Press Release
Four Leaders And Members Of The Schuele Boys Gang Charged For Their Involvement In 15 Years Of Drug Trafficking And Violence Including Two Murders
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of New York
CONTACT: Barbara Burns
PHONE: (716) 843-5817
FAX: (716) 551-3051
BUFFALO, N.Y.-U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. announced today that a federal grand jury has returned a 15 count superseding indictment charging four members of the Schuele Boys Gang with various murder, racketeering conspiracy, drug trafficking and gun charges involving the shooting deaths of two individuals.
“While nothing can restore a homicide victim to his family, today’s indictment at least provides answers to two families whose loved ones were murdered,” said U.S. Attorney Hochul. “As alleged, this gang not only committed murder, it filled the streets of a city neighborhood with other crimes of violence, guns and drugs. As we have said in the past, law enforcement will simply not allow a gang to hold a community hostage.”
Aaron Hicks, Marcel Worthy, Roderick Arrington and Letorrance Travis, all of Buffalo, NY, are charged with racketeering conspiracy, narcotics conspiracy and possession of firearms in furtherance of a crime of violence and drug trafficking crime. In addition, defendants Worthy and Arrington are charged with murder in aid of racketeering activity and discharge of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Arrington is also charged with attempted murder in aid of racketeering activity, possession of heroin with intent to distribute, maintaining a drug involved premises, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Defendants Hicks and Travis face a mandatory minimum 10 years in prison with a maximum of life if convicted. Defendants Worthy and Arrington face mandatory life in prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Wei Xiang, who is handling the case, stated that according to the superseding indictment, between 2000 and 2015, the defendants were leaders and members of the Schuele Boys Gang, which operated in the Schuele Avenue area of the East Side of Buffalo. The gang is alleged to be responsible for multiple acts of violence and the distribution of illegal narcotics including cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana.
On December 17, 2006, defendant Worthy and others confronted a group of teenagers at a gas station at Grider Street and East Delavan Avenue in Buffalo, in the neighborhood controlled by the Schuele Boys. Worthy and the others asked them if they were members of the Chelsea Boys, a rival gang, but they were not. A short time later, Worthy and the others drove by the same group of teenagers who were in the vicinity of 82 Durham Avenue and shot and killed 16 year old Kevin Gray.
On August 30, 2012, defendant Arrington shot and killed Quincy Balance in the vicinity of Northland and Stevens Avenues in Buffalo, a neighborhood also controlled by the Schuele Boys. Defendants Hicks, Worthy, Arrington and others believed that victim Quincy Balance was involved in the shooting death of a Schuele Boys associate four days earlier on August 26, 2012.
The superseding indictment further states that on November 6, 2011, law enforcement officers seized 24 kilograms of cocaine and $170,000 in cash from defendant Travis and others. The cocaine was estimated to be worth nearly $1,000,000.
A total of 27 defendants have been charged in the case, to date nine have been convicted.
The superseding indictment is the culmination of an investigation by Federal Bureau of Investigation Safe Streets Task Force, the Buffalo Police Department, under the direction of Commissioner Daniel Derenda, the Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of James J. Hunt, Special Agent in Charge, New York Field Division, the New York State Police, under the direction of Major Michael Cerretto, the Erie County Sheriff’s Department, under the direction of Sheriff Timothy Howard, the Edinboro, Pennsylvania Police Department, under the direction of Chief Jeff Craft, and the Edinboro University Police Department, under the direction of Chief Angela Vincent. The FBI Safe Streets Task Force includes the Amherst Police Department; Buffalo Police Department; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; Cheektowaga Police Department; Erie County Sheriff’s Office; Hamburg Police Department; Lancaster Police Department; Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority; New York State Department of Correctional Services; New York State Police; U.S. Border Patrol; and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement–Homeland Security Investigations.
The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
Updated July 9, 2015
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