were each sentenced to 50 years in prison after a federal jury convicted them on Feb. 13 for a gang-related murder.
“Substantial sentences like these send the loud and clear message that organized gang violence and retaliatory murder will be vigorously pursued, charged, and prosecuted by the Department of Justice,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “These defendants carried out a calculated, execution-style murder. They intended to incite fear and silence in fellow gang members and in the Memphis community. The court’s 50-year sentences means they now will be known as long-term residents of the Bureau of Prisons, and the good people of Memphis will no longer be dealing with their vice. The Criminal Division remains committed to protecting communities from violent criminal organizations and pursuing justice for victims and their families.”
“These significant federal sentences have dismantled the leadership of the UVL street gang here in Memphis,” said U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant for the Western District of Tennessee. “From now on, E-Money, Dre, and V-Slash will not be ‘known’ by their gang nickname, but only by their Bureau of Prisons inmate numbers.”
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Edward Allen, also known as E-Money, 42, of Los Angeles, and Deandre Rodgers, also known as Dre, 29, of Memphis, were high-ranking members of the Unknown Vice Lords also known as The Ghost Mob – a criminal enterprise that controlled territory throughout the entire city of Memphis, as well as Arkansas and Mississippi. Members of the Unknown Vice Lords committed murders, burglaries, assaults, human trafficking, and drug trafficking on behalf of the enterprise. When the gang’s so-called Supreme Elite Chief, the gang leader for the entire state of Tennessee, was murdered, the gang sought retaliation against anyone thought to be involved.
As proven at trial, on Jan. 10, 2019, the Supreme Elite Chief and his girlfriend were murdered in broad daylight, in a residential neighborhood. While the gang initially thought that a rival gang was responsible, they eventually came to believe it was one of their own who killed their leader and decided to retaliate.
On Jan. 14, 2019, Allen and Rodgers obtained guns from fellow gang member Vincent Grant, also known as V-Slash, 41, of Memphis. Early the next morning around 1 a.m., Allen, Rodgers, Grant, and another gang member drove the victim to the back of a rundown apartment complex where Allen and Rodgers used the firearms Grant supplied to murder the victim. Grant was also prosecuted and found guilty in a separate trial.
The jury convicted Allen and Rodgers of causing death by use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, that being murder in aid of racketeering.
A separate jury also convicted Grant of causing death by use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, that being murder in aid of racketeering. The court sentenced him to 24 years in prison.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) investigated the case. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, FBI, Memphis Police Department, and U.S. Secret Service assisted in the investigation.
Trial Attorneys Lisa M. Thelwell and Sarah J. Rasalam of the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section are prosecuting the case with substantial assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee.
This case is part of the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime Initiative to prosecute violent crimes in Memphis, Tennessee. The Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee have partnered, along with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, to confront violent crimes committed by gang members and associates through the enforcement of federal laws and use of federal resources to prosecute the violent offenders and prevent further violence.