LSP gang members convicted
CLEVELAND
Four Youngstown men who were convicted of conspiracy to commit racketeering for their street-gang activities on Youngstown’s South Side are likely to go to prison for many years.
The defendants, who were convicted Thursday, were among 23 people named in a 42-count indictment in March 2011 for their involvement with the LSP gang.
LSP stands for LaClede, Sherwood, Parkview and Princeton avenues in the Idora Neighborhood on the South Side, where the gang was active between 2003 and 2011, the U.S. Attorney said.
Convicted of conspiracy to commit racketeering were Daquann Hackett and Derrick Johnson Jr., both 22, who the U.S. Attorney said were gang leaders, and Terrence Machen and Edward Campbell, both 21.
Hackett is facing a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, and Johnson is facing 40 years of mandatory prison time. Sentencing guidelines call for prison terms of 188 to 235 months for Machen and 168 to 210 months for Campbell, the U.S. Attorney said.
The three-week jury trial was before U.S. District Judge Donald C. Nugent, who will sentence the four men at a later date.
Carlton Council Jr., 29, was acquitted of the racketeering count.
The verdicts against the other defendants “should send a message that the people of Youngstown are willing to stand up and take back their streets,” said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
“This gang used violence to intimidate an entire neighborhood and traffic drugs. Their new neighborhood is federal prison,” Dettelbach added.
“This gang’s reign of terror has met its end. ATF and Youngstown police are getting violent criminals off the street and behind bars, where they belong,” said Robert Browning, special agent in charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The LSP gang used violence, including attempted murder, to control territory and sell heroin, cocaine and other drugs, the U.S. Attorney said.
In addition to racketeering, Hackett was convicted of 19 other counts, including violent crimes in aid of racketeering, use of a firearm in a crime of violence, narcotics distribution, conspiracy to distribute narcotics and attempted murder.
In addition to rackeetering, Johnson was convicted of seven other counts, including violent crimes in aid of racketeering, use of a firearm in a crime of violence, theft of government funds, conspiracy to distribute cocaine and retaliation.
Eighteen other defendants previously pleaded guilty in this case, and some of them have already been sent to prison.