THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 21, 1996 TAG: 9609210246
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 71 lines
For 10 years, a deadly gang known as the Raysor Organization dominated the crack trade in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, ready to burn down a building or shoot a rival or witness to keep its lucrative operation going, federal authorities said.
It used Norfolk as a training ground for young gang recruits, teaching them the trade in Park Place - which is similar to some neighborhoods in Brooklyn - and in Ocean View, federal prosecutors in New York said Friday.
The gang allegedly killed as many as four people in Norfolk and fire-bombed a house on 27th Street. They ran crack houses and safe houses and made tens of thousands of dollars every week selling crack on the streets of Norfolk.
About a third of the organization was based in Norfolk, the prosecutors said.
On Thursday, 10 of the gang's members were indicted in Brooklyn on charges of murdering nine people and drug racketeering - running a crack-selling operation that netted up to $90,000 a week in New York.
The gang gained notoriety for its carelessness in carrying out hits that appeared to exceed even that of New York's most ruthless drug gangs, investigators said.
While gunning for targets, more than once they killed the wrong person. Looking for a woman they believed would testify against them, gang members killed another woman they mistook for the witness, investigators said. Several days later, the gang allegedly repeated the mistake, killing a second woman - and her boyfriend as well.
Law enforcement officials said they were confident they had shattered the gang, which numbered about 25 people. Besides the 10 indicted, another 10 have already pleaded guilty to murder or drug charges, or are cooperating with the prosecution, officials said.
Ronald Stanley, 24, and Michael Sidbury, who are suspected of running the Norfolk operation, were both indicted Thursday. They are accused of an attempted murder and arson in Norfolk. The gang is also implicated in four murders in Norfolk, Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Giordano said Friday.
The gang members may have settled in Norfolk areas that reminded them of home, Giordano said.
``Obviously some of the pockets in Norfolk are similar to pockets in Brooklyn where there is lots of crack use and crack houses,'' Giordano said. ``There was enough of a demand in Norfolk to support these kinds of sophisticated operations you have in Brooklyn.''
Giordano called the Norfolk arm of the operation ``a major branch.'' While the gang was selling between five and 10 kilos of crack a week in New York, they were selling from one to three kilos here, for an estimated $35,000 profit per week.
The suspected leader of the Norfolk operation, Stanley, is believed to have been involved in at least three murders, one attempted murder and one attempted arson, Giordano said.
``His nickname is Raw,'' she said. ``He's really scary.''
Stanley is charged with the January firebombing of a building on 27th Street between Omohundro and Llewellyn avenues.
His partner, Sidbury, nicknamed ``Brook,'' is charged with the same crimes in the conspiracy indictment.
One of the Norfolk murders linked to the gang was the slaying of Leonard Rothwell in 1992, Giordano said. It was a hit ordered by the gang, she said.
Rothwell was found slumped behind the wheel of a car in a parking lot in Fox Hall Place on March 29, 1992. Rothwell, 24, of the 300 block of W. 34th St., had been shot to death.
Robert E. Butler, 19, of the 2200 block of Willow Wood Drive in Kent Park, was arrested and convicted in state court for that murder, Giordano said.
Among those charged in the indictment, unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, were the two brothers for whom the organization is named, Chaka Raysor, 25, and Umeme Raysor, 27. MEMO: The New York Times News Service contributed to this report.
KEYWORDS: MURDER GANG DRUG ARREST CRACK COCAINE < by CNB