Ron Safer, Matt Crowl and Team Attacked Leaders of Gangster Disciples - A Lasting Gift to the City of Chicago
Twenty-five years ago today (August 31) marks the takedown of the 39 top leaders of the Gangster Disciples (GD) including Larry Hoover, the gang’s undisputed leader. The GDs were the largest monolithic gang in the nation responsible for hundreds of murders and hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal drug sales. This was the most ambitious assault on any major gang in the nation’s history. Ron Safer, together with his partner Matt Crowl, led a team of law enforcement officers that developed a strategy to target the leaders of the gang who got rich using children to sell their drugs and wield their weapons. The team proved the gang was a “continuing criminal enterprise” (CCE) making gang leaders responsible for the crimes of their foot soldiers and eligible for lengthy jail sentences. The murder rate in Chicago plummeted after these indictments.