Related Federal Cases
Chucky’s Comeuppance: 23 Years for Brooklyn Gang Godfather
Quandel Smothers, the notorious leader of the Brooklyn-based Elite Assassin Millas (E.A.M.) gang, has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for racketeering conspiracy and firearms offenses.
Smothers, also known as ‘Chucky,’ was convicted by a federal jury in February 2023 following a two-week trial. The jury found him guilty of conspiring with other gang members and associates to deal drugs, commit fraud, and murder or attempt to murder their rivals from 2006 to 2019.
The E.A.M. gang, which operated primarily in East New York, made money through fraud and drug dealing, particularly sales of crack cocaine and marijuana. Smothers rose to the leadership position of E.A.M. through violence and fear, and his underlings engaged in feuds with other local street gangs that frequently resulted in shootouts between the groups.
As a result of these shootouts, two individuals were paralyzed by members of E.A.M., and one victim, Michael Tenorio, was murdered. Smothers himself was involved in a shooting on April 30, 2011, that left a fellow E.A.M. member with a leg amputated.
All six other members and associates of E.A.M. that were charged with Smothers have pleaded guilty to crimes including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, assault, and interstate stalking causing life-threatening injury. They received sentences ranging from 30 months to 45 years in prison.
US Attorney Breon Peace announced the sentence, praising the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York City Police Department in dismantling the E.A.M. gang. ‘Smothers, who fancied himself the gang’s “Godfather” and East New York his “Gun Town,” deserves the decades behind bars imposed today for leading a criminal enterprise that endangered the community with their mindless killing, shootings and assaults of rivals,’ Peace said.
The case is being prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, which aims to reduce violent crime through a comprehensive strategy that includes enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partnerships with locally based prevention and reentry programs.
Key Facts
- State: New York
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Violent Crime|Organized Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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