performed security and disciplinary functions, prosecutors said.
The set held regular meetings, sometimes called “pow wows” or “9-11s,” at which members were required to pay their dues and gang business was discussed, authorities said.
“Kitty dues” – money that paid for commissary funds, lawyers, guns, and drugs, and which served as tribute to Johnson – were collected at the meetings, prosecutors said.
The set even had its own official rules and “constitution” that new members were required to learn, authorities said.
Johnson, Green, and Murray all face up to life in prison when they are sentenced.