Maryland’s top federal prosecutor said he hoped a massive bust targeting the Bloods in Baltimore would scare off young men and women from joining a Washington-area chapter of the Los Angeles-based gang.
Law enforcement officials have said the Bloods have made significant inroads in the Washington area over the past year. The District, historically dominated by local street gangs, is becoming increasingly organized by national gangs like the Bloods and Crips. The Bloods have already established themselves in Maryland’s Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.
“We hope that teenagers who consider joining violent gangs will think twice when they learn that they might wind up spending decades of their lives locked in concrete cells,” U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said, responding to a question regarding the bust’s effect on the gang in the District and its suburbs.
On Thursday, prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging 34 members of the Bloods in Baltimore with racketeering and conspiracy to distribute drugs. Most of those charged are members of the Pasadena Denver Lanes Bloods, a sect of the Bloods that spread from California to Maryland.
According to the indictment, the investigation started in January 2008. Among those charged were some of the gang’s top members, including 31-year-old Emiliano Aguas, who authorities say was often heard directing the gang’s drug-dealing and violent activities in recorded phone calls.
In a recorded call on Jan. 25, 2009, Aguas told another accused gang member, Antonio White, that Aguas would “hit individuals with a bat to get them to see straight in the Blood life,” court
documents said.
In other conversations, Aguas could be heard telling gang members that they had to follow the gang’s rules, the indictment said. Bloods members are required to pay dues and attend meetings. When they rob or sell drugs, they must pass a portion of their profits to local gang leaders, who then pass cash to Los Angeles.
In the Jan. 25 call, Aguas told White that some PDL members were not showing up to gang meetings because they were afraid of being “whacked,” documents said. White asked Aguas why he killed so many people.
“People got to die, that’s what it is,” Aguas allegedly replied.
