Wayne Prince, Racketeering Conspiracy, Maryland 2024

Baltimore gang member Wayne Prince, also known as ‘Taz,’ has been sentenced to 28 years in federal prison for his role in a violent racketeering enterprise known as the Black Guerilla Family (BGF) gang.

According to court documents, Prince, 24, was a member and associate of the BGF, also known as ‘Jamaa,’ and participated in the gang’s criminal activities, including a murder, a drug distribution conspiracy, possession with intent to distribute drugs, and robbery.

The BGF is a nationwide gang that began operating in prisons and is now involved in criminal activity, including murder, murder-for-hire, robbery, extortion, drug trafficking, obstruction of justice, and witness intimidation, in cities throughout the United States, including Baltimore and throughout Maryland.

On August 7, 2018, Prince and two co-conspirators attempted to murder an individual at a home that the intended target owned and was having renovated. A construction crew was on site at the time. During the attempted murder, Prince and a co-conspirator shot and killed one of the construction workers using a .40 caliber handgun. They also shot a second construction worker in the head, but that person survived the attack.

Prince bragged to an associate during a recorded jail call, ‘I’m about to get some money soon,’ referring to an expected payment from Co-Conspirator 2 for Prince’s role in the attempted murder of the target. From August 7 to August 9, 2018, Prince exchanged messages with a now-deceased member of Co-Conspirator 2’s inner circle, in which Prince made arrangements to collect payment from Co-Conspirator 2 for his role in the attempted murder of the target.

The case was made possible by investigative leads generated from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ (ATF) National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN). NIBIN is the only national network that allows for the capture and comparison of ballistic evidence to aid in solving and preventing violent crimes involving firearms.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.

The case is also part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation, which identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

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