gang activity

Maryland corrections officials are using new technology designed to block the use of contraband cellphones by inmates — a problem at the heart of recent indictments at the Baltimore City Detention Center.

Restrictions on visits could harm trial preparation, attorney argues

In the black market of Maryland's prisons and jails, where the right price can secure cellphones and drugs, transactions unfold through a complex system of currency. It uses 14-digit codes, prepaid debit cards and text messages.

Governor wants to 'root out corruption' and tackle gangs behind bars

A federal grand jury indicted 18 alleged gang members on racketeering charges, including a detainee at a state-managed detention center, news that could draw more scrutiny to the beleaguered state correctional system.

Months before an unsealed federal indictment blew the lid off allegations of widespread gang corruption at the Baltimore City Detention Center, those allegations were already common knowledge among many — including Shavella Miles, the jail's chief of security.

Senior administrators at the detention center have been investigated in wake of federal corruption indictment

Lawmakers need to take a hard look at what went wrong at the Baltimore City jail

Assembly leaders change plans for city jail oversight

Anyone from Harford County who might not have landed a part in the first season on the Netflix drama "House of Cards" will have another shot later this month.

With the state corrections system already under scrutiny, the Maryland Board of Public Works on Wednesday approved a $40,000 settlement with a former inmate of the Baltimore jail who claimed he was assaulted by gang members for not assisting with a drug dealing operation.

As critics of Gov. Martin O'Malley sensed a new political vulnerability, he insisted Tuesday that last week's indictment of 25 inmates and correctional officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center was "a positive achievement" in Maryland's fight against violent gangs.

Gov. Martin O'Malley is trying to spin his way out of blame from the Baltimore detention center corruption scandal.

Governor stands firmly behind state prisons chief

Tavon White, the accused Baltimore jailhouse leader of the Black Guerrilla Family gang, pleaded not guilty Monday to allegations that he oversaw a smuggling scheme that employed corrections officers to help get contraband including drugs and cellphones into the city detention center.

Marathon bombing should prompt lawmakers to rethink immigration reform

Court filings depict how thoroughly the Black Guerrilla Family allegedly turned the Baltimore City Detention Center into what top FBI agents called a gang "stronghold." While gangs have long been difficult to dislodge even behind bars, the degree of corruption alleged in this case has astounded longtime observers.

Question: What could be wilder and stranger than the story this week of Black Guerrilla Gang members essentially controlling the Baltimore City Detention Center?

One of the corrections officers accused this week of helping Black Guerrilla Family members smuggle drugs into a Baltimore jail was flagged seven years ago for alleged gang ties.

Allegations that a cabal of Black Guerrilla Family gang members effectively took over the Baltimore City Detention Center have prompted a rare out-of-session legislative hearing on the state's prison system.

Corruption allegations at the Baltimore City Detention Center have focused attention on the extensive "bill of rights" that protects state corrections officers who face disciplinary proceedings.

Maryland lawmakers called Wednesday for a sweeping inquiry into the state's prison system, amid allegations that a gang effectively took over the Baltimore City Detention Center, orchestrating crimes from behind bars and impregnating female correctional officers who helped smuggle in contraband.

The federal racketeering and drug charges unveiled this week against 25 inmates and guards at the Baltimore City Detention Center raise serious questions about Maryland's management of the facility.

As lawmakers in the state, including Gov. Martin O'Malley, celebrate an end to the death penalty for the state's most violent offenders, killings in state prisons — some involving inmates such as Jerrod Pridget, who was serving a relatively short sentence on gun and drug charges — have spiked in recent months.

A North Carolina man and alleged gang member in New Jersey was arrested near Havre de Grace and charged with bringing a large amount of drugs into the county.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts details his department's response to violent crime.

Baltimore homicide detectives are investigating a triple fatal shooting Tuesday morning in West Baltimore.

Bruce Reynolds nearly got away with it — and for a time he did. As the brains behind England's 1963 "Great Train Robbery," Reynolds and his confederates netted some $7 million in small bills.

After Black Guerrilla Family leader Naim King was killed on Halloween 2007, prosecutors say, fellow gang member David Hunter swore to avenge his death.

Anyone seeking to purchase a gun – even those buying weapons at a show or through a private dealer— should be required to pass a background check through a national database, according to recommendations drafted by a panel of violence reduction experts convened by the Johns Hopkins University.

Baltimore was unable in 2012 to sustain a significant milestone — the first drop below 200 homicides in a generation — but officials see reasons to remain optimistic that declines will resume.

Property crimes involving drug addicts and highway safety concerns were among topics discussed at two well attended town hall meetings hosted simultaneously at opposite ends of the county by Harford County Sheriff Jesse Bane and his commanders Saturday.

A Crips gang member lured a former associate and his 17-year-old girlfriend to a secluded cul-de-sac where he and another man gunned down the couple, killing the teenage girl.

A man was struck in the head with a rubber mallet at the North Point Plaza Flea Market on Sunday afternoon during what a police dispatcher initially characterized as a "motorcycle gang-related" fight.

An alligator was seized from an alleged Jessup gang member's home after Anne Arundel County police executed a search warrant in a drug investigation.

CMW student, 16, charged with having a gun at home

Sheriff Jesse Bane made his message to drug dealers and gang members clear during a press conference Thursday afternoon: "You are not welcome in Harford County."

A co-founder of the Dead Man Incorporated prison gang pleaded guilty Wednesday to his role in the group's murder-for-hire and drug-dealing conspiracy — ensuring the former Baltimorean serves a life sentence even as he promised followers in missives from behind bars that he would continue to defy the government.

Baltimore's next police commissioner is walking through a west-side neighborhood with some of the community's most engaged residents, but that's not enough for Anthony W. Batts.

Baltimore's next police commissioner is walking through a west-side neighborhood with some of the community's most engaged residents, but that's not enough for Anthony W. Batts.

Rodney Pridget and his girlfriend were unaware they were being followed as they stopped at Build-A-Bear Workshop, Nordstrom and other stores at a crowded Towson Town Center Mall before Christmas.

Waverly shooting was gang-related, police say

Perry Roark, "supreme commander" of prison gang Dead Man Inc., pleaded guilty to federal racketeering and accepted a life sentence.

Maryland's second highest court has upheld the murder conviction of a gang member who shot a man six times in February 2009 on orders from a Bloods leader. The suspect had contested the state's introduction of gang testimony, arguing it prejudiced the jury into finding him guilty.

An armed robbery on Clocktower Lane in the Kings Contrivance Village — described by police in a single sentence — was far from routine. It actually was an undercover police sting that went bad, targeting a Columbia resident and suspected Bloods gang member known as "Bloody Mike."

A police department that is proactive in trying to prevent crime is in a way trying to put itself out of business. An agency that's 100 percent effective in preventing crimes, it could be argued, is no longer needed.

A 23rd suspect has been charged in an indictment against the Maryland-based prison gang Dead Man Inc., according to documents recently unsealed in federal court.

An MS-13 gang member wanted in his home country of Honduras on murder and robbery charges was arrested Monday at his home in Randallstown, federal authorities announced.