31 arrests made in gang crackdown on Long Island, officials say
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. -- Long Island law enforcement leaders are announcing war on a new street gang.
Over a violent three-year span, targeted neighborhoods in Central Islip, Brentwood, Amityville and Bay Shore were terrorized, says the Suffolk district attorney, by members of a Long Island chapter of the Bloods street gang.
A team of county, state and federal law enforcement arrested 31 defendants for 18 recent shootings, including one that killed respected Bronx schoolteacher Kimberly Collins Midgette, according to the district attorney.
"Kimberly was senselessly shot and killed during a drive-by shooting as she sat in her car. Fortunately, her 10-year-old daughter who was in the back was not struck," Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly said.
Illegal confiscated weapons were allegedly passed around by members of the Bloodhound Brims.
The gang's leader, known as La Brim, is incarcerated in California, but made orders through proxies to pay dues into his prison commissary account.
"If you fire a gun, if you conspire to fire a gun ... if you sell drugs or commit robberies to support that activity, you will be held responsible," Suffolk District Attorney Raymond Tierney said.
The Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings and MS-13 gangs are still active on Long Island, but less so since the tragic murders of two teenage girls from Brentwood whose parents went to Capitol Hill in 2018 to raise awareness of the growing threat gangs pose to young innocent lives.
Undercovers based across Long Island are arresting alleged gangsters who are armed with machetes, baseball bats, clubs and axes as tools for drug trafficking, extortion, home invasions and robberies.
"We are committed to assist our state and local partners with apprehending the most violent individuals who commit the most violent crimes," U.S. Marshal Vincent DeMarco said.
Disrupting gang life to make ruling by fear a means of the past.
The alleged gang member accused in the drive-by shooting of the innocent teacher pleaded not guilty in a Nassau court and faces 25 years to life if convicted.