The enforcer of a violent Hispanic street gang was sentenced to 23 years on racketeering charges, which included torturing one man, beating and stabbing another and shooting an innocent bystander outside a nightclub. Brandon Smith, 26, also known as “King Little One,” was a member of the Latin Kings, which began establishing roots from Chicago and New York in Maryland in 2007.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Maryland, Smith committed his violence up and down the East Coast.
Authorities said Montgomery County police interrupted Smith and fellow gang members as they held a victim at gunpoint in a Wheaton basement and threatened to kill him.
Smith had ordered the man into a basement on Jan. 31, 2009 and ordered him to make the Latin Kings crown sign with his hands. During the course of several hours overnight, Smith paced in front of the man waving a knife. He ordered another gang member to shoot the man in the heart if he dropped his hands from the crown position.
At one point Smith slashed the man across the face, then spoke to the leader of his gang on speaker phone and announced that he planned to kill the man.
Police showed up, and Smith put a mask over the man’s face to hide the wound and fled. However, police stopped the man with the mask and discovered his wound.
Prosecutors said Smith nearly killed a man in Germantown in July 2009. He and other members beat the man with a club and stabbed him multiple times. The force of the stabbing, which struck near the spinal cord, was so great that the blade of the knife broke off during the attack, authorities said.
In January 2009, Smith traveled to New York City to attend a Latin Kings meeting at a nightclub in Queens.
After the meeting, a car pulled up in front of the club and opened fire on Smith and others. Smith returned fire, emptying the clip of his 9mm semi-automatic Taurus. During the shoot-out, four Latin Kings were shot, as well as a limousine driver who was driving by.
Seven co-defendants previously pleaded guilty to the racketeering conspiracy, and an eighth was convicted after trial.
