August 15, 2014

Detroit One Collaboration Leads to Indictment of Two Additional Latin Count Gang Members on Racketeering Charges

A superseding indictment was unsealed yesterday charging Devin Dantzler, 23, of Ecorse, with using and carrying a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence causing death and murder in aid of racketeering. Christopher Pierce, 20, of Detroit, was also charged with assault resulting in serious bodily injury in aid of racketeering announced Barbara L. McQuade.

McQuade was joined in the announcement by Paul Abbate, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office.

Specifically, the indictment alleges that several Latin Counts assaulted Mustafa Al-Yasiry, and Dantzler, in fact, shot and killed him at the Big Apple Market in southwest Detroit on April 18, 2014. According to the indictment, the Latin Counts gang operates in southwest Detroit and the downriver communities of Lincoln Park and Ecorse. The indictment alleges that seven defendants committed assaults, murder, selling illegal narcotics and stolen firearms, breaking and entering homes and businesses and robbery. The indictment alleges that the gang uses violence to stake out its “turf” and intimidate both rival gang members and the citizens of southwest Detroit.

Under the Detroit One Initiative, and through the lead efforts of the Detroit Police Department and the FBI Violent Crime Task Force, investigators were able to merge separate probes of various members of this organization and its activities into one encompassing investigation.

Detroit One is a collaborative effort between law enforcement and the community to reduce homicide and other violent crime in Detroit. By working collaboratively, local, state, and federal law enforcement is striving to maximize its ability to identify and arrest the persons and groups initiating the violence in Detroit.