Chicago, IL-(ENEWSPF)- A federal judge sentenced a member of Chicago’s Goonie Gang to six years in federal prison for retaliating against two witnesses cooperating with the government in a criminal investigation into the gang’s activities.
JAVION BUSH, 23, pleaded guilty earlier this year to an obstruction of justice charge. Bush admitted in a plea agreement that in 2021, he posted an image on Facebook. The image named the two cooperating individuals and contained a note stating, “All rats must di (sic).” He tagged the Facebook accounts of the cooperators in his posting. Bush also threatened one of the cooperators in a direct communication. He did this with him on Facebook Messenger, stating, “All rats must die.”
The two cooperators previously testified before a federal grand jury investigating a Chicago street gang faction known as the Goonie Boss/Goonie Gang. Bush was a member. Bush learned the identities of the cooperators after he saw a law enforcement report. Another Goonie member whom the State of Illinois was prosecuting for murder had possession of that report.
The Goone Gang Investigation
The federal investigation of the Goonie gang spanned several years. Numerous members and associates saw convictions. The government convicted three Goonie leaders this summer of racketeering conspiracy. The jury in that trial found that gang members were liable for six murders while terrorizing the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side.
U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey sentenced Bush on Aug. 30, 2023, after a Chicago federal court hearing.
Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, announced the sentence. With him were Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, and Fred Waller, Interim Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department.
“Without witnesses, the truth about an incident will never be found,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Albert Berry III argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Witnesses should be protected at all costs, and threatening them should be sanctioned swiftly and severely.”
This is a release from the United States Department of Justice.
