Eighteen Cleveland Gang Members and Associates Indicted on Federal Charges for RICO Conspiracy, Murder, Kidnapping, Assault, Firearms Violations, and Drug Trafficking

 

A federal district court in the Northern District of Ohio today unsealed a second superseding indictment against 18 members and associates of a violent street gang known as the Fully Blooded Felons, who have been charged with various federal crimes, including racketeering (RICO) conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, kidnapping in aid of racketeering, assault in aid of racketeering, firearms violations, and drug trafficking offenses.

The investigation that led to the second superseding indictment took place over the last two years. Agents apprehended individuals in a series of coordinated arrests. They seized cocaine, methamphetamine, over 400 grams of fentanyl, and 15 illegally possessed firearms throughout the investigation.

“The superseding indictment alleges that these 18 defendants were leaders, members, or associates of the Fully Blooded Felons, a violent gang that — for more than a decade — made money and controlled territory in Northern Ohio through murder, arson, robbery, drug trafficking, and firearms possession,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Violence and other gang activities make communities less safe for all of their residents.  Addressing violent crime — including through the arrests announced today — is one of the Criminal Division’s highest priorities.  I am proud of the outstanding work done by our Violent Crime and Racketeering Section, in partnership with our federal, state, and local partners, to make our communities safer places to live by targeting the most violent offenders on our streets.”

“As the indictment alleges, the Fully Blooded Felons styled themselves after a Mafia crime family, terrorizing Cleveland’s streets and operating an open-air illegal drug market in the Cedar Central neighborhood for years. I commend the valiant efforts of our brave law enforcement partners who have worked diligently to win back our streets and protect our community by taking down these bad actors,” said U.S. Attorney Rebecca Lutzko for the Northern District of Ohio. “The USAO will aggressively continue to pursue — through RICO prosecutions and other federal charges — violent criminals who seek to secure territory, power, and money by ruthlessly harming others, peddling poisons, and creating an atmosphere of fear. Members of FBF or other violent gangs in this district who have yet to be caught should think twice before continuing to engage in such illegal and destructive behavior.”

“For several years, according to the indictment, these individuals committed a homicide, armed robberies, and unlawfully imported and distributed fentanyl and other dangerous opioids throughout the community,” said Special Agent in Charge Greg Nelsen of the FBI Cleveland Field Office. “The Fully Blooded Felons, a subset of the Heartless Felons criminal network, has been identified as Cleveland’s most significant gang threat and their reign of terror is over thanks to the collaborative efforts of FBI and the Safe Streets Gang Task Force. We will not waver in our mission to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle gangs not only in the larger cities across America, but also right here in northern Ohio.”

As alleged in the second superseding indictment, the Fully Blooded Felons have been in existence in Ohio since approximately 2012, operating primarily out of the east side of Cleveland, as well as Akron, Youngstown, and elsewhere. They are also allegedly active in the Ohio prison system.

According to the facts alleged in the indictment, the Fully Blooded Felons’ structure includes a “Commission,” which is a group of members tasked with maintaining the structure and organization of the enterprise through physical discipline and by determining which illicit means the organization would use to make money.

As alleged in the indictment, the Fully Blooded Felons had rules that members were required to abide by. The rules were disseminated to members online, by text message, and in face-to-face communications. Members were required to abide by “omerta,” or the code of silence. Members were also required to memorize and recite at meetings the “Fully Five,” a set of rules that included following all orders issued by the Commission, pledges of loyalty to fellow members, and being respectful to Capos, a position held by senior gang members. If a member did not know the “Fully Five,” they were punished. Members were also expected to know and abide by the “Fully Commandments,” a similar set of rules.

Fully Blooded Felon members allegedly utilized different two separate stash-houses at a local apartment complex. According to court documents, during the execution of two search warrants, law enforcement recovered over 300 grams of fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine, as well as seven firearms.

Members and associates of the Fully Blooded Felons allegedly came together for the common purposes of making money through robberies and drug trafficking, preserving and promoting Fully Blooded Felon territory, and promoting and enhancing the Fully Blooded Felon enterprise and its members and associates’ activities.

According to the indictment, on Sept. 12, 2023, three Fully Blooded Felon members — Raven Mullins, Henry Burchett, and James Clemons — and another individual shot and killed a victim on the west side of Cleveland. After killing the victim, the defendants allegedly fled the scene in a stolen Honda Pilot, which Fully Blooded Felon members later burned.

The second superseding indictment alleges a years-long pattern of racketeering and violence including a murder, kidnapping, assaults, and drug trafficking.

The defendants and their charges are:

• Raven Mullins, 35, also known as Dunny and Dun, of Cleveland, is charged with RICO conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, kidnapping in aid of racketeering, assault in aid of racketeering, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, numerous counts of possession with the intent to distribute controlled substances, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and use of a communications facility to facilitate a felony drug offense.
• Henry Burchett, 29, also known as Noodles, Noo, and Omerta, of Cleveland, is charged with RICO conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, kidnapping in aid of racketeering, assault in aid of racketeering, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, numerous counts of possession with the intent to distribute controlled substances, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, felon in possession of a firearm, and use of a communications facility to facilitate a felony drug offense.
• Elijah Johnson, 37, also known as Loon, of Youngstown, is charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, interstate travel in aid of racketeering, and use of a communications facility to facilitate a felony drug offense.
• Demarcus Elliott, 37, also known as Moo and Fast Lane, of Cleveland, is charged with RICO conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, and use of a communications facility to facilitate a felony drug offense.
• Dontez Hammond, 35, also known as Donny and Tez, of Cleveland, is charged with RICO conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, and illegal receipt of a firearm and ammunition by a person under indictment.
• Jeffrey Lee, 24, also known as Fatty, of Cleveland, is charged with RICO conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, numerous counts of possession with the intent to distribute controlled substances, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and use of a communications facility to facilitate a felony drug offense.
• Jerrell Jones-Ferrell, 25, also known as Ruga, of Cleveland, is charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, felon in possession of a firearm, and use of a communications facility to facilitate a felony drug offense.
• Devonte Johnson, 32, also known as D Nut and Nut, of Euclid, Ohio, is charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and felon in possession of a firearm.
• Jerome Williams, 29, also known as Jay, and JT, of Cleveland, is charged with RICO conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, and use of a communications facility to facilitate a felony drug offense.
• Christepher Horton, 41, also known as Cam and Killa, of Cleveland, is charged with RICO conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, possession with the intent to distribute controlled substances, and use of a communications facility to facilitate a felony drug offense.
• Deeundra Perkins, 33, also known as Drizzy, of Garfield Heights, Ohio, is charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
• Deon Blackwell, 38, also known as White Boy, of Cleveland, is charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and use of a communications facility to facilitate a felony drug offense.
• James Clemons, 32, also known as Flock, Pope, and Fully Pope Flock, of Cleveland, is charged with RICO conspiracy and murder in aid of racketeering.
• Alex Darden, 23, also known as Lil’ Pee Wee, of Cleveland, is charged with RICO conspiracy and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
• Esmond Williams, 35, also known as Relle, of Cleveland, is charged with RICO conspiracy and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
• Adrionna Null, 27, also known as Ali, of Cleveland, is charged with kidnapping in aid of racketeering and assault in aid of racketeering.
• Myeasha West, 31, also known as Action, of Lorain, Ohio, is charged with kidnapping in aid of racketeering and assault in aid of racketeering.
• Kyla Sharie Tyler, 27, also known as Yayeo, of Cleveland, is charged with kidnapping in aid of racketeering and assault in aid of racketeering.

The FBI is investigating the case, with assistance from the Cleveland Division of Police, U.S. Marshals Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

Trial Attorneys Brian W. Lynch and Alyssa Levey-Weinstein of the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul Hanna and Robert F. Corts for the Northern District of Ohio are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

MAYOR ADAMS UNVEILS “AXE THE TAX FOR THE WORKING CLASS,” BOLD PROPOSAL TO ELIMINATE NEW YORK CITY INCOME TAXES FOR WORKING-CLASS FAMILIES

 

Plan Would Abolish New York City Personal Income Taxes for More Than 429,600 Filers and Their Dependents, Lower Taxes for Over 152,500 More 

Proposal Alone Would Put Over $63 Million Back Into Pockets of Over 582,000 New Yorkers

Axe the Tax Plan Follows Historic Expansion of NYC EITC, Which, Together With New Proposal, Would Deliver Collective $408 Million in Tax Relief to 2 Million New Yorkers 

Mayor Adams Calls on State Legislature to Pass Proposal as Part of FY26 State Budget

New York City Mayor Eric Adams today announced “Axe the Tax for the Working Class,” an ambitious proposal to bring significant tax relief to working-class families and return over $63 million to more than 582,000 New Yorkers. The plan would eliminate the New York City Personal Income Tax for filers with dependents living at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty line, as well as lower city personal income taxes for filers immediately above that threshold too. Mayor Adams will advocate for the proposal as part of the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) New York state budget with the support of New York State Senator Leroy Comrie and New York State Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, who will introduce it during the upcoming legislative session. If passed into law, Axe the Tax for the Working Class could bring relief to working-class families as soon as tax year 2025

Axe the Tax for the Working Class builds on the Adams administrations’ continued efforts to help put money back into the pockets of working-class New Yorkers. In 2022, Mayor Adams successfully pushed Albany to expand the New York City Earned Income Tax Credit (NYC EITC) for the first time in nearly two decades, delivering more than $345 million in tax relief to New Yorkers over the 2023 tax season. When combined, both Axe the Tax for the Working Class and the new, enhanced NYC EITC would put more than a collective $408 million back into the pockets of 2 million New Yorkers and effectively eliminate New York City income taxes for a family of four making less than $46,350.

“Extreme costs are driving many working-class families out of cities like New York, and while, for too many decades, across too many administrations, we let these problems languish, our administration said enough is enough. Today, we are unveiling ‘Axe the Tax for the Working Class,’ a bold proposal to eliminate New York City income taxes for hundreds of thousands of working-class New Yorkers and their families here in the five boroughs and lower taxes for even more of our city’s residents,” said Mayor Adams. “This ambitious plan will put more than $63 million back into the pockets of over 582,000 New Yorkers, and, when combined with the New York City Earned Income Tax Credit, will put more than $400 million back into the pockets of 2 million working-class New Yorkers. I did not become mayor just to watch other families struggle the way that mine did, so this money will help more families cover rent, pay for prescriptions, and pick up groceries. On issue after issue, New York City is leading the nation, so we’re hopeful more cities across the country will ‘Axe the Tax.’ I want to thank Senator Comrie and Assemblymember Bichotte Hermelyn for agreeing to introduce this legislation, as well as HTC and 32BJ for their support. We look forward to working with Albany over the next few months to pass this landmark proposal and give working-class families the relief they finally deserve.”  

“From day one of our administration, Mayor Adams tasked me with supporting the families and working-class New Yorkers who keep our city running. That’s why we are turning New York into a ‘City of Yes’ with the most pro-housing zoning changes in our city’s history, increasing opportunities for good-paying jobs, and putting money back into working-people’s pockets,” said First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer. “Our ‘Axe the Tax’ proposal will give $63 million back to working people and ensure that over 582,000 New Yorkers will benefit from having more money for groceries, child care, health care, and the needs of everyday life. We want all New Yorkers to know that they can raise their family here in the five boroughs and thrive.”

Axe the Tax for the Working Class would eliminate New York City Personal Income Taxes for filers with dependents — largely families with children — living at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty line. Additionally, the proposal would gradually phase out the city personal income tax for filers immediately above — within $5,000 — of 150 percent of the federal poverty line.

Table for illustrative purposes showing maximum annual income for different family sizes at 150 percent of the of the current U.S. Census Bureau’s Official Poverty Measure. Data for larger family sizes can be found online.

By eliminating the New York City Personal Income Tax for working-class families, the proposal would return nearly $46 million to over 429,000 New Yorkers, including both tax filers and their dependents. Additionally, by lowering taxes for people immediately above 150 percent of the federal poverty line, the proposal would return another $17 million to over 152,500 New Yorkers, putting more than a collective $63 million back into the pockets of working-class people. The proposal alone will deliver an average benefit of approximately $350 per household.

Axe the Tax for the Working Class builds on the Adams administration’s work helping to put money back into people’s pockets. The Adams administration has already saved New Yorkers more than $30 billion by connecting people to city, state, and federal programs, including a historic expansion of the NYC EITC, which delivered an average benefit of approximately $450 per household. If passed into law, the Axe the Tax for the Working Class proposal and the NYC EITC would work together to deliver an average benefit of around $800 per household and effectively eliminate New York City income taxes for a family of four making less than $46,350.

Table showing possible tax relief for New York City families from

both Enhanced NYC EITC as well as Axe the Tax for the Working Class.

Additionally, since the start of the Adams administration, the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection’s (DCWP) “NYC Free Tax Prep” program has helped New Yorkers save nearly $57 million in tax preparation fees by helping filers file approximately 257,000 tax returns for free. And this past tax season, more than 140 in-person sites provided free tax preparation services across the five boroughs. NYC Free Tax Prep providers also offered drop-off services and virtual tax preparation services. Further, last fall, DCWP launched NYC Free Tax Prep for self-employed filers, offering specialized services tailored to gig workers, freelancers, and small business owners who often face barriers to filing taxes and managing financial recordkeeping. 

News, updates and more from NYC Council Member Rafael Salamanca, Jr.

 

COMING EVENTS

HOLIDAY CELEBRATION

 Please join #TeamSalamanca for our 2024 Holiday Party!!!

*No RSVP is required, it will be on a first-come, first-served basis*

 Thursday, December 12th
7 PM-12 AM
Maestro’s Caterers
I hope to see you all there!

CHILDREN'S COAT GIVEAWAY MARK YOUR CALENDAR: I will be partnering with Urban Health Plan, Inc., Southern Boulevard Business Improvement District, Ponce Bank, the 41st. Precinct Community Council and District Leader Freddy Perez Jr for a FREE Children’s Coat Giveaway on Saturday, December 9th, at my District Office. Coats will be distributed on a first-come, first serve basis while supplies last. *Children must be present and accompanied by an adult to receive a coat* Please refer to the above flier for further information. Visit our District Office at:  1070 Southern Boulevard Bronx, New York 10459 (718) 402-6130 salamanca@council.nyc.gov

Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson - Community Resources & Updates

 

Dear Neighbor,

 

We were deeply disturbed by the findings of last week`s Department of Buildings report, which revealed that the tragic collapse of 1915 Billingsley Terrace in December of 2023 resulted from a "mistake" by licensed construction professionals. This error has forever traumatized a community and could have led to the loss of innocent lives. This tragedy is a stark reminder that mistakes in the design and construction of our buildings have real, devastating consequences. The safety of our residents must always be the highest priority, and we cannot afford to let such negligence go unchecked.

 

As we continue to process the impact of this incident, we will continue to work closely with our colleagues in government and agency partners to ensure an incident like this never happens again in our borough. We are advocating for stronger safeguards, more rigorous oversight, sufficient staffing for the Department of Buildings, and a commitment to accountability so that the safety and well-being of our communities are never compromised.

While we are grateful that there were no fatalities, we must use this incident as a moment of purpose to improve our inspection process to ensure the safety and well-being of our residents and families.

If you have any questions or concerns about your building, please do not hesitate to contact 3-1-1 or our office at 718-590-3500 or email us at webmail@bronxbp.nyc.gov.

In partnership,

Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson

IN THE COMMUNITY

I was grateful for the opportunity to be on Inside City Hall yesterday evening with host, Errol Louis. We discussed expanding affordable housing and homeownership opportunities for our residents, the East Bronx Metro-North Expansion, and the funding we allocated to the new Opioid Recovery and Bridge Clinic at Lincoln Hospital to combat the opioid epidemic in our communities.

Honoring Deputy Inspector Johnny Orellana for his exceptional service and dedication to the Bronx community. After years of leadership at many precinct communities across our city, we wish him all the best in his well-deserved retirement. Thank you for your unwavering commitment to keeping our borough safe!

With the support of our amazing partners, we were able to distribute over 3,400 turkeys, along with canned goods and other essential items, to residents across the borough. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who donated and helped ensure our neighbors had a special holiday.

UPCOMING EVENTS

COMMUNITY EVENTS

GENERAL INFORMATION

Celsius Founder And Former CEO Alexander Mashinsky Pleads Guilty To Multi-Billion Dollar Fraud And Market Manipulation Schemes

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that ALEXANDER MASHINSKY, the founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Celsius Network LLC and their affiliated entities (collectively, “Celsius”), pled guilty to one count of committing commodities fraud and one count of committing securities fraud in connection with two fraudulent schemes at Celsius, the purported “bank” of the crypto industry.  In the first scheme, MASHINSKY misled Celsius’s customers about core aspects of the company he founded, including Celsius’s success and profitability and the nature of the investments Celsius made using customer funds.  In the second scheme, MASHINSKY illicitly manipulated the price of CEL, Celsius’s proprietary crypto token, while he was secretly selling his own CEL token at artificially inflated prices.  As part of his plea, MASHINSKY has agreed to forfeit over $48 million in proceeds from his illegal schemes.  MASHINSKY pled guilty before U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl. 

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Alexander Mashinsky orchestrated one of the biggest frauds in the crypto industry.  He lured ordinary, retail crypto investors into investing billions of dollars in Celsius with false promises that their investments were low risk. Using catchy slogans like ‘Unbank Yourself,’ Mashinsky promised that Celsius would keep customers’ crypto as safe as money in a bank, but that, unlike a bank, Celsius returned most of the profits from its business back to users. In reality, Celsius was never profitable.  To disguise the flaws in his business model, Mashinsky put investors’ money into riskier and riskier bets, and secretly used customer money to prop up the price of CEL token.  Mashinsky made tens of millions of dollars selling his own CEL at artificially high prices, while his customers were left holding the bag when the company went bankrupt. These convictions reflect this Office’s commitment to holding fraudsters like Mashinsky accountable for their crimes.” 

According to the allegations contained in the Indictment and statements made in public filings and in public court proceedings:

Celsius was a crypto asset platform that, among other things, allowed its customers to earn returns on their crypto assets in the form of weekly “rewards” payments, to take loans secured by their crypto assets, and to custody their crypto assets.  Celsius billed itself as the “safest place for your crypto” and urged potential customers to “unbank” themselves by moving their crypto assets to Celsius.  Celsius’s primary public offering was its “Earn” program, through which Celsius offered to deploy customers’ crypto assets to generate investment returns.  In addition to its Earn program, Celsius offered retail investors a “Custody” program and a “Borrow” program, which allowed customers to receive retail loans in exchange for posting their crypto assets as collateral with Celsius.

MASHINSKY directly marketed Celsius to retail customers located in the U.S. and abroad.  Throughout his tenure as CEO of Celsius, MASHINSKY repeatedly made public misrepresentations regarding core aspects of Celsius’s business and financial condition in order to induce retail customers to provide their crypto assets to Celsius and continue to use Celsius’s services. MASHINSKY misrepresented, among other things, the safety of Celsius’s yield-generating activities, Celsius’s profitability, the long-term sustainability of Celsius’s high rewards rates, and the risks associated with depositing crypto assets with Celsius.

As MASHINSKY falsely portrayed Celsius as a safe and secure institution, Celsius’s customer base grew exponentially.  Many of those customers were retail investors rather than large institutions.  By in or about the fall of 2021, Celsius had grown to become one of the largest crypto platforms in the world, purportedly holding approximately $25 billion in assets at its peak.

MASHINSKY and others working at Celsius also orchestrated a yearslong scheme to mislead customers and market participants regarding the market value and interest in Celsius’s proprietary crypto token CEL.  They did so by manipulating the price of CEL through causing Celsius to spend hundreds of millions of dollars purchasing CEL in the open market with the objective of artificially supporting and inflating the price of CEL.  At various times during MASHINSKY’s tenure, MASHINSKY and his co-conspirators also caused Celsius to use its own customer deposits to fund these market purchases of CEL in order to prop up CEL’s price, without disclosing this fact to Celsius’s customers.

Without Celsius’s aggressive and illegal price manipulation, the price of CEL would have been drastically lower. As Roni Cohen-Pavon, Celsius’s Chief Revenue Officer who previously pled guilty to illegally manipulating the price of CEL, wrote to MASHINSKY in a private message exchanged during the scheme: “[T]he issue is that people are selling [CEL] and no one is buying except for us,” adding, “[t]he main problem was that the value was fake and was based on us spending millions (~8M a week and even more until February 2020) just to keep it where it is.”

To further the scheme to manipulate CEL, MASHINSKY also repeatedly made false and misleading public statements concerning the nature of Celsius’s market activity and the extent to which Celsius itself was responsible for artificially supporting and inflating the price of CEL.  In certain instances, MASHINSKY and other Celsius executives also personally purchased CEL for the purpose of artificially supporting CEL’s price.

Artificially inflating the price of CEL allowed MASHINSKY to sell his own CEL holdings for a substantial profit.  MASHINSKY personally reaped approximately $48 million in proceeds from his sales of CEL.  At various times, MASHINSKY made false and misleading public statements about his own sales of CEL, claiming that he was not selling CEL, when, in reality, he was taking advantage of the upward price manipulation he had orchestrated by contemporaneously selling huge quantities of his CEL on the market, including, on occasion, to Celsius itself.

In the lead up to the June 12, 2022 “Pause” of Celsius customer withdrawals, MASHINSKY continued to assure Celsius customers that Celsius was in a strong financial position and had sufficient liquidity to meet all customer withdrawal demands.  Even as he made these statements, however, MASHINSKY had removed approximately $8 million worth of his own non-CEL crypto assets from the Celsius platform.

On June 12, 2022 Celsius announced it was halting all customer withdrawals from the Celsius platform, at which time hundreds of thousands of Celsius customers—many of whom were retail investors—still had approximately $4.7 billion worth of crypto assets on the Celsius platform, none of which they could access.  On or about July 13, 2022, Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

If you believe you have been a victim of the schemes described above, and you wish to provide information to law enforcement with connection to sentencing or to receive additional information, please contact Wendy Olsen-Clancy, the Victim Witness Coordinator at the United States Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York, at 866-874-8900 or wendy.olsen@usdoj.gov.

MASHINSKY, 58, of New York, New York, pled guilty to one count of commodities fraud and one count of securities fraud, which combined carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

The maximum potential sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.  MASHINSKY is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Koeltl on April 8, 2024.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Mr. Williams also thanked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, each of which has filed a parallel civil action.

The case is being overseen by the Office’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Peter J. Davis, Adam S. Hobson, Allison Nichols, and Noah Solowiejczyk are in charge of the prosecution.