Robert Snell / The Detroit News

Detroit — The leader of the Detroit Highwaymen Motorcycle Club and five members should be sentenced to life in prison this month, federal prosecutors said Friday.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said the club's violent nature justifies the stiff sentences and would help deter others from engaging in such a criminal lifestyle.

The government's recommendation comes seven months after a jury convicted leader Aref "Steve" Nagi and five other Highwaymen members of numerous felonies. Over the eight-week trial, jurors heard allegations of beatings, drug dealing and efforts by the club to locate suspected "snitches" who passed information to the FBI.

The convictions closed the first phase in the government's prosecution of more than 80 alleged Highwaymen members and associates in one of the largest indictments ever brought in the Eastern District of Michigan.

"The (Highwaymen) enterprise terrorized southwest Detroit and the area surrounding it," Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane L. Marion wrote in a filing.

"Innocent individuals were fired upon, people were followed and beaten and robbed, orders to kill potential snitches were casually given out, and one can only guess at the amount of damage the drug dealing did in a community already ravaged by drug use and sales."

Nagi is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday followed by the five others in coming days and weeks. The other members are: Gary "Junior" Ball Jr.; Leonard "Dad" Moore; Joseph "Little Joe" Whiting; Anthony "Mad Anthony" Clark; and Michael "Cocoa" Cicchetti.

All of the defendants were found guilty of conspiracy under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which carries a mandatory sentence of 10 years.

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"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming

Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.