Skip to main content
Press Release

BGF Leader Tavon White Sentenced To 12 Years In Prison In Baltimore Jail Racketeering Conspiracy

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Maryland
Previously Sentenced to Serve 20 Years in Prison for Related State Plea

Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander sentenced Tavon White, a/k/a Bulldog and Tay, age 37, of Baltimore, today to 12 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for racketeering conspiracy arising from his running of operations of the Black Guerilla Family (BGF) gang inside the Baltimore City Detention Center (BCDC).

In connection with his federal guilty plea, White also pleaded guilty to a state charge of attempted murder, for which he received a sentence of 20 years in prison, served concurrent to his federal sentence.                           

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Secretary Stephen T. Moyer of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS); Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts; and Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby.

This case was developed as a result of the efforts of the Maryland Prison Task Force, formed in 2011 with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, and prosecutors. The Task Force has met regularly for over three years, generating recommendations to reform prison procedures and producing leads that have been pursued by state, local and federal criminal investigators.  Investigations are continuing.

According to court documents, BGF has been the dominant gang at the Baltimore City Detention Center (BCDC), and in several connected facilities, including the Baltimore Central Booking Intake Center, the Women’s Detention Center, which houses many men, and in the Jail Industries Building. 

According to his plea agreement, White has been a member of the BGF since 2000 and was in pretrial custody at BCDC from 2009 to 2013.  He became the lieutenant commander of the BGF at BCDC and then the commander in 2011.  Throughout his years at BCDC, White was involved with and often directed the smuggling of contraband into BCDC, including cell phones, tobacco and drugs, through the services of correctional officers (CO’s), who received payments, gifts or a share of the profits.  Fellow BGF inmates and co-defendants also directed smuggling and often worked in concert with White.

White admitted that he was personally involved in sexual relationships with and impregnated four CO’s.    Outside the prison facility, White and his closest BGF allies frequently used other people, including several co-defendants, to obtain contraband, hold it or deliver it to correctional officers for smuggling.

Forty of the 44 defendants charged in the racketeering conspiracy have been convicted, including 24 correctional officers.  Thirty-five defendants pleaded guilty; eight defendants went to trial and one defendant has died.

U.S. Attorney Rosenstein recognized the efforts of the other members of the Maryland Prison Task Force, including: the Maryland State Police, Prince George’s County Police Department, United States Marshals Office, DEA, Washington-Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area and Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the FBI, Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, Baltimore Police Department, and Maryland Prison Task Force, for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Robert R. Harding and Ayn B. Ducao, who prosecuted this Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case.

Updated February 23, 2015

Topic
Public Corruption