U.S. PROBE PICKS OFF REMNANTS OF GANGSTER DISCIPLES

21 Alleged Members Of Gang Headed By Hoover Facing Drug Charges

Federal officials said Monday that they have dealt another blow to Chicago's
once pre-eminent street gang, the Gangster Disciples.

In announcing charges against 21 alleged gang "associates," authorities
described a formerly powerful gang that is now leaderless and in
disarray--with members so eager to save themselves from prosecution that
they are willing to cooperate with police. As if to underscore the disarray
of the gang, U.S. Atty. Scott R. Lassar noted that none of the 21 is being
charged with participating in a continuing criminal enterprise--the charge
typically leveled at gang members.

"They're being picked off so easily now," said Assistant U.S. Atty. Matthew
C. Crowl.

Prosecutors announced Monday the arrests of 16 associates of the Gangster
Disciples on the drug charges. An additional five suspects are still at
large and are being sought by police.

All 21 are charged with participating in a conspiracy to sell cocaine on the
Southeast Side. Some of those charged could face life in prison if
convicted, either because of leadership roles or previous convictions.

In the last four years, Lassar said, the federal government has convicted
some 65 members of the Disciples, including its former chairman, Larry
Hoover, and virtually all of his top lieutenants.

The government has put so many of the gang's leaders in prison, said Crowl,
that none of the remaining gang members wants to step into Hoover's shoes.

"It's like having a tag over your head saying, `Indict me,' " he said.

Still, it is difficult to gauge gang membership and law enforcement effects
upon illegal drugs sales.

The arrests Monday were the product of more than a year of investigation by
members of the Chicago Police Department, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency
and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, authorities said.

According to federal court records unsealed Monday, the investigation relied
heavily on former members of the gang who were willing to become informers.

In return for leniency in prosecution of their own cases, the informants
allowed agents to listen in on their conversations. They also agreed to wear
concealed tape recorders during their drug deals, officials said.

One person familiar with the investigation said the arrests would be a
devastating blow to a gang that already is vastly diminished.

"They've been damaged beyond repair," said Ronald Safer, a lawyer who is now
in private practice but who previously served as the government's chief
prosecutor of the Disciples. "I think this will be the death knell."

At their peak earlier this decade, said Safer, the Disciples had some 6,600
working members in the city of Chicago. They sold so much cocaine that the
government estimated the gang raked in $100 million a year.

The gang was headed by Hoover, an astute businessman who also involved his
gang in legitimate ventures, such as 21st Century VOTE, a political action
committee, and a rap concert business, Save the Children Promotions Inc.

Even though Hoover has been incarcerated since 1973 on murder charges, he
was able to control the gang from prison. Top lieutenants would visit him at
prison and convey his commands to members in the field.

In 1993, though, government agents were able to break inside this tight
circle. They secretly planted tiny microphones in the visitors' badges worn
by Hoover's men.

Those tape recordings formed the basis for a massive indictment of gang
members in 1995.

Two years later, Hoover was convicted of 40 separate criminal counts. He is
now incarcerated at the "supermax" prison in Florence, Colo., where he is
serving six life sentences.

After the arrests on Monday, 11 of the 16 suspects were arraigned in a small
courtroom before Magistrate Edward A. Bobrick.