Brooklyn gang leader gets 20 years in prison

March 12, 2014 From U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York

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Devon Rodney, also known as “D-Bloc,” a former leader of the violent Brooklyn street gang “Six Tre Outlaw Gangsta Disciples Folk Nation,” also known as the “Folk Nation,” was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn.

Rodney pled guilty on Nov. 15, 2013 to charges of racketeering, including attempted murder and robbery conspiracy as predicate racketeering acts, and brandishing a firearm.

The Folk Nation is a nationwide gang active in numerous cities and prisons across the United States. The Six Tre set of the Folk Nation operated out of the Ebbets Field Houses in Flatbush for years. In order to fund its illegal activities, the defendant and other members of the gang committed violent robberies of individuals and commercial establishments, including the Lee Perla jewelry store at the Riverside Square Mall in Hackensack, N.J., where they made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of luxury watches.

In his role as the leader of the Folk Nation, Rodney ordered his subordinates in the gang to commit numerous acts of violence, which often missed their intended targets – perceived rivals or enemies of the gang – and severely injured innocent bystanders. In the attempted murder to which the defendant pled guilty, Rodney ordered the killing of a rival Crips member when he learned that the rival had been spotted near the Ebbets Field projects. In the chaos that ensued when gang members rushed to implement the orders of their leader, an innocent 10-year old girl attending a block party was shot in the neck.

“[Devon Rodney] led the Folk Nation gang in committing senseless acts of violence, including shootings and robberies, which terrorized the residents of the Ebbets Field Houses in Brooklyn,” United States Attorney for the Eastern District Loretta Lynch stated.

“Every community, including the Ebbets Field Houses community, deserves the opportunity to raise its children without the specter of gang violence,” she added.

Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis presided over Rodney’s case and issued the 20 year sentence.