News Release
U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
District of Rhode Island
March 7, 2008
Former Latin King RICO defendant admits to drug and firearms offenses
Karim Abdullah, who was released from federal prison in 2006 after serving a sentence for street gang racketeering, has pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and trafficking in crack cocaine. In the mid-1990s, Abdullah was a defendant in a federal racketeering indictment – the first in Rhode Island that focused on a street gang, the Almighty Latin King Nation.
United States Attorney Robert Clark Corrente announced the guilty plea, which Abdullah, 32, entered yesterday before U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith in U.S. District Court, Providence.
At the plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen G. Dambruch said the government could prove that Abdullah possessed four handguns and 33 grams of crack cocaine when Rhode Island State Police and Providence Police detectives searched his apartment on Carpenter Street in Providence last June.
When detectives entered the apartment on June 15, they saw Abdullah standing by a window, holding a pistol. He dropped the gun when detectives ordered him to do so. In various locations in the apartment, detectives seized four handguns, ammunition, two plastic bags containing a total of 33.47 grams of crack cocaine, and drug-trafficking equipment.
In 1997, Abdullah – there are various spellings of his first and last names – was sentenced to 115 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to racketeering, witness intimidation, and a firearms offense. A total of 13 members and associates of the Latin Kings gang were sentenced to federal or state prison as a result of Operation Checkmate, a multi-agency task force investigation. Five are serving life without the possibility of parole in federal prison for gang-related murders and other offenses.
Abdullah was released from prison in April 2006, and was under court-supervised release when he was arrested last June.
Abdullah is detained, pending sentencing, which is scheduled for August 1. The statutory maximum penalties for the offenses to which he pleaded guilty are: felon in possession of a firearm – 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine; possessing with intent to distribute five grams or more of cocaine base (crack) – five to 40 years in prison and a $2,000,000 fine. He also faces a potential additional two years for violating the terms of his supervised release.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth P. Madden is prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dambruch represented the government at the plea hearing.
Contact: 401-709-5032 Thomas.connell@usdoj.gov