THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 4, 1995 TAG: 9503040438
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
Three members of an interstate drug gang that allegedly dealt up to $122.8 million in crack cocaine and killed or maimed seven people along the East Coast have pleaded guilty in federal court to drug conspiracy charges.
On Friday, Anthony ``Pretty'' Moore pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
On Thursday, Robert B. Gillins pleaded guilty to engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy and money laundering.
The same day, Paul Ebanks pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy. Ebanks and Gillins were two of the gang's three leaders, prosecutors have said.
The three men face maximum sentences of life in prison without parole when they are sentenced in June.
In December, a grand jury indicted 21 people alleged to be part of what was probably the largest interstate cocaine ring prosecuted in Hampton Roads.
According to the indictment, drug sales, violence and money laundering occurred since 1989 in Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Williamsburg, Virginia Beach and Richmond.
Police said gang members moved drugs from Miami and New York to Richmond, then to the Peninsula, where they virtually controlled the drug market. The gang also was linked to four murders since 1990 in Norfolk, Newport News, Philadelphia and Lorain, Ohio.
Profits were laundered through a pest-control business in Queens, N.Y., owned by one of the gang leaders' sisters, prosecutors said.
The gang members were enamored with technology. The gang had electronically controlled hidden compartments installed in several cars used to smuggle drugs and money.
The business began in the spring or early summer of 1989 when Gillins, Ebanks and another man traveled to the Peninsula from Queens to establish a distribution network, records show. By June, sales had begun from a Days Inn near Hampton Coliseum.
By January 1994, the gang sold at least 5 to 15 kilograms of cocaine a week. A kilogram of crack cocaine conservatively sells for about $45,000 on the street, according to police estimates.
KEYWORDS: DRUGS ILLEGAL GUILTY PLEA by CNB