‘Dead Man, Inc.’ Gang Indicted For Racketeering, Murder And Drugs

A federal grand jury on Wednesday charged 22 suspects with conspiracy to participate in a violent racketeering enterprise known as the Dead Man Incorporated (DMI). All but one defendant are also charged with a drug distribution conspiracy.

The original indictment was returned by the grand jury on October 6, 2011, but it was unsealed Wednesday following the arrests of seven defendants and the execution of seven search warrants. Eleven suspects were previously captured and are in federal custody, and four suspects are still at large.

This case is another in a series of federal racketeering prosecutions in which federal, state and local agencies have joined to target leaders and key members of violent gangs in Maryland, said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.
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The indictment alleges that the Dead Man Incorporated gang is an organized criminal enterprise with leaders and members who deal drugs and commit violent crimes. Federal racketeering cases have been filed recently in Maryland against Black Guerilla Family (BGF), South Side Brims (SSB) Bloods, Pasadena Denver Lanes (PDL) Bloods, Tree Top Piru (TTP) Bloods, Latin Kings, 18th Street and MS–13, and additional gang investigations are ongoing.

This investigation was extremely challenging, not just from the level of organization DMI displays, but the level of violence that this indictment alleges, said FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely.

But the investigators and attorneys that formed this task force were even better organized and over a three year period, left department insignia at the door and leveraged almost every investigative tool available to stem the flow of violence allegedly committed by this group.

According to the 27 count indictment, 18 men and four women are members and associates of the DMI. DMI was created originally in 2000 as a prison gang in Maryland. From the beginning, defendant Perry Roark was the Supreme Commander. Also at its inception and for several years thereafter, DMI was closely allied to the Black Guerilla Family (BGF), another prison gang. By 2006, DMI expanded its membership by recruiting members outside prison, including women.

DMI members operated in and out of prisons throughout Maryland, as well as Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Texas. DMI is active in numerous prison facilities in Maryland, including the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center, Baltimore City Detention Center, Baltimore City Correctional Center, Maryland Reception Diagnostic and Classification Center, Eastern Correctional Institution, and many other penal institutions.

The indictment alleges that all 22 defendants conspired to conduct the affairs of DMI through a pattern of criminal activity from 2000 to the present, including: murder and threats to commit murder, armed robbery, drug trafficking and extortion. The defendants are alleged to have smuggled drugs, tobacco, cell phones and other contraband into prisons, by concealing them on the persons of visitors to the prisons. Twenty–one of the defendants are charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine, crack, oxycodone, Suboxone, heroin and marijuana.

According to the indictment, gang members used contraband cell phones in prisons to coordinate the smuggling of contraband into prisons, disseminate information about arrests and releases of members and associates, to warn of investigations, to publicize the identities of persons believed to be cooperating with law enforcement, and to order assaults and murders of such persons, as well as enemies of DMI.

Specific acts of violence alleged in the indictment include four murders in Maryland, as follows: the February 16, 2009 murder of James Flanary; the June 2, 2009 murder of Tony Geiger; the September 18, 2009 murder of Eugene Chambers; and the September 19, 2009 murder of Walter Milewski.

Additionally, the indictment alleges that several of the defendants planned to murder four other individuals, and ordered assaults on, and/or assaulted, more than 10 people, six of whom were incarcerated in a Maryland detention facility. Four defendants allegedly fired weapons into a house, wounding an occupant. Another defendant committed a home invasion robbery in Glen Burnie, Maryland and assaulted the occupants.

All of the defendants face a maximum sentence of life in prison on the racketeering conspiracy.

The following defendants are charged in the indictment:

Perry Roark, a/k/a Rock, Pops, Slim, Saho the Ghost, age 42;
James Sweeney, age 34;
Nicky Cash, a/k/a Mom, age 46, of Baltimore;
George Treas, a/k/a Georgie, Fat Boy; age 28, of Baltimore;
Dane Shives, age 22;
Michael Quinn, a/k/a Mikey, age 28;
Michael Forame, a/k/a Skinny, Skinny Pimp, age 40, of Sykesville, Maryland;
Brian Mitchell, a/k/a Carlito, age 40;
Richard Ingram, a/k/a Ricky, Hades, age 45;
Timothy Mixter, a/k/a Fuhrer, age 35, of Essex, Maryland;
John Henry Adams, a/k/a L.J., Little Johnny, age 25;
Gregory Cook, age 36;
Jeremy Ridgeway, a/k/a J–Rock, age 22;
John Zion, a/k/a John John, age 27;
Russell Hartman, a/k/a Busy, age 29, of Baltimore;
Bonnie Rice, age 35, of Baltimore;
Kelly Witter, age 26;
Charles Gray, a/k/a Bud, Budrow; age 31;
Edward Mueller, a/k/a Dusty, age 31, of Baltimore;
Melanie Holquist, age 28; of Baltimore;
Scott Jarriel, a/k/a Scotty J., age 28; and
Gary Horton, age 26.

All but one defendant, Gary Horton, also face a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison on the drug conspiracy. Roark, Adams, Mitchell, Forame, Mueller, Treas, Mixter, Ingram, Hartman and Zion face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder and/or an assault in aid of racketeering.

Roark, Adams, Mitchell, Gray, Forame, Jarriel and Mueller face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for assault with a dangerous weapon resulting in serious bodily injury. Cash and Holquist face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for being accessories after the fact of an assault; Witter, Holquist, Zion, Mixter and Treas face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for distributing drugs; and Treas and Mixter face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for being a felon in possession of a gun.

Initial appearances for the defendants began this morning in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.