XPost: alt.politics.immigration, talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.drugs, alt.politics.democrats   
   From: nospam@ix.netcom.com   
      
   The leader of a notorious Washington, D.C., gang has been sentenced to 13   
   years in prison for an operation that included smuggling drugs on planes   
   and using COVID relief money to buy drugs that members then peddled on   
   city streets.   
      
   Kenneth Amedola Olugbenga, the leader of the Kennedy Street Crew, was   
   officially sentenced on April 17 on charges including conspiracy to   
   distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and possessing a firearm in   
   furtherance of a drug-trafficking offense, according to the Justice   
   Department.   
      
   The 29-year-old Olugbenga, by his own admission an organizer and leader of   
   the gang, took nearly six dozen round-trip flights to the West Coast to   
   get drugs to sell in so-called "open-air" drug markets.   
      
   He also created a fake business to apply for and receive forgivable Small   
   Business Administration loans during the COVID-19 pandemic. He then used   
   the funds to buy more bulk narcotics, federal prosecutors also said.   
      
   Olugbenga served as the lead money-launderer for the gang, or crew, which   
   included him establishing phony companies like a phony car wash to   
   "project an illusion of legitimacy for the crew’s drug trafficking" and a   
   casino to launder $1.8 million in illegal proceeds from drug trafficking.   
      
   He was the last of 17 members of the gang to be convicted in the federal   
   case that included help from the FBI, IRS and D.C.'s Metropolitan Police   
   Department. Their charges also included the sale of fentanyl.   
      
   "Put simply, the KDY Crew is a driver of the cycle of violence associated   
   with drug trafficking and firearms that has plagued the Kennedy Street   
   neighborhood for years," Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew W. Kinskey wrote   
   in a court memorandum ahead of Olugbenga’s sentencing.   
      
   Olugbenga’s attorney, Stephen F. Brennwald, minimized his client's role as   
   a gang leader, describing the gang's meetings as gatherings of friends who   
   freelanced.   
      
   https://justthenews.com/government/local/leader-dc-gang-used-covid-19-   
   loans-buy-drugs-sentenced-13-years   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)