ATF / New Orleans Police Department

From February 17, 2001 through September 12, 2003, New Orleans Police Department responded to three homicide shootings and two shootings with injuries. At the shooting scenes, officers collected spent ammunition fired from 12 separate firearms. On September 20, 2001, New Orleans Police Department responded to a homicide shooting and recovered one .40 caliber pistol from the victim. Using NIBIN, New Orleans Police Department Crime Laboratory was able to link the pistol to all seven shootings. All of the shootings occurred within a New Orleans public housing development ten-block area. In response to the violence, from September 2001 to May 2003, ATF and New Orleans Police Department led a RICO investigation of the Cutt Boyz street gang, an armed drug trafficking organization that since 1992 had been suspected of committing over 20 homicides and numerous attempted homicides within the housing development area. ATF and New Orleans Police Department executed 6 search warrants and coordinated witness testimony from more than 60 witnesses. In furtherance of the RICO prosecution, and in addition to drug trafficking and firearms crimes, Federal prosecutors charged all four murders and two attempted murders as RICO crimes. From October 26, 2004 to July 3, 2008, following guilty pleas, 10 of the 11 defendants pled guilty to RICO crimes, including two defendants that pled guilty to multiple murders and were sentenced to life imprisonment without parole and three defendants that pled guilty to participating in murder and attempted murder and were sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. The 11^th defendant was convicted at trial of all RICO crimes charged against him, including murder and attempted murder, and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole

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