A Roanoke man, Demonte Rashod Mack, 32, admitted that he was a member of the Rollin’ 30s Crips and pleaded guilty to murder in aid of racketeering and conspiracy charges for gang-related violence throughout the City of Roanoke, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District.Mack and his alleged co-conspirators, Trayvone Kasey, Chauncey Levesy, and others were members and associates of the Rollin’ 30s Crips, which also called itself the “Dirt Gang.” The Rollin’ 30s Crips are a national street gang founded in the greater Los Angeles, California area with smaller sets in other cities throughout the United States. The Roanoke set of the Rollin’ 30s operated primarily in northwest Roanoke, centered in and around the Lansdowne neighborhood.“Reducing violent crime through impactful prosecutions like that of the Rollin’ 30s is a priority of this United States Attorney’s Office,” United States Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh said. “We will continue to partner with local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to ensure the cases we bring serve to make our communities safer.”The “conviction demonstrates the FBI’s commitment to working in conjunction with our partners to vigorously investigate and bring to justice those who commit violent crimes,” Special Agent in Charge Stanley M. Meador of the FBI’s Richmond Division said.Roanoke City Police Chief Sam Roman said, “This outcome is a great example of what happens when law enforcement has a successful partnership with the prosecutorial side of the justice system. Thanks to our partnerships with local, state, and federal law enforcement, Roanoke is a safer place. Our community is sending a strong message to those who choose to perpetuate gun violence and organized crime in our city: we will find you and do everything we can to hold you accountable for your actions.”Mack admitted last week that he, Kasey, Levesy, and others conspired to conduct a pattern of racketeering activity, including multiple threats and acts of violent crime.Specifically, in June of 2017, Mack conspired with Kasey, Levesy, and others to murder “Victim D.F.” Court documents further allege that Mack and Kasey murdered “Victim N.L.” at the direction of a leader within the gang. Both D.F. and N.L. were members of the Rollin’ 30s gang, but fell out of favor with them in early summer of 2017.N.L. was only seventeen years old when he was murdered and had graduated from high school just a few weeks earlier. He was still alive when police officers found him at the apartment complex, but died shortly thereafter. After the shooting, Mack and Levesy met up with other Rollin’ 30s gang members and reported everything that occurred to the gang’s leadership.The investigation of the case was conducted by the City of Roanoke Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Violent Crimes Task Force. The investigation was a coordinated effort that also involved law enforcement assets from the Virginia State Police, the Roanoke County Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Miller, Coleman Adams, and Michael Baudinet are prosecuting the case.This prosecution is part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders works together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develops comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders, and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime. |
