The indictments, which were handed down Tuesday and sealed until arrests were made Thursday, name the two men charged in the murder of Jimmy Ray Daniels Jr.
The 163-page indictment also names two people with ties to the Rich Square area and one with ties to Bertie County.
In all, 83 members of the group were indicted following a five-state raid.
Scotland Neck, Gastonia murders
The men charged in the January 2016 Daniels murder, Tyquan Powell of Charlotte and Lamont Lloyd of Scotland Neck were also indicted federally for the February 2016 murder of a Gastonia woman, according to court documents filed in the North Carolina Western District system.
The murder of Daniels in Scotland Neck and the murder of Cheeontah Howard in Gastonia were based on racketeering activity by Lloyd, who goes by the street Murder Mo and Moo, and Powell, also known as Savage, who allegedly killed Daniels and Howard with premeditation and deliberation.
Daniels was shot and killed while sitting in his vehicle at Grace and Eleventh streets in Scotland Neck. The state had planned to call Daniels as a witness in the case of Jimmel Horton, which ended in a mistrial. Horton had been charged in the 2013 murders of Monte Hines and Chris Harrison.
Count 2 of the indictment charges Lloyd and Powell with murder in aid of racketeering in the death of Daniels.
Count 3 also reflects the death of Daniels and charges the men with use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
Count 4 charges them with murder in the aid of racketeering in the shooting death of Howard. Count 5 reflects the death of Howard and is the same as the Count 3 charge they face in the murder of Daniels.
In Count 12 they face attempted murder charges in aid of racketeering stemming from the Daniels murder where two other people were injured and in Count 13 face use of a weapon counts tied to the attempted murder count.
They face the same counts tied to attempted murder in Howard’s death.
They are also charged in Count 1 of the indictment which is the racketeer influenced corrupt organization count, commonly referred to as RICO.
The indictment notes Lloyd and Powell allegedly conspired to rob Howard.
Northampton County ties
A source familiar with the investigation said David Earl Watson, also known as Gunz, and Bianca Kiashie Harrison, also known as Lady Gunz, were tied to the Rich Square area.
They were high up in the United Blood Nation, the source referring to them as shot callers.
They were indicted on racketeering and racketeering conspiracy counts, according to the indictment and were arrested by the Down East Drug Task Force, which compromises Bertie, Hertford and Northampton counties.
The indictment shows Watson paid gang dues on at least five occasions from at least 2010 to 2015 and in 2014 with Harrison and another person indicted conducted a gang meeting inside the New York State Department of Correction.
Harrison also conducted a gang meeting on her own inside NYDOC, the indictment says.
In 2015 she conducted another meeting with another person indicted within the NYDOC and twice conducted a gang meeting in Mecklenburg County.
Watson reportedly conducted a gang meeting by phone and was sent a message discussing a Blood member who might be cooperating with law enforcement.
The indictment notes Harrison in 2016 conducted a gang meeting by phone and last month “attempted to locate a witness who cooperated with law enforcement about other gang members.”
Bertie County
Shakira Monique “Lady Rage” Campbell, who was also arrested by the DETF, allegedly attempted to rob an ABC Store with a weapon.
The attempt occurred June 9 at an ABC store in Charlotte.
Western District U.S. Attorney press release
United States Western District Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose said in a news release the charges were related to federal racketeering conspiracy charges and charges related to murder, attempted murder, violent assault, narcotics distribution, firearms possession and Hobbs Act robbery.
A number of defendants are also charged with bank fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft related to financial crimes.
The operation was a coordinated effort involving more than 600 federal, state and local law enforcement officers who executed the arrest warrants in Charlotte, Cleveland County, and eastern North Carolina.
Arrests were also made in Florida, South Carolina, New York, and Virginia. Of the 83 defendants charged, 10 are not in custody.
“This morning’s arrests are the result of a joint law enforcement investigation targeting alleged leaders and members of the Nine Trey Gangsters faction of the UBN. These defendants participated in a racketeering conspiracy, committing multiple violent crimes, including at least six murders and five attempted murders in North Carolina,” Rose said in the statement. “Today’s law enforcement action delivered a serious blow to the leadership structure throughout the ranks of this criminal organization. And this is only the beginning. The investigation and prosecution of violent gangs is a priority for this office. Our goal is to curb the influence of violent street gangs, to protect the people of this district from gangsters’ criminal activity and to restore our neighborhoods as places where all citizens can live and prosper.”
The press release notes, as alleged in the indictment, the Bloods were formed in the 1970s in Los Angeles when a group of seven individual street gangs united to form a larger unit.
The gang quickly spread to surrounding areas, eventually expanding its influence across the United States.
In 1993, a single Bloods entity, the UBN, was created on the east side of Rikers Island Prison. Membership of the UBN is estimated to be between 7,000-15,000 members along the East Coast, with ultimate authority for gang decisions still maintained in New York and members currently incarcerated in the New York prison system.
The Nine Trey Gangsters is one of the original factions of the UBN, with a large gang presence in North Carolina.
Over the course of the investigation, agents and officers seized, among other evidence: 36 firearms and ammunition, cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, marijuana, MDMA, prescription pills and other narcotics and drug paraphernalia, counterfeit checks, credit cards and gift cards, and credit card making devices.
