A Brooklyn man has been convicted in federal court for his involvement in multiple gang-related activities, prosecutors with the Eastern District of New York announced Wednesday. Quandel Smothers, 32, is facing life in prison after a federal jury convicted him of racketeering conspiracy and possessing a firearm in aid of a drug-trafficking crime.
Smothers, also known as Chucky, was identified by prosecutors as the leader of the East New York-based Elite Assassin Millas, part of the Bloods street gang.
“Today’s verdict is welcome news to the people of East New York, who will no longer have to face the defendant’s destructive impact on their neighborhood,” said Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, as he announced the verdict. “Our communities should not have to live in fear of unprompted violence from the defendant and his gang.”
Smothers faces life in prison, with a minimum sentence of at least five years.
According to trial testimony, from 2006 through 2019, Smothers committed fraud and trafficked drugs alongside his EAM gang members. It was also found that the group committed brutal acts of violence, killing at least one person and leaving several others permanently disabled. The group had nicknamed East New York, where they carried out most of their operations, “Gun Town.”
During the course of the trial, it was proven that EAM. had profited from fraud and drug dealing, mostly selling crack cocaine and marijuana. Six other members and associates of the gang have already pleaded guilty to crimes including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, assault, and interstate stalking causing life threatening injury after they were charged in June 2020.
In 2011, Smothers shot another gang member in the leg who he believed was going to “cause harm” to another member of EAM. As a result of the shooting, the victim had to have his leg amputated.
With Smothers in charge, EAM frequently feuded with other local street gangs in the nabe – and those fights often resulted in shoot-outs on the streets of New York, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. Numerous people were paralyzed by members of EAM as a result of shootings, while one person — Michael Tenorio — was murdered.
