Complex Presents Dummy Boy by Shawn Setaro

Author:Shawn Setaro [Setaro, Shawn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kingston Imperial

Part 2

The Feds

Chapter 10

The Aftermath

TMZ broke the story just after 10 PM Eastern time on November 19, 2018. TEKASHI69 BUSTED BY FEDS FOR RACKETEERING ...FACING LIFE IN PRISON read the giant headline.

ATF agents took Tekashi into custody, along with five other people including Shotti, Mel Murda, and Crippy. Crippy wasn’t arrested, exactly—he was already in jail, having been busted the month before for his role in the restaurant brawl.

All of them were in a very stark position. They weren’t just charged with their individual crimes. It was a racketeering case. That meant the government believed all of the crimes were done to further the aims of Nine Trey. And it meant that individual members, whether or not they committed particular crimes, were held responsible for the actions of the gang. It was an approach to law enforcement that had begun in 1970, as a way to fight the mob. But in recent years, it was being applied more and more frequently to street gangs.

The defendants were almost certainly facing long prison sentences. The federal government has an often-talked-about conviction rate of well above 90%, because they don’t bring cases until they have a mountain of evidence. Even though they’d been a little rushed by Tekashi’s would-be casino trip, they were still more than ready. The only way to avoid prison, besides the remote possibility of winning at trial, would be to cooperate.

For everyone but Tekashi, cooperation was unthinkable. Snitching was prohibited by Nine Trey’s 31 rules. The punishment was to be put on the “worldwide menu” of people who should be killed at the earliest possible opportunity. (Feeding as a metaphor for violence was not original with Shotti).

There were myriad reasons for the prohibition on snitching. It appeared to protect all the members of a criminal enterprise. But according to gang experts, it most frequently serves to protect members in the upper ranks, while leaving the foot soldiers out to dry. And violations of the rule happen more frequently than you might expect.

Edwin Santana is the president of the New Jersey chapter of the East Coast Gang Investigators Association. He explains that while the prohibition on snitching in gangs is heavily emphasized and maintained through fear, “I’ve yet to bump into a gang member that follows that code.”

“The same people that push it are the same people that will basically ask to speak to the D.A., the prosecutors, the detective, and give up information,” he says. “The same individuals saying [no snitching] are the same individuals that are working a deal and working for less time.”

Shotti was an exception. His often-stated motto for the gang was, “We don’t fold, we don’t bend, we don’t break.” The prospect of jail time was not about to make him abandon his principles.

Tekashi, on the other hand, was primed to cooperate. He was facing a minimum sentence of almost five decades, and was surrounded by people whom he believed had betrayed him and stolen from him. Plus, he was already telling law enforcement about the gang.

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