Twenty-five Ghost Face Gangsters, including three Georgia founding members, have pleaded guilty to various federal crimes since 2018 in racketeering conspiracy and drug and firearms distribution cases, highlighted by a plea deal last week.
“On the street and from behind bars, Ghost Face Gangsters have trafficked drugs and orchestrated and perpetrated horrific acts of violence,” U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Ryan Buchanan said in a statement Wednesday, calling the gang a “dangerous criminal organization.”
The gang, which originated in California in the 1970s and is made up of only white members, sprung up in Georgia in a county jail around 2000, prosecutors said. While some members of the group are white supremacists, local law enforcement agencies have said their main mission seems to be perpetuating crimes, such as murder, kidnapping, assault and witness intimidation. The Anti-Defamation League, however, considers the group a white supremacist prison gang.
Within the gang, the founding members are known as “pillars,” and all members trace their gang “bloodline” back to one of the pillars, prosecutors said.
A slew of law enforcement agencies at the state and federal level worked to secure indictments against the gang members, who have now been convicted of a variety of federal offenses, including attempted murder, kidnapping, assault and witness intimidation.
Since last year, three pillars have pleaded guilty to various federal crimes, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office: 44-year-old Joseph Propps, Jr., 45-year-old David Powell and 40-year-old Jeffrey Bourassa, all of Cobb County.
On Aug. 25, Bourassa pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering. He is set to be sentenced Oct. 25.
Powell and Propps pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit racketeering and conspiring to distribute at least 500 grams of methamphetamine, respectively. Powell received a four-year sentence while Propps was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In a statement, Cobb County police Chief Stuart VanHoozer said his officers worked “long hours and gathered an inordinate amount of evidence to help secure this indictment.”
“We are especially proud of the sincere dedication of all involved. And we vow to continue to work in such a fashion on future cases as well,” he added.
Other convicted members include 32-year-old Christopher Davis of Walker County. He pleaded guilty to using an axe to slice a Ghost Face Gangsters tattoo off another member’s chest while another member — 33-year-old Jonathan Stubbs of Hamilton County, Tennessee — held the man at gunpoint as punishment for violating gang rules, prosecutors said.
Davis was sentenced to four years in prison and five years of supervised release, and Stubbs received eight years in prison with three years of supervised release.
In another case, 40-year-old Victor DeJesus of Gwinnett County pleaded guilty to violently carjacking a woman at gunpoint and threatening to kill her in 2016, according to prosecutors. He then took the stolen car and picked up 43-year-old Christopher Marlow of Marietta, and the two later fled from a Cobb sheriff’s deputy. DeJesus shot at the deputy as they fled, authorities said.
DeJesus pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering and using a firearm during a crime of violence and was sentenced to 25 years. Marlow received a 20-year sentence for attempted murder and aiding and abetting DeJesus.
In another 2016 incident, 47-year-old Richard Sosebee of Hall County pleaded guilty to shooting a victim in the eye during a drug deal, causing permanent injury, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to 22 years.
And Kevin Sosebee, 31, of Cobb, was sentenced to 24 years for a 2017 incident during which he shot four times at a Cobb police officer who was pursuing him, according to the prosecution. The officer had to swerve to avoid bullets.
Ghost Face Gangsters also have been linked to the June 2017 fatal shooting of two corrections officers in Putnam County while on a state prison bus.
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