You don't really hear that much about gangs in boston.

Feds arrest 41, say they've 'dismantled' Columbia Point Dawgs gang
Thursday, June 18, 2015 PrintEmail0 Comments
By:
Matt Stout


More than 40 people tied to Boston's "largest and most influential city-wide gang" were scooped up as part of a sweeping two-year probe that netted dozens of guns, more than $1.5 million in cash and a fleet of high-priced cars, authorities said today.

Forty-one of the 48 leaders, members and associates of the Columbia Point Dawgs gang charged today are in custody after hundreds of law enforcement officials executed sweeps in and around Boston earlier this morning, according to U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz's office.

"It's one of, if not the, largest gang take-downs that we've seen in Boston," said Vincent B. Lisi, the Special Agent in Charge for the FBI Boston office.

Known as "The Point," the gang ran drug trafficking crews around Boston, and distributed heroin, crack and other drugs from southern Massachusetts all the way to Maine, authorities said.

All the while, gang members were happily "flaunting their drug trafficking wealth," buying up jewelry, Maseratis and Lamborghinis, Ortiz said.

"By 2010, and until today's law enforcement action, the Columbia Point Dawgs have been considered the largest, most feared and influential gang in Boston," Ortiz said at a press conference, adding that today's arrests "effectively dismantled and removed (the gang) from the streets of Boston and surrounding communities."

The 48 people are charged across six indictments with various gun and drug charges. Authorities say they seized 31 guns, 11 of which were on display at a press conference; 15 cars, including a Maserati, Mercedes and Audi; and $1.5 million in cash.

In the past year and a half, officials said the group been engaged in violent gang warfare with the Greenwood Street Posse. The feud has caused "numerous shootings," and Point members are responsible for a number of shootings of rival gang-bangers, authorities said.

"These are calculated acts of serious violence committed to further a criminal enterprise," said Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. "Let's not kid ourselves. When rival drug dealers intrude on each other's marketplace, they don't face an injunction or a new marketing campaign. They face retaliation at the point of a gun."

Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans declined to detail which cases gang members may be tied to, or if any of the gang members are suspected in any unsolved murders in the city. But both he and Conley said the sweeping investigation could spur other probes at the state and local level.

"We're hoping to gather information that will lead us in all different directions so we can solve a lot of cases," Evans said. "This also spread to other gangs. I think it's going to have a tremendous impact in making these gangs aware that we have our eyes and ears on them."

The Columbia Point Dawgs gang has its roots in the late 1980s, and has been primarily driven by four families, many of whom were scooped up in today's sweeps, according to authorities. While the gang was originally based in Dorchester, it's spread to Roxbury and Mattapan, and organized several different "crews" to oversee drug operations in different parts of New England, Ortiz said.

Lisi said the reach of their drug ring also stretched as far as Texas, Florida and Georgia.

"This (investigation) came as a result of some real serious violent acts in the city and that's when we began to focus on such people and families, such as the Berry family, the Coke family, the Williams family," Evans said. "They're well known to us."

Seven of the defendants remain fugitives, but Lisi said officials had been in touch by phone with some of them, or their lawyers. One man is believed to be in the Dominican Republic, he said.

Some of the leading players authorities identified include 33-year-old David Jones of Dorchester; Willie Berry, 37, of Dorchester; Tony Berry, a 37-year-old Georgia man also known as "Mazibrawl"; David "Slime" Coke, 36, of Quincy and Michael "Dirty Mike" Coke, 40, of Randolph; and Demetrius "Troll" Williams, 29, of Norwood.

Knew like 1 of these guys from long time ago. Will prevent a few murders definitely. Can't bring the dead back thou.

The guys sister was murder horrifically. Burried alive.

chicago is the only city with thoughtful gang names

Boston has always gone with the street names an sports team names+logos. Everyone knows Chicago is the mecca for all street gangs. They evolved into corporations.

Pmac is on point, in fact the younger dudes called this same gang/hood "8bus" cause that was the bus route that goes there.

Heres some more info.

The gang has spread into legitimate businesses, including a record company called “8 Bus” after the MBTA line that serves the neighborhood, Knight wrote.

The group has allegedly used an auto body shop in Stoughton and a storage facility in Randolph as fronts for “violent robbery and drug trafficking” operations and has safe houses in several Boston neighborhoods.

Knight wrote that gang members boast about their membership in the gang by wearing Pittsburgh Pirate and Philadelphia Phillies uniforms because both use the letter P on their caps for the Point.

As the drug business grew, members of the gang promoted the gang's notoriety by creating record labels under the names "8 Bus Records" and the "Waterboyz." The FBI said the gang used the record labels to promote rap shows, occasionally demanding that visiting artists pay "protection fees" to perform in Boston.

They were being threatened by the Orange Line Boys and the Green Line Posse

Heres the affidavit describing their rise and fall.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/06...707I/story.html

pretty interesting stuff. They took over after killing the leader of the detroit gang they worked for and then when there project was being shut down pretty moved all over and took over turf wherever they went.

If your last name is Coke, you don't need a nickname.


Thanks for post, Scorsese. Boston had these sports team named gangs before the west coast gangs spread on the east coast. I remember hearing about those guys.

The real story of the film In Too Deep, with LL Cool J and Omar Epps, was about Boston not Cincinnati as shown in the film.

Mike McNeill, A/K/A Murder Mike......yeah, I wonder what he did for the gang, probably just answered the phone.....

FBI wants Apple to unlock iPhone in Boston gang case

ASSOCIATED PRESS/FILE

Weapons, money, and other items collected during a gang roundup were displayed after 48 members and associates of Boston's largest and most powerful gang, the Columbia Point Dawgs, were indicted on drug and gun charges in June 2015.

By Dan Adams and Milton J. Valencia GLOBE STAFF MARCH 15, 2016
Apple Inc. is objecting to a request from federal prosecutors in Boston that it help unlock the iPhone of an alleged member of one of the city’s most notorious gangs, according to court records — a case that echoes the government’s high-profile fight with Apple in the San Bernardino terrorism case.

US Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler approved a search warrant in February allowing investigators to search an iPhone and a second cellphone seized from Desmond Crawford, who the FBI says is a member of the Columbia Point Dawgs and the likely triggerman in the shooting of a rival gang leader.


In an affidavit dated Feb. 1, FBI agent Matthew Knight wrote that he needed Apple’s help to get into a passcode-locked iPhone 6 Plus that he suspected contains contact information for other gang members, associates, and drug customers. Knight also said messages on the phone probably detailed Crawford’s gun- and drug-trafficking activities, plus plans for the drive-by shooting.

Based on wiretapped phone conversations, “I . . . know that Crawford used his [iPhone] to discuss details related to the shooting of a rival gang member,” Knight wrote in his affidavit.

Apple declined to comment. But in a case involving a drug dealer in Brooklyn, Apple filed documents indicating that it has objected to a request to help unlock an iPhone in a case in US District Court in Massachusetts.

The San Bernardino, Calif., case triggered a raging national debate over privacy, security, and encryption. And the Boston case underlines a key fear of both Apple and privacy advocates: that if Apple cooperates in the San Bernardino investigation, it will be forced to do the same in thousands of more routine cases in which national security is not at stake, effectively creating for authorities a permanent “back door” into every iPhone in the United States.

“The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers — including tens of millions of American citizens — from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals,” Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, wrote in an open letter to customers.


Crawford was arrested in November as part of a yearslong investigation by federal and local authorities into the Dawgs, dubbed “the largest, most violent and most feared organization in Boston” by US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz.

Earlier in 2015, simultaneous raids resulted in gun and drug charges against 48 suspects tied to the group, which was founded in the Columbia Point housing development before its demolition in the late 1980s and then spread throughout the city and even to other states.

When Crawford was arrested, authorities said they also recovered a loaded handgun hidden in the gearbox of his rental car.

In California, Apple is waging a high-stakes fight against the US Justice Department’s request that it help unlock the iPhone of Syed Rizwan Farook, who with his wife was killed by authorities after shooting 14 people at a San Bernardino County facility.

Both Crawford’s and Farook’s iPhones ran on iOS 9, an operating system that uses automatic encryption to hide the data on the phone from anyone who doesn’t know its master PIN or passcode. A law enforcement official with knowledge of the Crawford case who was not authorized to speak publicly confirmed that Crawford’s phone is the one referenced in the New York court records.

The affidavit filed by Knight seeks to compel Apple “to assist in the execution of the search warrant by bypassing the lock screen” of the iPhone, as well as to help extract and copy the data from his phone or provide his unlock code.

Harold H. Shaw, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office, declined to comment on the Massachusetts case. But in a statement, Shaw said that “it is extremely important for law enforcement to have access to digital evidence pursuant to a court order.”

In California, the FBI wants Apple to create software that would let the government try thousands or millions of computer-generated passcode combinations to unlock Farook’s iPhone. Without such software, an iPhone may temporarily freeze up or even delete all of its data when too many incorrect passcodes are entered.

The company maintains that the encryption technology embedded in the latest versions of its iPhone operating system prevents Apple from hacking into the phone.

In his letter to customers, Cook said the government is asking the company to create a back door that would leaves it its customers vulnerable to hackers.

“Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices,” Cook wrote. “In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.”

Bruce Schneier, a security technologist at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and a critic of the government’s request, said the Apple case raises a keen national question: “Do we want security or surveillance?”

“The danger is not whether the FBI submits one request or a thousand, it’s forcing Apple to create the tool,” Schneier said. “Once the tool exists, they’ll use it a million times, and we’ll all be vulnerable.”

In the San Bernardino case, Apple is appealing a federal judge’s order that it help crack the iPhone. Conversely, the judge in the Brooklyn case declined to order Apple to cooperate, which the Justice Department is appealing.

In Boston, the most recent record in Crawford’s iPhone case is the search warrant that was issued Feb. 1.

Crawford’s lawyer, Rudolph F. Miller, of Milton, said he had not heard that Crawford’s phone was the subject of dispute between Apple and the Department of Justice, but said he would inquire about the matter with prosecutors. Crawford is currently in jail, awaiting trial on federal racketeering charges.

The neighborhood or geographical name of groups is quite the norm in America & international. It's more or less an expression of roots per say.

New Orleans - 3-N-G crew ( 3rd & Galvez)
Memphis - Kinggate Mob ( Kinggate Apts/Project)
Jackson- Queens Boys/ Q-Boys ( The Queens )

Drug dealer tied to notorious Columbia Point Dawgs gang sentenced to five years in prison

By Travis Andersen GLOBE STAFF JANUARY 04, 2018
A drug supplier to the feared Columbia Point Dawgs street gang who joked about coaching gangsters how to shoot one another was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for trafficking heroin and cocaine, legal filings show.

David “Slime” Coke, 38, of Quincy, received his sentence in US District Court in Boston. He pleaded guilty in that courthouse in April to a charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine base, cocaine, and heroin, according to court records.

An affidavit in the case filed by FBI Special Agent Matthew C. Knight described Coke as a Maserati-driving supplier of heroin and cocaine to the Boston-based Dawgs. Coke and his brother also ran “a violent robbery and drug trafficking crew operating out of David Coke’s autobody shop in Stoughton” and his sibling’s Randolph storage facility, Knight wrote.

At times, he was amused by his life of crime.

Forget yesterday's news. Get what you need today in this early-morning email.

Coke was captured on one wiretapped call joking with another man about “coaching gang members about how to shoot each other,” the affidavit said.

The Dawgs he did business with were well-versed in violence, according to the affidavit.

Authorities said the gang rose to prominence in the 1980s with a base in the old Columbia Point housing development in Dorchester and later grew into a city-wide outfit.

The Dawgs’ “infiltration of drug-trafficking territories previously held by rival gangs . . . resulted in numerous shootings and homicides,” Knight wrote. One member was fatally shot in the 1990s while sitting in a Bentley with megastar Bobbie Brown, the singer and Roxbury native.


By 2010, the Dawgs were the “most feared, influential, and largest street gang in Boston,” Knight wrote.

But they were dealt a blow in 2015, when federal authorities charged 48 members and associates, including Coke, with a slew of drug and gun-related crimes. More than 40 defendants have been convicted.