The emerging East Side Money Gang is challenging the supremacy of MS-13 north of Boston, using criminal alliances that reach into East Boston to carve and defend its own turf in Chelsea, a former gang member and federal authorities say.
Prosecutors’ affidavits and the account of an ex-member of the gang also known as ES$G and ESMG who spoke to the Herald open a window on the increasing violent war between Hispanic gangs gripping the area, which has seen a series of recent teen murders.
“Kids in middle school (are) saying they’re East Side. We got kids in Revere saying they’re East Side,” said a 21-year-old Chelsea man who was one of the original members of ES$G. The man, who spoke to the Herald on condition of anonymity, ran with the gang from early high school, before dropping out and living the street life full time for about five years until he was caught in a car with a gun and drugs and sent to prison.
Life on the streets was precarious, said the former gang member, whose story is borne out by court records.
“We made our own crew,” he said. “I didn’t want to go to school. I didn’t want to do homework. I always wanted money. … When you’re walking in the streets, you got to do what you got to do. If you go to jail, then you go to jail. If you survive, you go home. That’s true. It’s a life-or-death situation.”
Federal raid
ES$G, despite being less than a decade old, gained the attention of federal and state authorities when nine of its members were named in a federal indictment. Authorities fanned out to make arrests during a pre-dawn raid last June. Gang members were hit with federal and state charges on accusations they formed an alliance with Chelsea’s 18th Street Gang — a bitter MS-13 rival — to move guns and drugs in Boston, Chelsea and neighboring communities, with reach as far as Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
The feds declined to discuss the gang rivalries on the record. But a federal agent’s affidavit states: “The investigation revealed that this network of disparate gangs formed loose alliances to support each other in their drug and firearm trafficking, and to arm each other for acts of violence. … The ESMG has targeted both rival gangs and members of the public to further its goals. ESMG members and associates have actively sought to intimidate potential witnesses to its illegal actions in order to prevent detection and prosecution. The gang also targets rival street gangs including the Outlaws (a Chelsea-based street gang) and the Maverick street gang (an East Boston-based street gang). There is an ongoing conflict between the East Side Money Gang and the Outlaws in Chelsea which has resulted in multiple violent crimes, including three attempted murders by the ESMG.”
The federal and state probe, a 14-month investigation, initially only targeted the 18th Street gang, chief rival of bloodthirsty MS-13, which has been linked to three teen murders in East Boston since September 2015, and is being investigated along with 18th Street in two other unsolved teen murders there last December.
‘We had smoke’
During his ES$G days, the man said his crew had alliances to protect themselves from rivals in beefs he called “smoke.”
“We had smoke with MS. A little bit of problems with kids around Chelsea,” he said. “We had smoke with Maverick. We never had problems with 18th Street because they had problems with MS. It’s like a collab.”
He added that MS-13 doesn’t have a huge presence in Chelsea as it does in East Boston, but he sometimes sees them. “Maybe they’re wearing blue. … If you see them — they’re going to do something.” He recalls having to watch his back. He said he never thought about carrying a gun until his crew had a confrontation at a Revere 18-and-under club, with rivals from Maverick Street, when he was a young teen. The encounter prompted the gang to secure guns for protection.
“We weren’t into the mindset until we got shot at,” he said. “One of the boys from the group, one of the boys gave it to me. He gave me my own gun. It felt safe.”
The gun was a .40-caliber, the man said.
The gang also gained notoriety for posting rap videos with members bragging about their brazen crimes, federal prosecutors said.
“You already know the crew. And I’m always on the block. Pull hammy (gun) — I’mma shoot,” a member rapped in a video included in court files.
Feds allege MS-13 recruits in high schools such as East Boston and Chelsea. Those claims have been disputed by police and school officials. But a Chelsea High School teen who spoke to the Herald said the East Side Money Gang also has a presence there.
“There’s never a day that I walk through Chelsea High and I don’t hear somebody say that they’re repping that, or that they’re somehow involved with it. You see it on like Facebook. They literally have in their bios, ESMG or something along those lines.”
Police ‘priority’
Chelsea police Chief Brian Kyes declined to directly comment about the East Side Money Gang, saying he doesn’t want to lend any of the city’s gangs credence. But he did say his officers working with school officials are keeping about 10 teens a year from falling into gangs for the past several years. He said teachers are on the front lines. They inform cops, and then an officer meets with any student who might be headed down the gang path.
“We count on, big time, the school department and mostly the teachers. They’re the ones who can see changes in behavior. They’re the ones who can bring these changes to our attention, so we put these kids on the right path, so they don’t get steered down the wrong way,” Kyes said.
He added, every case is different, with some teens needing “tough love,” while others might require a friendlier talk over lunch. A series of federal raids last year — including a major raid in January 2016 that netted 60 indictments against MS-13 members — paid significant dividends, Kyes said. He called combating gangs a “priority.”
“Last summer was one of the quietest summers we’ve ever had,” Kyes said. “It has to remain a priority. You can’t say, ‘Over the last two months, it’s been quiet. There’s been no shootings.’ You really can’t do that.”
Boston police Deputy Superintendent Gerard Bailey, who oversees the department’s gang unit, said police, city officials and clergy are working together to create programs to steer Eastie teens away from gangs. Bailey, like Kyes, said cops have to stay diligent so that gangs don’t rebuild their leadership after targeted raids.
When asked about the East Side Money Gang and its rivals in East Boston, Bailey said only, “There are different groups in East Boston besides MS-13 and 18th Street that have come up on our radar. We are looking at them as well.”
A new life
The ex-gang member told the Herald he’s now working behind a cash register in what he calls his “first real job.”
“I promised to God, when I come home, I’m going to change,” he said. “I don’t sell drugs. I don’t got no firearms. I can’t have guns. I got my life situated, but I’m just trying to find my future.
Everybody is arrested who I had problems with. … It feels way better. You having a check coming in every week. It’s not drug money. It feels good to do it the right way. It feels good not to worry about getting shot.”
In his new life, he said he recently bumped into a man on the street he used to have problems with. But the situation ended the right way.
“You got smoke with me still?” he remembers saying. “He gave me the hand and everything. We went our own ways.”
USA - BH.
Comments
Post a Comment