The long arm of the law has finally rested on the shoulders of the Young Bronx Money Getters (YBMG) street gang. As reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, seven members of the Bronx-based gang have been sentenced for a slew of heavy charges including murder for hire, attempted murder, racketeering, narcotics, and firearms offenses. Among them, SHPENDIM HAXHAJ, known as “White Mike,” has been sentenced to 35 years in prison after previously pleading guilty. His conspiracies culminated in a murder for hire that resulted in the death of Isael Lagares.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton noted, “For more than a decade, the YBMG gang terrorized communities in the Bronx, Long Island, Upstate New York, and Connecticut with drugs, guns, and senseless violence.” These indictments seem to permanently close a chapter on a period wherein YBMG stood as a harrowing symbol for unfettered criminality. It's imperative to also acknowledge the interagency efforts that led to root out what has been a blight on multiple communities. According to the same U.S. Attorney’s Office, the arrests and subsequent convictions were a product of diligent work by the FBI, DEA, and NYPD.
The gravity of the gang's activities is not to be understated. They were deeply invested in narcotics trafficking and furthered their pursuits through violence, fear, and the assertion of their domain. Court documents revealed the gang dealt heroin, cocaine, and marijuana and used social media to promote their gang affiliation. Their declaration of dominance was backed by firearms, with the group engaging in multiple shooting incidents as an exercise in territorialism and criminal enterprise.
Murder was just another tool in their arsenal, one tragically deployed against Isael Lagares on August 16, 2019. It highlights the grim lengths YBMG would go to maintain their criminal hegemony. As reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the murder plot saw HAXHAJ and associates hiring a hitman who then carried out the cold execution on a residential Bronx street, a stark illustration of the gang's ruthless modus operandi.
The conclusion of this case sees each of the seven defendants behind bars, their sentences ranging from 15 years to life imprisonment. This concisely ends the reign of a group that, for 15 years, sought to rule parts of New York and beyond through the barrel of a gun, the flow of narcotics, and a currency of bloodshed.
