Earlier today, Antoine Mayes was sentenced before Judge Allyne Ross in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, to 110 years in prison, and on December 23, 2014, Anthony Mayes, Jr. was sentenced before Judge Ross to life plus 30 years in prison, for charges of racketeering, murder (against Anthony Mayes, Jr.), attempted murder (against Antoine Mayes), murder conspiracy, and firearm- and narcotics-related offenses. The defendants were convicted after trial in May 2014.

The sentences were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and George Venizelos, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI).

“The Mayes brothers led a violent and lucrative drug organization that instilled fear and destroyed lives in the East New York community for more than a decade. They expanded their operation to the State of North Carolina and came to dominate the drug trade in a community there as well. Violence was the organization’s calling card – led by the defendants, the organization killed or sought to kill those who threatened their income or their reputation on the street,” stated United States Attorney Lynch. “The sentences imposed appropriately reflect the seriousness of the crimes of conviction, which include murder and attempted murder, the defendants’ long histories of crime, and their complete disregard for human life.” Ms. Lynch extended her grateful appreciation to the FBI’s New York Field Office, the New York City Police Department, and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation for their outstanding work in this case.

Between 1998 and 2010, the Mayes brothers led a group of violent drug dealers that sold crack cocaine and was based on Ashford Street in East New York. The criminal enterprise used violence and the threat of violence to maintain its source of income. Specifically, on June 18, 1999, Anthony Mayes, Jr. shot and killed Dave Martin at a party in East New York, in retaliation for Martin having previously stabbed Mayes. This, and other acts of violence, were well known in the community and allowed the enterprise to dominate the local drug trade. After the Martin murder, Anthony Mayes, Jr. moved to Williamston, North Carolina, where, using the alias Gus Rascoe Jr., he quickly came to dominate the drug trade in that area, selling crack cocaine that he transported from New York and elsewhere. On January 27, 2003, Anthony Mayes, Jr. murdered Eric Rayshawn Keel, and on February 29, 2004, he murdered Keith Cofield, both in North Carolina. Keel was murdered for purportedly stealing drugs belonging to the Mayes brothers’ criminal enterprise. Cofield was murdered because he owed a drug-related debt to the enterprise. His corpse was dumped into a river.

Antoine Mayes was convicted of three separate counts of attempted murder based on the enterprise’s drug and turf-related disputes in Brooklyn.

The government’s case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Berit W. Berger, Richard M. Tucker, and Alicyn Cooley.

The Defendants:

ANTHONY MAYES, JR.
Age: 34
Brooklyn, New York

ANTOINE MAYES
Age: 31
Brooklyn, New York

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 12 CR 385 (ARR)