"On Monday, a federal judge issued a prison sentence for the ninth and final defendant in the federal government's case against the Ghost Town crew. Eight men and one woman received a combined 60 years in prison for a string of takeover robberies targeting jewelry shops and cannabis businesses. Some of the defendants are suspected of other robberies and shootings."
"The men at the center of the robberies posed an outsized threat to public safety in Oakland, argued prosecutors. They were among the small number of people - roughly 0.03% of the city's population, according to the Department of Violence Prevention - who were responsible for most gun violence in the city at the time. Demarco Barnett, 36; Jakari Jenkins, 34; Danny Garcia, 41;"
Oakland experienced one of its most violent years in decades in 2022 amid a three-year violent-crime spike coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic. Police identified a handful of groups behind an outsized portion of the violence, including the Ghost Town gang, a network tied to the Oakland neighborhood. Federal prosecutors secured guilty pleas from eight men and one woman for conspiracy and robbery in a series of takeover robberies targeting jewelry shops and cannabis businesses. Defendants received a combined 60 years in prison. Investigators used license plate readers, cell-phone location data, DNA, and other evidence in the case.
Read at The Oaklandside
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