Violent Member of Broadway Crips Gang Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Murder and Other Racketeering Offenses

          LOS ANGELES – A 27-year-old member of the Five Deuce Broadway Gangster Crips (BGC) who has been active in the gang for more than a decade was sentenced today to 30 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to racketeering and drug trafficking conspiracy charges and admitting that he participated in a murder.

          Joshua Perez, aka "Tiny Ange," of Los Angeles, who pleaded guilty to the two felony offenses last year, was sentenced today by United States District Judge S. James Otero, who called the defendant "a very dangerous and callous individual" who acted as a "predator" on behalf of the gang.

          Perez admitted he participated in a fatal shooting in 2012 when he and several other BGC members traveled into rival gang territory near the Hyde Park District of Los Angeles and fired a barrage of more than 40 bullets into a crowd of people walking into a rival gang’s party. William Sherman – who was not a member of that rival gang – was killed, and two others were injured in the attack motivated by a desire to retaliate against the rival gang for the recent murder of a BGC member. Perez was one of the shooters in the incident, and one of the guns used in the attack was recovered from his vehicle several months after the murder.

          "Above all, it is defendant’s role in the conspiracy to murder victim W.S. that demonstrates defendant’s dangerousness and the nature and extent of his commitment to the violent lifestyle of the most hardened members of the Broadway Crips," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.

          As part of the racketeering conspiracy, Perez participated in a wide range of gang activity, including distributing crack cocaine, robbing people on the street, and engaging in violence against rivals and insubordinate BGC members. During Perez’s trial, former gang members testifying for the government outlined additional shootings, assaults, robberies, and gang discipline committed by Perez on behalf of the BGC.

          Perez was one of 72 defendants named in a 2014 RICO indictment that described the criminal activities of the BGC, a street gang that claims territory in South Los Angeles and controls drug sales in an area just west of Skid Row in Downtown Los Angeles. The indictment outlined two decades of criminal conduct, including murders, robberies, extortion, illegal firearms possession, witness intimidation and narcotics trafficking.

          The investigation into the BGC was called Operation "Gremlin Riderz" because authorities focused on a particularly violent "clique" – or subset of the gang – which gang members testified operated as the gang’s "hit squad." Perez was a member of the Gremlins who bore a large Gremlin tattooed across his chest.

          All 72 defendants charged in the case have been convicted by guilty plea or at trial. Perez pled guilty on the fifth day of trial. Most of the defendants have been sentenced, receiving sentences of up to 35 years in federal prison.

          The multi-year investigation into the BGC was conducted by agents and officers with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Los Angeles Police Department. Considerable assistance was provided during this investigation by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Torrance Police Department, the Buena Park Police Department, the El Segundo Police Department, the San Bernardino Police Department and the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office.

          This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Mack E. Jenkins and Aron Ketchel of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section, and Assistant United States Attorneys Max B. Shiner and Wilson Park of the Violent and Organized Crime Section.