New indictment charges 83 gang members with murder and other crimes

A massive federal crackdown on gang operations in multiple states led to the arrest this morning of more than 83 alleged members of United Blood Nation, an organized crime group with ties across Charlotte and along the East Coast, a new indictment says.

The charges in the sweeping 162-page indictment range from multiple murders to narcotics, racketeering, firearms trafficking, robbery and bank fraud. Gang members are tied to at least seven killings and multiple shootings.

The reach of the gang extended into prisons of multiple states. In one 2016example, UBN members smuggled cell phones, narcotics, marijuana and razor blades into the Pasquotank Correctional Institution in Elizabeth City.

The indictment also details gang efforts to traffic heroin, cocaine, narcotics and firearms.

The FBI, joined by state and local law enforcement agents, began rounding up the suspected gang members early Thursday, and vans filled with the prisoners began arriving at the federal courthouse in Charlotte before 10.

United Blood Nation, an East Coast offshoot of the better-known Bloods gangs of California, is well known around Charlotte and a frequent target of law enforcement.

It also cites a series of crimes committed in Florida, including Pensacola, Pace and Gulf Breeze.

A 2015 indictment named 12 Charlotte members in connection with three murders, including the October 2014 killings of Doug and Debbie London, who were shot down in their home to keep them from testifying against the UBN members who tried to rob their mattress store.

Now a new list of defendants, with gang names ranging from “Hardbody,” “Lady Rude,” “Kutthroat” and “Lady Gunz” have been accused of a total of 20 crimes in Charlotte, Gastonia, Concord and Shelby, six North Carolina counties in all.

The indictment also alleges illegal activity as far away as the Florida panhandle and the New York prison system. Other crimes are noted without mention of locations. In other sections of the indictment, purported gang members are accused of passing bad checks or using phony credit cards involvings tens of thousands of dollars in transactions.

But there is also page after page of violence:

▪ The indictment accuses Shamon “Rugie” Goins of murder in the May 16, 2010 murder of Devon Clement.

▪ Four other men named in the indictment are linked to the Nov. 27, 2015 killing of Chris Odoms in Cleveland County.

▪ Two other defendants are accused of the Jan. 26, 2016 murder of Jimmy Ray Daniels in Halifax County, and the wounding of two others.

▪ Gang members are also charged with the Feb. 19, 2016 of Cheeontah Howard at a Gastonia motel.

▪ The indictment links five gang members to the July, 2016 killing of Malik Brown in Chapel Hill.

▪ Another gang member is accused of the April 2016 killing of Donnell Murray in Shelby.

Many of those named in the federal indictment already are in custody under state charges.

U.S. Attorney Jill Rose of Charlotte, joined by Dana Boente, acting assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, and North Carolina FBI Chief John Strong, are scheduled to hold a press conference to discuss the arrests at 1 p.m.

This story was originally published May 18, 2017 at 11:50 AM with the headline "New indictment charges 83 gang members with murder and other crimes."