The streets of Milwaukee are safer today. Acting U.S. Attorney Michelle Jacobs said members of two grangs, the West Clyde Boys and Vliet Street Gangster Disciples, were arrested and charged with drug offenses Wednesday, in a sweep which also took twelve guns and a kilo of cocaine off the streets.
"If there is somebody out there in this community that wants to pick up or use a gun, that wants to peddle drugs on the street, that wants to join a gain or commit the kind of violence that was associated with this organization, they are going to be at the top of our priority list," Jacobs said during a press conference today.
The two gangs, said Milwaukee police chief Edward Flynn, were also involved in robberies, shootings, money laundering, drug dealing and prostitution, as they wrecked havoc on the city's west side. "They poison their neighborhoods," said Flynn. "Even more important than the amount of drugs seized, guns seized or drug dealers arrested, is the fact that a significant organized crime enterprise has been taken down."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Blackwood said Antonio Williams is among those named in criminal indictments "You may know of his name from an incident in July of last year, where six indivuals were shot," said Blackwood. Four of the shooting victims died.
The take down and arrests were the result of a nine month investigation by numerous law enforecemt agencies.