Seventy-one people have been charged in connection with a long-running, coordinated federal, state, and local investigation into the New Jersey set of the Grape Street Crips, a street gang allegedly responsible for violence and wide-spread drug-trafficking in the northern New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced today.
Today’s charges and arrests culminate three waves of arrests that started May 6, 2015, and resulted in 14 federal complaints charging 50 members and associates of the Grape Street Crips in that two-week span. These 50 defendants and their associates, along with another 21 defendants arrested previously and facing federal and state charges, actively controlled drug-trafficking and other illegal activities in various neighborhoods and public-housing complexes in Newark.
The charges are the result of a long-running investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, in conjunction with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, the Newark Police Department and Essex County Sheriff’s Office Bureau of Narcotics. The defendants arrested today are scheduled to appear this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judges Steven C. Mannion, Mark Falk and James B. Clark III in Newark federal court.
In addition to controlling drug-trafficking across large swaths of Newark, the Grape Street Crips routinely engaged in acts of violence — including murder, shootings, aggravated assaults, and witness intimidation. A federal grand jury has returned a second superseding indictment charging two of the defendants – Kwasi Mack, a/k/a “Welchs,” 26, of Belleville, and Corey Batts, a/k/a “C-Murder,” a/k/a “Cee,” 30, of Newark, two leaders of the Grape Street Crips – with numerous violent crimes in aid of racketeering, including attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Batts and other gang members controlled drug-trafficking and other criminal activities near the Oscar Miles public-housing complex located on Court Street. Batts is charged by complaint with plotting to murder one of the special agents of the FBI investigating the gang.
The attempted murder charges stem from a dispute between the leadership of the Grape Street Crips and a long-time rival of the enterprise. (The attached table sets forth the charges and potential penalties.)
Batts was charged by federal criminal complaint with plotting to kill an FBI special agent and with solicitation of a crime of violence against the special agent. Batts was attempting to smuggle images of the special agent — obtained from the pretrial discovery turned over to Batts in connection with the above charges — to another gang-member in order to kill the special agent.
To protect their gang and drug territory, the Grape Street Crips operating in the 6th Avenue and North 5th Street area of Newark used “community guns” that were easily accessible to gang members. DEA special agents seized numerous firearms, including a .410 caliber assault rifle, a.45 caliber Thompson semi-automatic carbine, a 7.62 caliber assault rifle, and numerous semi-automatic handguns.