Chicago, IL-(ENEWSPF)- A member of a violent Chicago street gang has been sentenced to 50 years in federal prison for participating in a criminal organization that murdered rivals and violently protected a drug-dealing operation on the West Side of Chicago.
As a member of the Wicked Town faction of the Traveling Vice Lords street gang, DAVID ARRINGTON murdered two people, shot and wounded two others, and served as the driver when fellow gang members murdered a man and attempted to murder another. Arrington, 33, of Chicago, pleaded guilty to a federal racketeering conspiracy charge last year. U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin sentenced Arrington after a hearing in late July in federal court in Chicago.
Gang Member Sentenced Was One of 13 Defendants
Arrington was one gang member sentenced among 13 defendants convicted in a multi-year investigation into the gang’s criminal activities. The investigation resulted in the seizures of more than 45 firearms, approximately 1,000 rounds of ammunition, about 17 kilograms of cocaine, about seven kilograms of heroin, and around 100 grams of crack cocaine. The federal probe revealed that Wicked Town gang members engaged in numerous acts of violence, including Arrington’s two murders and at least 17 others, as well as multiple attempted murders, armed robberies, and assaults. Wicked Town members regularly promoted their violent enterprise on social media, taunting rivals and boasting about murders and other acts of violence.
The gang operated primarily in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, where members maintained “trap houses” to store firearms and illegal narcotics, including cocaine and heroin.
Prosecutors and Agencies
The sentence was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Christopher Amon, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; and Fred Waller, Interim Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. The FBI provided substantial assistance.
These agencies assisted also:
- IRS Criminal Investigation Division,
- Illinois State Police,
- U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration,
- Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office,
- Cook County Sheriff’s Office,
- and the Chicago High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program (HIDTA).
Assistant U.S. Attorneys John D. Mitchell, Jimmy L. Arce, Meghan C. Morrissey, and Beth E. Palmer, represented the government.
This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against alleged criminal networks.
This is a release from the United States Department of Justice.
