25 members of a violent street gang active in the Rio Grande Valley called the Tri-City Bombers have been indicted on multiple felony charged, including drug distribution and conspiracy to commit murder, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The 27 count indictment charges the gang members and leaders with smuggling cocaine, marijuana, and meth, conducting home invasion robberies, and brutally beating fellow gang members who strayed out of line.
"TCB has an organized decision-making hierarchy, including a person in charge of each city, and leaders within the organization who determined whether its members violated the gang’s rule and deserved punishment. To instill loyalty, including participation in gang’s criminal activities and adherence to its strict rule structure, TCB leaders determined and ordered the severe beating of members and associates for acts of disobedience or non-observance of the TCB’s rules," officials said.
The indictment claims that, even though the Tri-City Bombers is based in the Rio Grande Valley towns of Pharr, San Juan, and Alamo, it has a 'national reach' and was engaged in crimes all across the state and into other states., as far away at St. Louis and Chicago.
The RICO conspiracy charged here includes murder, attempted murder, drug trafficking, firearms crimes, money laundering and other crimes in furtherance of the organization’s enterprise.
In Texas, for example, the TCB brought money into the gang through drug trafficking, home invasion robberies and money laundering.