By Gangsters Inc. Editors
The leader of the Eight Tray Gangsta Crips in Baltimore pleaded guilty last Friday to racketeering and drug conspiracy charges. 31-year-old Trayvon “G-Tru” Hall led the Baccwest Eight Tray Gangsta Crips in Baltimore and had traveled to California to get official permission from West Coast bosses to establish his Baltimore set.
History of the Eight Tray Gangsta Crips in Baltimore
The Eight Tray Gangsta Crips is a violent subset of the Crips gang that originated in California in the 1970s. Starting in the 2000s, it began operating on the streets and in correctional facilities in Maryland.
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For many years, the Eight Tray Gangsta Crips controlled the drug trade in particular territories in Baltimore City, including the area around the intersection between West Baltimore Street and South Hilton Street in West Baltimore (the “Baltimore Hilton neighborhood”), the area around the intersection between West Lexington Street and North Fremont Avenue (the “Lexington Terrace neighborhood”), and the area around the intersection between Frankford Avenue and Sinclair Lane in North Baltimore (the “Frankford Sinclair neighborhood”).
The Eight Tray Gangsta Crips members from the Baltimore Hilton and Lexington Terrace neighborhoods referred to themselves as the Baccwest Eight Tray Gangsta Crips —modeling themselves after the Baccwest Eight Tray Gangsta Crips in Los Angeles—and Eight Tray Gangsta Crips members from the Frankford Sinclair neighborhood called themselves the Nutty North Side Eight Tray Gangsta Crips . The two groups worked together closely in criminal activities.
“G” and social media poison
Trayvon Hall was the leader of the Baccwest Eight Tray Gangsta Crips in Baltimore, and was referred to as the “G” of the gang. He flew to California in 2013 to meet with West Coast leaders of the Eight Tray Gangsta Crips and gain their official approval for his Baccwest Eight Tray Gangsta Crips set in Baltimore.
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The Baccwest Eight Tray Gangsta Crips operated street-level drug distribution “shops” primarily in the Baltimore Hilton neighborhood, the Lexington Terrace neighborhood and the Franklin Sinclair neighborhood, distributing heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, and marijuana. Outsiders who attempted to sell drugs in the Eight Tray Gangsta Crips’ territories were targeted for violence by the group.
The Eight Tray Gangsta Crips used social media to assert their claim to drug territories, enhance their status, and intimidate rival gangs and witnesses against gang members. They posted photos and rap videos to social media flaunting weapons and threatening to kill those who stood in the way of the gang.
War with the Black Guerilla Family
Hall admitted that he and his co-defendants sold drugs, including heroin and crack cocaine, and committed robberies to earn money for the gang. From May 2016 through November 2016, Hall and other Eight Tray Gangsta Crips conspired to murder members of the Black Guerilla Family gang who operated a rival drug shop in the Lexington Terrace neighborhood.
On June 23, 2016, Eight Tray Gangsta Crips members attempted to murder two Black Guerilla Family gang members. For some reason they shot two victims who happened to be in the area at the time.
If you want something done right, you got to do it yourself, Hall must’ve thought. So, on July 18, 2016, Hall himself murdered Black Guerilla Family member Albert Pittman, shooting him to death in the 4800 block of Midline Road.
On November 11, 2016, in the 800 block of West Lexington Street, Hall was at it again as he opened fire on members of the rival Black Guerilla Family gang, killing Black Guerilla Family member Shyheim Brown and wounding two other victims.
Immediately afterward, Hall sent a fellow gang member a series of text messages about the shooting, saying he had “Jus bashed the monkeys” (a derogatory term for members of Black Guerilla Family), and they “Wasn’t exspecting [sic] me be out early lmGCao [laughing my Gangster Crip ass off].”
Turf wars and snitches
After the Black Guerilla Family was dealt with, Hall and his gang shifted their focus to the Abington Avenue drug trafficking organization. From July 2017 through July 2019, Hall and other members of the Eight Tray Gangsta Crips conspired to murder members of this crew, whose territory the Eight Tray Gangsta Crips had taken over.
Hall directed the Eight Tray Gangsta Crips to use violence to retaliate against anyone who refused to respect the boundaries of their newly claimed turf. Hall admitted that on July 6, 2018, he opened fire on members of the Abington Avenue organization who were playing dice in the unit block of Abington Avenue, killing Steven McKnight and wounding an additional victim.
With so many bodies dropping, law enforcement began taking an interest. They began applying pressure and people began talking about certain crimes. Feeling the heat, Hall and other Crips conspired to murder an individual who they believed had cooperated with law enforcement and threatened a witness who testified against a fellow gang member in a state murder trial.
After pleading guilty, Hall faces 40 years in federal prison.
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