Pubdate: Sun, 26 Sep 1999
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 1999 The Miami Herald
Contact:  One Herald Plaza, Miami FL 33132-1693
Fax: (305) 376-8950
Website: http://www.herald.com/
Forum: http://krwebx.infi.net/webxmulti/cgi-bin/WebX?mherald
Author: Larry Lebowitz

TRIAL SPOTLIGHTS CRACKDOWN ON VIOLENT GANGS
Miami's John Does Face Drug Charges

They called themselves the John Does, but they were anything but anonymous,
slinging drugs, spraying assault rifle fire and silencing potential
witnesses on the streets of Liberty City and Overtown, prosecutors say.

The reputed leader of the group, Corey Smith, 27, and his cousin and
No. 2 man, LaTravis Gallashaw, 21, and four others are facing drug
conspiracy charges at an ongoing high-profile trial in U.S. District
Court in Fort Lauderdale that is filled with the lexicon of street
violence.

In the world of the John Does, "collard greens" meant marijuana.
"White shoes" meant cocaine. Rivals who invaded their drug "holes" did
so at the risk of getting "flipped," which is what happens to a body
riddled by an AK-47 fusillade, or "wet" -- as in drenched in blood.

Federal prosecutors, who wiretapped thousands of John Doe phone calls
last year, are arguing that at least five murders were committed to
further the group's ability to sell drugs at various "holes" they
controlled along Northwest 14th and 15th avenues in Miami.

The five victims included rival drug dealers, a John Doe street
salesman pocketing profits, and a Miami woman who turned up dead on
the eve of Smith's 1997 murder trial for shooting a rival dealer.

Testifying last week, Miami Police homicide Detective Francisco
Alfonso matter-of-factly described to jurors how he spoke with the
expected star witness, Cynthia Brown, three days before Smith's trial
was set to begin in July 1997.

"The next time I saw her was at the medical examiner's office,"
Alfonso said. "She was dead."

With Brown dead, Miami-Dade prosecutors dropped the murder charge and
Smith walked free.

Federal prosecutors now are charging that Smith "arranged for and
caused" the star witness' murder.

Miami Police, who joined forces with a massive federal-state task
force, say the John Does may be responsible for dozens of slayings and
shootings since emerging in 1994 as one of the city's largest
drug-dealing groups in 1994. The testimony has covered a lot more
murder and mayhem than the five cases cited in the indictment.

Police say that between last August and New Year's, at least 12
slayings in Liberty City were directly linked to a turf war between
the John Does and Anthony "Little Bo" Fail, a former comrade who tried
to take over the operation last year while Smith was in jail on gun-
and grenade-possession charges.

Fail "was getting too out of hand and something had to be done about
it," John Doe turncoat Jeffery Bullard testified last week. "He was
getting beside himself. He thinks he's badder than everybody else."

The shooting spree ended when authorities arrested Fail in January on
attempted murder charges and, the following week, a federal grand jury
indicted Smith, Gallashaw and 13 other John Does, including a former
enforcer confined to a wheelchair after he was shot in the back and
paralyzed in November.

Nine members, from street-level dealers to gun-toting enforcers,
already have pleaded guilty. Like Bullard, a "table man" who prepared
large quantities of marijuana, powdered and crack cocaine for
individual sales, several members are expected to testify in the
coming weeks in return for lesser sentences.

The case against the John Does is part of a local and national trend
as federal prosecutors are wielding tougher laws and longer prison
terms to dismantle violent organizations.

At the urging of Attorney General and former Miami-Dade State Attorney
Janet Reno, in 1994 Congress broadened the Justice Department's
ability to use federal racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, firearms
and drug laws to reduce violent crime. With increasing frequency,
local police across the country are teaming up with federal agents and
prosecutors to attack entire groups.

Federal gun laws are much stiffer than most state systems, especially
for convicted felons in possession of a weapon or using a gun in a
violent drug-trafficking crime. The best-behaved federal prisoners
serve 85 percent of their sentences before qualifying for early
release, and there is no parole in the federal system.

Critics, including criminal defense attorneys and a handful of federal
judges, have decried the "federalizing" of violent crimes that had
once been the sole province of state courts.

The overlap between federal and state cases is playing a role in the
defense of the John Does case.

Last week, Gallashaw's attorney, Charles G. White, pointed out that
another John Doe member already has been convicted in state court of
murdering rival drug dealer Leon Hadley in 1995 -- a murder that
federal prosecutors are now trying to pin on his client, Smith and
others.

In South Florida, the U.S. Attorney's Office has prosecuted several
large-scale cases against alleged violent criminal groups like the
John Does. Members of another feared drug gang, the Boobie Boys, are
slated for trial next month, the Moscow Posse early next year.

In 1997, seven members of a family-run ring in West Palm Beach
received life sentences for selling more than 440 pounds of crack
cocaine. Other members of the group who cooperated with prosecutors
received between 12 and 20 years.

In 1996, a gang of Miami-based armored car robbers was dismantled and
prosecuted under federal racketeering and extortion laws originally
aimed at organized crime figures.

The one minor blot occurred in April 1997, when a jury deadlocked
after listening to more than 4 1/2 months of testimony in a complex
racketeering case brought against 12 Miami-area men accused of
targeting tourists for armed robberies.

All but one of the defendants eventually pleaded guilty to lesser
charges rather than face a retrial. The ringleader, Donald Harrell,
was convicted at a second trial and sentenced to nearly 20 years in
prison.

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