4 arrested on RICO, gang and money laundering charges in Chatham County

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Four people are being held without bond in the Chatham County jail after the Counter Narcotics Team made multiple arrests overnight.

Raheem Jenkins, Edkes Mitchell, Rondell Owens and Tashiylah Riley face a series of charges.

That includes violating Georgia’s RICO/racketeering laws, street gang activity, committing crimes to increase gang status, acquiring or controlling property through a gang, attempt or conspiracy to violate Georgia’s Controlled Substances Act, and money laundering.

Details regarding the charges have not been released. Additional information is expected to be released in the coming days.

Attorney explains gang charge specifics

Local defense attorney Skye Musson said the gang charges in this case are specific.

“This is an interesting method for attacking gang charges because you really are creating these very specific different offenses, which puts, in my opinion, a higher burden on the prosecutor,” Musson said. “So they must believe that they can prove it or else they wouldn’t bring it. But it also gives the defense more maneuvering room because it has so much specificity.”

Musson said Georgia gang prosecutions rely on proving what she called the “iron triangle” — that a criminal gang exists, that a person is a member, and that the person committed a criminal act in furtherance of the gang, known as the nexus.

“It looks like they have particularized the nexus aspect of it,” Musson said, pointing to allegations such as laundering money, obtaining property, or furthering gang activity by holding oneself out as a gang member for benefit.

Musson said charging individual acts separately, rather than folding them into one broad gang charge, can prevent the charges from merging at sentencing.

“So what they’ve kind of done is they’ve set themselves up for all of these other, these different charges to carry different penalties, basically that won’t necessarily merge in the case of a trial,” Musson said. “So it gives kind of some more negotiating power to the state.”

Musson said the approach can also benefit the defense.

“It also really kind of narrows what you’re trying to defend against in certain ways,” Musson said. “From a defense attorney point of view it’s an interesting way of kind of being able to really differentiate. It shows some idea of where they’re going and what the theory is behind where their prosecution is.”

RICO charges described as a ‘catch all’

Musson said the RICO charges appear to serve as a broader safeguard in the case.

“I think what they’ve done is they’ve added those RICO charges as a way of basically adding that catch all,” Musson said. “RICO is a very broad statute, and federally it’s broad, but the state of Georgia takes it and makes it even broader.”

“If you’re doing them in furtherance of this scheme, whatever the scheme is, and the thing there is you don’t necessarily have to prove that a gang exists,” Musson said. “You don’t necessarily have to prove that somebody is a gang member because that’s not a necessary element of that charge. Just that a scheme is kind of going on.”

Musson said that combination gives prosecutors flexibility.

“That’s kind of the safety net, and then they’re exploring this methodology of really particularizing the gang charges to basically make sure that they have a broad belt that they can utilize to kind of prosecute,” Musson said.

Money laundering charges explained

Musson said money laundering in general involves taking proceeds from illegal activity and making them appear legitimate.

“You may have people who own businesses that are heavily cash-based businesses that are meant to kind of be somewhere where you can inflate the books legitimately and make it look like a legitimate action,” Musson said.

Musson said tying money laundering back to a gang requires showing where the proceeds went.

“You would then have to go back and say, okay, who’s actually receiving the proceeds?” Musson said. “So are you paying dues to a gang? Is the money going to a gang? Are cars or guns or housing being provided to the gang out of that money?”

Attempt or conspiracy charge carries same penalties

Musson said the charge of attempt or conspiracy to violate the Georgia Controlled Substances Act does not require prosecutors to present drugs as evidence.

“Normally when you see that charge, the issue is that they can’t put drugs on the table,” Musson said. “Instead though, what they’re probably have is they probably have some type of text messages, online chatter, maybe a wiretap that leads to this idea that they were partaking in substantial steps to utilize or move drugs in some manner.”

Musson said the charge “carries the exact same consequences without that added step of actually having to put the drugs on the table or in front of the jury.”

Two of the men, Owens and Jenkins, have previously served prison time. All four are being held on no bond for now.

More is expected to be released on Monday.