An investigation into a notorious Brooklyn gang has resulted in charges against 32 people. The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office announced Thursday that 12 suspected members of the Gates Avenue Mafia, along with several others, were charged with conspiracy to sell heroin, cocaine, crack and guns as well as the attempted murder of a man in Gloversville,
“We are determined to reclaim our streets,” said Brooklyn D.A. Kenneth Thompson. “Because our streets don’t belong to thugs, they don’t belong to gang members. They belong to the people of Brooklyn.”
Thompson said an NYPD investigation by the Brooklyn North Gang Squad included undercover work that resulted in the arrest of 25 people. Seven others were charged but have not been arrested. The investigation derived from a May 31, 2013 shooting in Bedford-Stuyvesant, when 11-year-old Tayloni Mazyck was hit by a stray bullet in a gangland feud while she sat with family in front of the Medgar Evers Houses apartment building. She survived but is paralyzed from the waist down.
Thompson said the investigation revealed the Gates Avenue Mafia ran a drug operation from Brooklyn to Gloversville — near Albany — by running drugs on Trailways buses.