Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

HAMMOND, Ind. — Kenneth Christopher McGhee, aka “Sonny” and “Angel,” 74, of Merrillville; Richard White, aka “Ignorant Bastard,” 56, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Brandon Romand Parks, aka “Baywatch,” 45, of Chicago; and Herman Troy Jefferson, aka “G-Rilla,” 51, of Jacksonville, Arkansas, were each found guilty of various felony charges following an 18-day jury trial presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Philip P. Simon, announced U.S. Attorney Clifford D. Johnson.

The jury found McGhee and Jefferson guilty of the racketeering conspiracy and the drug conspiracy and additionally found McGhee guilty of possessing a firearm while being an unlawful user of controlled substances. The jury further found White and Parks guilty of the racketeering conspiracy.

According to the second superseding indictment, the Sin City Deciples, originally formed in 1967 in Gary, Indiana, is a motorcycle organization in which its members and associates engage in acts of violence, extortion and narcotics distribution in the Northern District of Indiana and elsewhere.

The agencies involved in the Sin City Deciples prosecution are the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the East Chicago Police Department, the FBI, the Gary Police Department, the Griffith Police Department, the Hammond Police Department, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division, the Lake County Sheriff’s Department, Indiana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area officers and agents, the Merrillville Police Department, the Munster Police Department, and the Schererville Police Department. The Lake County Prosecutor’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern District of Arkansas, Northern District of Illinois, Southern District of Indiana, Western District of Kentucky, and Western District of Pennsylvania also provided assistance.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David J. Nozick, Michael J. Toth and Kimberly L. Schultz.  

This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

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