During his campaign, Georgia Governor-Elect Brian Kemp released detailed policy proposals to dismantle drug cartels and street gangs in Georgia. Earlier this week, he took to social media to praise officials in the U.S. Attorney General’s office for their work in southeastern Georgia as part of Operation Vanilla Gorilla.
According to information from the U.S. Attorney General’s office, more than 40 associates of the notorious Ghost Face Gangsters criminal street gang have been indicted on federal charges related to drug trafficking and firearms possession throughout eastern Georgia and beyond.
A 93-page, 83-count federal grand jury indictment unsealed Nov. 16 in U.S. District Court in Savannah lists the charges against 43 men and women for a multitude of offenses involving trafficking methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin, announced Bobby L. Christine, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. Federal, state and local agencies cooperated in the investigation dubbed Operation Vanilla Gorilla.
The indictment alleges that the narcotics-trafficking conspiracy began as early as 2015 and continued until the present, operating in Bryan, Chatham, Effingham, Emmanuel, Evans, and Tattnall Counties, in the Southern District of Georgia, and elsewhere. Members of the conspiracy associated with the Ghost Face Gangsters, a violent, white supremacist street gang operated largely from inside prisons, and with other criminal street gangs to aid in the distribution of controlled substances, for protection, and to promote a climate of fear.
Officials also stated that Operation Vanilla Gorilla represents one of the largest takedowns of Ghost Face Gangsters associates to date, and follows the March 2018 arrests of 23 gang members in the Northern District of Georgia on federal charges, and multiple arrests in October 2018 on state charges in Spalding County.
On his Facebook page, Governor-Elect Kemp posted: “Incredibly proud of U.S. Attorney Bobby Christine, state agencies, and local law enforcement for working around the clock to stop violent crime and dismantle gang infrastructure in the Southern District of Georgia. Operation Vanilla Gorilla led to the indictment of 43 individuals associated with the Ghost Face Gangsters – a violent white supremacist street gang that’s flooding communities with drugs and fear.”
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr also commented about the indictments.
“This is precisely why our Office of the Attorney General developed the Georgia Anti-Gang Network: Gangs operate too freely, putting law-abiding Georgians at risk. I am grateful to U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia Bobby Christine, the GBI, Savannah and Chatham County law enforcement, and all the state, local and federal officials it required to take down so many criminals in this gang network.”
Charges against the defendants in Operation Vanilla Gorilla include:
* 25 counts alleging the possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute;
* 18 counts alleging the unlawful distribution of controlled substances;
* 25 counts alleging prohibited persons (drug users and/or felons) in possession of firearms and/or ammunition;
* One count alleging the unlawful possession of a prohibited weapon – a sawed-off rifle;
* One count alleging the possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number;
* 10 counts alleging the possession of controlled substances, including methamphetamine, heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana, and prescription pills; and,
* 2 counts alleging the possession of counterfeit currency.
The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of 23 firearms that were seized during this operation. All of the defendants face potential sentences of up to life in prison.
Of the 43 defendants charged, 41 are now in custody awaiting further court proceedings, according to officials.
“When I was sworn in as the United States Attorney, I pledged that we would make neighborhoods safer and work hard to dismantle criminal street gangs,” said U.S. Attorney Bobby L. Christine. “As this indictment demonstrates, we will coordinate with federal, state and local law enforcement to identify criminal organizations; we will target them; and we will dismantle them. The Ghost Face Gangsters is a gang that started in Georgia prisons. It has spread to the free world. It is my goal to end the gang where it started.”
