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Twenty-three gang members have been charged with peddling drugs throughout a Bronx neighborhood since 2007, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced on Thursday.
The group, known as the Burnside Money Getters, allegedly controlled the areas from West Burnside Avenue to West Tremont Avenue, and from Sedgwick Avenue to Jerome Avenue in the University Heights section of the Bronx.
BMG members were engaged in the sale of crack cocaine, cocaine, marijuana, MDMA and Oxycodone since 2007, according to the indictment.
Of the 23 individuals charged in the case, 22 were taken into custody. One defendant remains at large.
“Known throughout the West Bronx as the ‘light side’, ‘dark side’ and ‘D block,’ the Burnside Money Getters bullied community members and residents living in the vicinity of the gangs’ daily criminal activity,” Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Brian Crowell said. “As evidenced in this one-year investigation, drug trafficking was the main source of profit for this gang, which employed violence, threats and the use of guns in the course of their lives of crime.”
During searches of the defendants’ homes, authorities seized crack cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana, as well as $14,000 in cash, ammunition and counterfeit money.
The defendants’ ages range from 19 to 48.
