A closer look at recent Maryland gang activity

Brazen gangs crash Harford trial

Joseph I. Cassilly recalls the day two years ago when gang members walked into a Harford County courtroom to attend a murder trial. When the judge entered, the gang members took off leather jackets to reveal matching T-shirts that showed the outline of a dead body.

“I don’t think you can get more in your face than that,” said Cassilly, Harford County’s state’s attorney. “We knew they were brash and brazen in the neighborhood, but that was the first shot that they were in the courtroom, too.”

Cassilly said the gang members came to intimidate witnesses.

“These gangs and folks today have a more ‘in your face’ approach to law enforcement,” he said. “We recently looked up some kid’s MySpace page and there he was flashing gang symbols and colors and telling what they do in the gang. They are not secret about being members of a criminal organization anymore, and that’s incredible.”

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Bloods member faces life sentenceA Baltimore member of the Bloods gang has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conduct and participate in a racketeering enterprise.Van Sneed, 32, and others were arrested as part of a long-term investigation by city and federals law enforcement agencies.In his plea, Sneed admitted shooting a Crip gang member, asking a fellow Tree Top Piru Blood member to find a buyer for drugs, and trying to get a gun from another member. He faces a maximum life sentence, followed by five years of supervised release. His sentencing is scheduled Sept. 9.

According to the plea agreement, TTP Bloods originated from the Bloods, a Los Angeles street gang that formed in the early 1970s. The Bloods broke into “sets,” including the Piru Bloods. The Tree Top Pirus emerged in Maryland about 1999 among inmates in the Washington County Detention Center in Hagerstown.

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Life in prison for MS-13 leaderIsrael Ramos Cruz, who according to trial testimony conspired to run an MS-13 enterprise in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties that included eight murders in Maryland and one in Virginia, was sentenced June 10 to life in prison.“Joining MS-13 is a ticket to federal prison. Forty-nine alleged MS-13 gang members have been charged with federal crimes in Maryland. This young man will spend the rest of his life in federal prison, and some of the remaining defendants may face death sentences,” said Maryland’s chief federal prosecutor, Rod J. Rosenstein.Cruz, of Wheaton, and co-defendant Santos Maximo Garcia both are 30. Garcia is to be sentenced in August.

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Read the main story, Baltimore’s gangs battle for turf and power