Mary­land assis­tant U.S. Attor­ney James Wall­ner stated in a May 26 court fil­ing 26 that the gov­ern­ment intends to roll the three pend­ing Black Guerilla Fam­ily (BGF) prison-gang indict­ments into a sin­gle Rack­e­teer Influ­enced and Cor­rupt Orga­ni­za­tions (RICO) case. The first two cases were indicted in April 2009, and the third was unsealed on April 12 this year. The fil­ing, which seeks to extend the amount of time allowed before a trial must begin, was made in the most recent case.

“The Gov­ern­ment intends to super­sede and com­bine this indict­ment with the remain­ing indi­vid­u­als charged in the other cases presently set before the Court,” Wall­ner wrote, “involv­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion of the BGF, into a sin­gle rack­e­teer­ing indict­ment.” He also wrote that the “con­tin­u­ing inves­ti­ga­tion” has “focused on BGF’s attempts to uti­lize the para­mil­i­tary struc­ture employed by the enter­prise in prison to the streets of Bal­ti­more,” and that the most recent case involves the prison gang’s “attempts to con­trol sig­nif­i­cant por­tions of the heroin trade in Bal­ti­more City.”

Charg­ing a RICO case brings in a broader range of co-defendants’ con­duct that can be attrib­uted to each mem­ber of the RICO enter­prise, explains fed­eral criminal-defense attor­ney Michael Mon­temarano, who is rep­re­sent­ing BGF defen­dant Ray Olivis. It also trig­gers more sig­nif­i­cant penal­ties, Mon­temarano says, and so can prompt guilty pleas even before the case is indicted as a RICO.

Tags: black guerrilla family, RICO