Gang leader who lived in Troy will face sentencing in May
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Four additional ‘Gangster Disciples’ convicted this week on RICO charges
Times-Tribune staff
In addition to a Troy man who pleaded guilty to racketeering and other crimes in January, federal prosecutors this week announced four more convictions against leaders of the notorious Gangster Disciples following a weeks-long trial.
Court documents show 55-year-old Anthony Dobbins was a “board member” of the gang when he was arrested in 2018, after authorities found 200 grams of heroin, 90 grams of crack, gang correspondence and firearms at his residence in Troy.
Dobbins, aka “Tony Rome” and “Crazy,” was said in court documents to be connected to the gang for more than a decade. As far back as 2009, he sent a letter to fellow members stating he wanted to become the first board member from East St. Louis.
In January, he pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement to racketeering conspiracy and use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence causing death. Dobbins is set to be sentenced May 24 at the Federal Courthouse in East St. Louis.
Convicted by the jury last week was Warren Griffin, aka GG, aka “Big Head,” 53, of Glenwood, Illinois, according to a news release by the United States Attorney’s Office Southern District of Illinois.
Prosecutors said Griffin traveled with Dobbins to the south side of Chicago in April 2018 to murder a another board member of the gang, with whom the defendants were engaged in a dispute over control. Griffin lured the victim and Dobbins came up behind him and shot him three times in the back and once in the face.
Also convicted at the recent trial was Frank Smith, aka Little Frank, aka Red Beard, 49, of Naperville, Illinois, who fatally shot another victim and injured two other men in Bridgeton, Missouri. That shooting too was part of a gang leadership dispute. The other two convictions were of Cape Girardeau residents – Sean Clemon, aka Pops, 52, and Dominique Maxwell, aka D-Mac, aka Monster, 30.
The defendants’ other acts of violence included a nightclub stabbing in East St. Louis, Illinois, and a nonfatal shooting in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Gangster Disciples members also engaged in various acts of drug trafficking, including a scheme to smuggle the synthetic drug “K2” into Missouri state prisons, according to the news release.
All four defendants were convicted of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act conspiracy and murder in aid of racketeering, and face a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
According to the indictment, the Gangster Disciples is a violent street and prison gang founded in the 1960’s that has engaged in large-scale drug trafficking and violence throughout the United States. The gang employs a structured hierarchy, with leadership positions such as national “Board Members” and state “Governors.”
