Nassau Man Was Leader Of NYC Gang: US Attorney

A man from Nassau County, who is the head of a Brooklyn-based gang, was among several gang members arrested on Tuesday for charges related to possessing and intending to distribute crack and heroin to locations in Brooklyn and the Bronx, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

Hempstead resident Lavon Barrett, 31, who is accused of being the highest ranking non-incarcerated member of the Bloods gang subset "Mac Ballers Brims," and 11 others, were charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute crack cocaine and heroin. The "Mac Ballers" got their supply from a drug trafficking operation that distributed significant amounts of crack cocaine and heroin in Brooklyn and the Bronx, as well as heroin in Maine, officials say.

U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue said in a press release that these Bloods members "endangered communities by supplying illicit drugs and protecting their trafficking operation with firearms."

Officials executed search warrants at locations tied to the Mac Ballers in Brooklyn and the Bronx on Tuesday morning. Law enforcement seized two firearms, a starter pistol, quantities of heroin and crack cocaine and drug paraphernalia. Those arrested were arraigned on Tuesday afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Cheryl L. Pollak.

Officials say they figured out that Barrett was the "Don," or leader, of the Mac Ballers after prosecutors tapped his phone. Another of those arrested, Shawn St. Hill, 32, of Brooklyn, was appointed to oversee the Mac Ballers’ operations in Brooklyn, officials say.

In some of the phone calls they intercepted, prosecutors say they heard members of the Mac Ballers talking about using violence and intimidation to protect their business. In calls from November, 2017, St. Hill allegedly threatened a group of people with a gun, which he referred to as a “hammer,” in the Pink Houses. Barrett recounted how close he came to actually shooting someone, authorities say. “I was about to be in jail because I was about to fire,” he allegedly said.

“There is an odd glamorization of dealing drugs, firing guns and killing people in gang culture that defies comprehension," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney said. "Someone allegedly bragging about almost going to jail because he was going to shoot someone shouldn’t be an accepted form of conversation or behavior."

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