Feds Target Brooklyn’s Woo Gang For Using $4 Million In COVID Relief Funds To Film Drill Rap Videos

Feds revealed that about a dozen men associated with the Woo Gang from Brooklyn were charged with stealing more than $4 million from COVID relief funds. The feds alleged them with the charges after associating the gang members bragging about the crime in their music videos.

Nine out of the 11 suspects in the case are Brooklyn citizens. The alleged members used documents such as driver’s license numbers of more than 800 people in order to file for unemployment claims. Their claims amounted to about $20 million, as per the filed complaint against them.

The gang members managed to unfairly secure around $4.3 million from the unemployment benefits program. Their scam operated for the span of 18 months, starting from March 2020 and ending in October 2021.

The suspects even took to Instagram in order to show off the killings they made through the scam. They referenced the scam in a music video for the song “Trappin,” as per the complained revealed by the Eastern District of New York Thursday. United States Attorney Breon Peace said:

As alleged, the defendants conspired to steal millions of dollars in pandemic-related unemployment assistance and then brazenly flaunted the proceeds of their crimes on social media. These government programs are designed to provide financial assistance to those who are most in need during an unprecedented pandemic. This Office and its law enforcement partners will vigorously prosecute gang members and anyone else who exploits the pandemic and steals from taxpayer-funded programs.

Christopher Jan Pierre, one of the suspects, bought the information of the identified victims of his crime for a price of $150 per person. The feds uncovered cryptic information exchange between him and the distributor of the information through an encrypted messaging app.

The Woo Gang rose to popularity thanks to Pop Smoke, the gang’s most famous member to date. Sadly, his life was taken far too soon. His name has not been implicated in this situation. RIP Pop Smoke.

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