More than two dozen people are rounded up today in Cincinnati as police go after gang members and the city's most violent criminals. Twenty-seven people were indicted on federal charges including conspiracy to distribute drugs, organized possession of firearms with intent to sell and selling firearms without a license.
Officers say all the suspects are members of the "Tot Lot" gang, named after a popular Westside playground.
Gun and drug charges against 27 people are the result of an 18-month investigation. Some of the federal gun and drug charges are so serious that the suspects are facing possible life prison sentences.
According to the indictments the Tot Lot gang was selling guns, drugs, shooting people and killing them. Detectives held a news conference this afternoon to explain the investigation and to display some of the weapons recovered during the operation. We're talking serious federal time, but none are charged with murder, yet. But investigators hope that the suspects will consider the long prison terms they could receive, and give investigators information on murder cases.
Cincinnati Homicide is currently investigating nine unsolved murders tied to the Tot Lot ... six murders tied to the gang are closed. Those unsolved include the murder of Terrence Newell, who was shot to death in Northside last year. Detectives also believe the murder of mother Victoria Gibson is related to the gang. You might recall she was found in her West End home ... with her little girl holding her dead mother. The gang may also be responsible for the death of Nathaniel Sanders. Sanders was a suspect in a triple homicide in Charlotte, North Carolina. But before police could question him, he was shot to death in the West End.
Right now, police are still tracking suspects charged in the investigation. We're told some are even turning themselves in.
Agents from the ATF, FBI, Cincinnati Violent Crimes, Vortex, Sofast, Attorney General's Office, and the Prosecutors office were all involved in the round-up.
After a dramatic rise in violent crime in the West End in the fall of 2008, statistical analysis of 125 felonious assaults involving firearms and homicide offenses that occurred in District One showed that 20 percent of the offenses involved Tot Lot Posse members as victims or suspects. The Cincinnati Police Department worked with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Ohio Adult Parole Authority, and the Hamilton County Probation Department to identify approximately 70 members of the Tot Lot Posse.
During the course of the investigation, ATF agents and Cincinnati police officers purchased or recovered 41 firearms and more than 1300 grams of crack cocaine. The investigation that began in November 2008 has become the largest criminal conspiracy prosecution case in the history of the Cincinnati Police Department.
Among those who were arrested was the son of Kabaka Oba. Oba, whose real name was Michael Bailey, was a self-proclaimed black activist who was gunned down in front of Cincinnati City Hall in April of 2006.
