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Release [print friendly page] Last Defendant Sentenced In Hoover Crips Gang Case JAN 24 -- TULSA, OKLAHOMA - United States Attorney David E. O’Meilia announced today that Kenneth FERRELL, 21, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was sentenced for his role in violent street gang activity perpetrated in Tulsa by the Tulsa Hoover Crips organization. FERRELL was sentenced to a term of 161 months (13 years) in the federal Bureau of Prisons. He had earlier pleaded guilty to Violent Crime in Aid of Racketeering. FERRELL is the last of 12 defendants in the Hoover Crips to be sentenced who were named in the lengthy federal indictment that was unsealed in June 2005. All of the defendants are now serving lengthy prison terms. The indictment alleged that from January 2000 until September of 2004, a racketeering conspiracy (18 U.S.C. '1962) existed among the defendants to violate various state and federal laws including the distribution of cocaine and marijuana, and the commission of violent acts including murder and tampering with witnesses. This was the first case in the Northern District to be prosecuted under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statutes. The RICO statutes, enacted in 1970, were initially utilized to combat the criminal threats of organized crime. O’Meilia praised the participants in the enormous law enforcement investigative effort, conducted as part of the Northern District of Oklahoma’s violent crime initiative, Operation Ceasefire. It spanned over 18 months and coordinated the resources of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Tulsa Police Dept., the FBI, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, the Tulsa County DA’s Office and the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office. The case was prosecuted by Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Assistant U.S. Attorney Allen Litchfield and by Assistant U.S. Attorney Shannon Henson, both of the Tulsa U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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