Copyright: 2003, Syracuse Post-Standard
Contact: letters@syracuse.com
Website: http://www.syracuse.com/poststandard/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/686
Author: John O'Brien, Staff Writer; Staff Writer Mike McAndrew contributed
to this story.
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RICO ACT USED TO INDICT 24 MEMBERS OF BOOT CAMP

Two dozen members of a Syracuse street gang were accused Tuesday of using
systematic violence to protect its drug trade on the South Side over the
past eight years.

A federal grand jury accused members of the Boot Camp Gang of 42 criminal
acts since 1995, including one homicide, as proof that the gang was an
organized crime enterprise. It was the first time the federal Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act had been used against a street gang
in Syracuse, prosecutors said.

Federal agents and local police raided the Syracuse homes of Boot Camp Gang
members starting at 5 a.m., arresting six in Syracuse. Several other
members of the 24 are already in state prison. Seven are still being sought
in the Syracuse area, and four in Cincinnati, where the gang's marijuana
was often sold because of a higher profit margin, according to prosecutors.

Boot Camp members regularly enlisted children between the ages of 13 and 16
to sell drugs because the law was more lenient on minors, U.S. Attorney
Glenn Suddaby said. The gang recruited the teenagers and even dubbed their
group "Little Boot Camp," Suddaby said.

"If there's any message that should go out because of this indictment, it's
to those kids," he said. "There are better things to do with your time. Do
not throw your future away."

Boot Camp members projected a violent image to keep rival gang members out
of their territory, Suddaby said. They used "MC" as the call sign of their
territory. It stood for both Midland-Colvin and "Murder Capitol," ever
since a 1996 shoot-out with a rival 0 gang, according to the indictment.

Boot Camp members used a hand sign, forming an "M" with their fingers. They
had an identifying pattern of dress, including camouflage clothing,
bandannas and belts, the indictment said. Members had tattoos with the
names of gang members killed in fights with rival gangs. The gang sprayed
graffiti to mark and control its territory, prosecutors said.

"They used violence to sell their drugs and to keep other people out of
that area," Suddaby said. "The way they did that was putting forth this
violent image."

The gang members sometimes threatened to kill Syracuse police detectives,
according to Chief Dennis DuVal. He was asked if Boot Camp was Syracuse's
most violent gang.

"Out of five stars, they would have 41/2," he said. "These are not people
we're going to play with."

Four of the indicted gang members are leaders of the gang, Suddaby said.
But he would not identify them.

Investigators read more than 2,000 police reports from the past eight years
since the Boot Camp investigation began in January, Suddaby said.

The RICO law, often used to prosecute mobsters, has been used against
street gangs on the West Coast. But those cases were built on how gang
membership and hierarchy established an ongoing criminal conspiracy. This
case is different, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney John Katko.

"It's rare that it's been used to prosecute a gang that's based primarily
on geographic area and colors without much of a hierarchy," Katko said.
"The hierarchy in this gang doesn't matter at all. The focus of the gang is
not so much membership as it is protecting the geographic territory that
this gang controls."

The Boot Camp arrests came a year after DuVal, Mayor Matt Driscoll and
District Attorney William Fitzpatrick announced a joint task force to
combat street gang violence.

"Without hyperbole, I think this is the most significant act against gang
violence in the city of Syracuse in my 111/2 years as DA," Fitzpatrick said.

Boot Camp is the second Syracuse street gang to draw the attention of
federal authorities in the past six months. In December, agents arrested 14
people accused of delivering guns to Elk Block gang members on Syracuse's
South Side. The RICO law did not apply in that case because gun trafficking
does not qualify as an overt act under that law.

Many of the 42 crimes cited in the two-count federal indictment already
have been prosecuted in Onondaga County Court. Some resulted in
convictions, some in acquittals or dismissals, Katko said.

The law barring the prosecution of someone twice for the same crime won't
be a problem for prosecutors, because the defendants aren't being charged
in federal court with those specific crimes, Katko said. The crimes are
cited in the indictment as "overt acts" to support the claim that gang
members conspired to engage in a continuing criminal enterprise.

The overt acts listed in the indictment include the sale of crack cocaine
and marijuana, assaults, attempted homicides and one homicide. The seven
arrested in Syracuse were arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Gary Sharpe, who
ordered them held in jail at least until a bail hearing Thursday morning.

The earliest overt act was a crack cocaine sale Sept. 13, 1995, by gang
members Antonio Owens and Rasue Barnett, the indictment said.

The latest act was two weeks ago, when gang members Rodney Hill and
Christopher Holdby were driving a stolen car and sped from police on
Interstate 690, tossing two 9mm handguns out the window as they went,
according to the indictment. After the car crashed, they discarded a
.38-caliber handgun as they ran away, the indictment said.

The defendants could face (additional prison time if they're convicted
under federal law, even if they've already been convicted in county court.
They)(could face)lifetime prison sentences on the federal charges, Katko said.

Wilesa Betts, mother of defendant Waliek Betts, questioned why the U.S.
attorney's office was prosecuting her son and other alleged Boot Camp
members for crimes for which they've already been prosecuted in county court.

"I'm tired of the shootings myself," she said. Instead of prosecuting those
defendants again, federal authorities and Syracuse police should figure out
who murdered one of her son's friends, a Boot Camp member who was shot to
death April 27 on the city's South Side, she said.

Waliek Betts Wasone of the indicted men who has not been arrested yet.

Wilesa Betts said she went to the U.S. marshal's office on Tuesday to visit
another of the defendants, her cousin Akim Betsey. She said she doesn't
know if her son and his acquaintances have done what the grand jury alleged.

"As their mothers, they're not going to tell us what they're doing," she
said. "I don't consider them Boot Camp. I consider them all family."

The Boot Camp Gang was one of the "main gangs in Syracuse that needed to be
dealt with immediately," DuVal said.

"We know this won't end today," he said. "The people involved in this
activity, soliciting young people, need to know: We will come after you at
all costs."