More than two dozen people, including the alleged leader of the Black Disciples street gang, have been arrested on federal drug and firearms charges in Chicago, according to the Northern District of Illinois U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Police seized 24 firearms, more than 13 kilograms of cocaine, over a kilogram of heroin, about 1,350 grams of heroin laced with fentanyl, approximately 750 grams of fentanyl or fentanyl analogue, 378 grams of crack cocaine, and $52,595 during the multiyear investigation.
Twenty-three individuals are facing criminal charges as part of a federal investigation after being arrested Tuesday and have begun making initial appearances in federal court.
Among them is Darnell McMiller, 34, who is believed to be the ring leader of the Black Disciples street gang on the city’s South Side. Other alleged high-ranking members of the group were also among those arrested and charged.
Prosecutors said the accused have been distributing drugs and guns in the Englewood neighborhood and other parts of Chicago for years. The charges describe more than 50 illegal transactions in which alleged members of the group sold guns or drugs to people who were acting as informants for police.
Police said some of the transactions were recorded.
The investigation was led by the FBI and the Chicago Police Department, with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Internal Revenue Criminal Investigation Division, and the Chicago High Intensity Drug Trafficking Task Force, the federal government said.
President Trump’s Justice Department has made fighting crime in Chicago a priority in recent weeks, deploying federal officers to the city despite warnings from Mayor Lori Lightfoot to stay out.
“We’re going to continue to confront mob violence,” Attorney General William Barr said at an event at the White House last week. “But, the operations we are discussing today are very different — they are classic crime fighting.”
More than 400 people have been murdered in Chicago in 2020 alone, and more than 40 people were shot in the city last weekend.
