NYPD Busting Gang Members Through Social Media

Before busting dozens of gang members in the Bronx, the NYPD became their friends — on Facebook.

Nearly 40 members of the Washside gang are each facing at least 15 years in prison, toppled by cops mining social media posts that boasted about guns and violence.

For cybersleuth cops and prosecutors, what’s not to like?

“Social media to these guys is like breathing, and you can’t stop breathing,” said Deputy Chief Kevin Catalina, the commanding officer of the NYPD’s Gang Division. “It’s not worth being a gang member if you can’t in some way brag about your exploits.”

For years, scouring social media has been one of the many tools investigators use to build cases against gang members, Catalina told the Daily News. But with more and more criminals posting to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, investigations into social media activity have become as valuable as evidence gathered on the streets.

The Washside gang — an offshoot of the Bloods who claim control over four blocks in Clare­mont Village in the Bronx bordered by Washington and Third Aves. and 168th and 170th Sts. — is a textbook example of a social media gang takedown.

Between 2010 and 2015, the crew’s criminal exploits were laid out in Facebook posts — including their plans to kill members of the Sev-0 gang, longtime rivals who operate on the other side of 170th St., according to court documents obtained by the The News.

“Lefty want to mob Sev-0 tomorrow,” one gang member wrote to leader Malcolm Bland on Jan. 21, 2013, informing him that a plan was in motion to hit the rival crew.

“N----- got to be low,” Bland wrote back, informing the underling to hide out somewhere once the deed was done.

“Well he said he need sum stripes,” the gang member responded, explaining that the hit was being planned so “Lefty” could move up in the gang’s ranks.

Shortly after the conversation, members of the Sev-0 gang — named for their proximity to 170th St. — were attacked and hospitalized, officials said.

Several Washside members later posted to social media pictures of themselves with guns and wads of cash.

Still others, like Jauan Blume, alluded to criminal activity and topped it off with emojis.

In a Facebook post July 15, he put up a picture of a smiley face with tears of joy. “When you chase Sev-0 back to their block,” he wrote after the emoji.

Blume also allegedly posted videos of himself inducting young neighborhood teens into the gang. These “inductions” usually consisted of him beating them into submission, court papers show.

In 2014, Bland was back on social media ordering another gang member to commit violence.

“Wassup with you and that Jay Gunz n-----,” Bland wrote to his associate, whose street name is Bubba Gzz, referring to Sev-0 gang member Joel Baba.

Baba apparently made fun of Gzz, but the Washside gang member did nothing, officials said.

“I heard you stood shut when he said something to you,” Bland wrote. “You got to turn it up.”

Bland encouraged Bubba Gzz to buy a gun.“Put money so you could buy somethin’,” he wrote.

“I gotch you,” his associate wrote back.

Five days later, Bland and two others allegedly opened fire into a crowd of Sev-0 members on Freeman St. in Foxhurst, the Bronx. No one was hit, but several cars were damaged, according to court papers. It was not clear if Bubba Gzz, whose real name was not in the court papers, played a role in the shooting.

Most of Bland’s conversations were in code — but were far from cryptic, officials said.

He and other Washside gang members refrained from using the word “gun” on social media, prosecutors said. Instead, they used the word “situation.”

“I got the situation, where you at ... hurry up!” Washside member Jermain Ferguson wrote on Facebook in October 2014.

Edward Talty, who heads hom­icide and major gang investigations for the Bronx district attorney’s office, said it isn’t too difficult to decode the social media chatter if you know what you’re looking for.

Bland and his fellow gang members were indicted on multiple counts of assault, attempted murder, weapons possession and conspiracy. Each faces at least 15 years in prison.

To police and prosecutors, incriminating social media posts are 140-character gifts from heaven. And it’s a gift that keeps on giving: More and more gang members are communicating on social media, Talty said.

In April — just eight months before Bronx prosecutors shut down Washside — 15 members of the Lyman Place Bosses were indicted after they were caught trading stolen cell phones for guns on social media.

“It’s not just Facebook, it’s Instagram, Twitter ... anything that is used to convey information,” Talty said. “People used to talk on the phone, but with social media, we can print out conversations between those acting together in a criminal enterprise.”

Tweets and Facebook posts are just part of the puzzle, Talty said. “You have to put that together with video surveillance and other evidence,” he said.

“All that stuff together becomes our evidence of a conspiracy to commit a criminal act that are as bad as they get ... murder and attempted murder.”

That's why I be like …….

Every time you post some incriminating sh!t picture these mf's as your friend on facebook, twitter, IG and snapchat watching everything you post …….

INTERACTIVE GANG MAP

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