GANG GANG ATLANTA
CONTENTS THE SET-UP .........................................................................4 THE PODCAST & DOCUMENTARY SERIES ............................8 SEASON ONE GANG-GANG: ATLANTA ........................................................12 SEASON ONE CASE FILE YSL/30 DEEP GANG VS. INGLEWOOD FAMILY BLOODS .......................................16 TYRONE DENNIS & APD GANG UNIT ..................................21 ATL GANG AREA MAP ..........................................................24 OPERATION PLANTERS NIBIN CHART ...............................25 OPERATION PLANTERS FED & STATE CHARGES ...............26
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BLOODS
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THE
SET-UP 4
Across the United States inside police departments, Gang Units’ work is becoming more vital to solving violent crimes, murder, and understanding the varied connections between organizations inside the criminal underbelly. An argument can be made that these specialized units are the future of policing. These units are a clearinghouse of criminal intelligence and knowledge that becomes valuable to high-ranking police officials. The work of the gang unit investigator is the most compelling and exciting in policing today. Inside of this world are wide-ranging investigations that connect various sets like the Bloods, Crips, MS13, Mexican Mafia, Black Guerilla Family, and homegrown drug trafficking operations built inside insular neighborhoods and inner cities. These crews and stories are hard to penetrate; years of investigative work were spent to understand these criminal fortresses’ the how and why. For the first time, GANG-GANG will delve deep into the underworld with access driven stories told by Gang Unit Detectives that risked their lives and their careers in the pursuit of the next big takedown. Along with their secretive and comprehensive case files. 5
CRIPS
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MEXICAN MAFIA
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THE
PODCAST & DOCUMENTARY SERIES
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INSPIRATION
Gang-Gang the Podcast and Documentary Series will travel to one American City each season, investigate a case that has defined a career, or define its relationship with the city and the American underbelly. Told through the perspective of both the hunter and the hunted, Gang-Gang will have unique interviews with the detectives, police officials, criminal informants, city attorneys, journalists, and family members who were affected. Gang-Gang’s storytelling is in-depth, and peels back the layer of a city to really understand the criminal climate and the politics surrounding it. If you liked the sophistication of shows like HBO’s The Wire, or documentaries like Brick City in Newark, Gang-Gang is the 2021 version of this layered storytelling. Based on real cases, real police files, and never before heard wiretaps, depositions, and interrogation room meetings, Gang-Gang is a look at the streets today, not twenty years ago. These confidential case files are documented cases that were built on years of investigative work. 9
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SEASON ONE
GANG-GANG ATLANTA
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In season One, we travel to Atlanta, Georgia, and Gang Unit Detective Tyrone Dennis. A twenty-year veteran of the Atlanta Police Department. He spent many years investigating all gangs that travel through and reside in the city of Atlanta. The other expertise he gained while his investigations were on-going was an intimate knowledge of the myriad connections between street money and the Hip-Hop music industry. The gangs in Atlanta feed the Hip-Hop music scene in a symbiotic relationship that fosters violence and, in some cases, murder. Tyrone’s cases led him to not only interact inside this world but build up an encyclopedic knowledge of how gang power dictated the flow of drugs, money, and power inside the glitz and glamour of what many people are calling Black Hollywood. 13
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SEASON ONE CASE FILE
VS.
YSL/30 DEEP GANG
INGLEWOOD FAMILY BLOODS 16
APD GANG UNIT
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In season One, we investigate an operation conducted by the Atlanta Gang Unit, United States Marshalls, the ATF, and DEA. In January of 2015, a gang war broke out between two rival gangs, the YSL /30 Deep Gang vs. The Family Bloods (IF Gang/92). This war started as a war inside the Hip-Hop music business between Young Thug, Rich Homie Quan, and Baby from Cash Money. It wasn’t regulated to just music as it spilled over into the streets and murder. Mr. Kenneth “Woody Copeland and Mr. Kelvin “Shell Kell Watts were the main gang members fueling the beef with shooting incidents at nightclubs inside the Atlanta Metro Area. At this time, the APD and Tyrone Dennis started to investigate the case after a high-profile shooting at Club Crucial. In January of 2015, Donovan “Peanut” Thomas was shot and killed in a drive by shooting. At the time, Peanut was one of the highest-ranking Blood Gang members inside Atlanta and a leader of the Inglewood Family Bloods (IF/92 Set.) This death set off a gang war inside Atlanta.
With Peanut’s death, rumors on the street were that another artist and his crew could be responsible, and that was Jeffrey Williams or Hip-Hop superstar Young Thug. The APD Gang Unit started a far-reaching homicide and gang investigation into the Inglewood Family Bloods and their rivals YSL/30 Deep. After the homicide, APD also had to investigate 8 different drive-by shootings, as the Inglewood Family Bloods started to target Young Thug and his YSL/30 Deep crew. The violent back and forth caused major headlines in the news. As APD started the case, three more murders transpired between the Inglewood Family Bloods and YSL. This case went from one homicide to four and close to ten drive-by shootings. The end result is that APD Gang Unit and Tyrone Dennis spent close to 4 years on this case that got to the heart of Atlanta’s largest Blood set. It is a case that goes to the core of how the Atlanta streets work related to the trafficking of drugs, guns, and the currency of having a young Hip-Hop star affiliated with your crew.
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It is a story that takes you behind the curtains of Atlanta’s hottest nightclubs, strip clubs, dangerous neighborhoods, and it defines for the first time the legendary street figures that control not only swaths of territory but the power that comes with money and a feared reputation. Season One is based on Operation Planters, a case file and name given by the APD Gang Unit, ATF, and US Marshalls. It is an operation that included close to 50 Gang members and their affiliates and reams of intelligence files collected from social media and career criminal informants. Season 1 will also show the massive amount of gang intelligence gathered on firearms, social media connections, and the Atlanta gang hierarchy.
YOUNG THUG
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RICH HOMIE QUAN
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TYRONE DENNIS &
APD GANG UNIT 21
Tyrone Dennis, a retired 16-year Atlanta PD veteran, has seen all the city offers since joining the force in 2004. As a married father of 3, his number one priority was to make it home to his family. Born and raised in the gang-infested Hotimont Tracks neighborhood of St. Louis, making the transition into law enforcement was not his first choice. He was a basketball standout in high school, where he went on to North Alabama on a full athletic scholarship. After which, he went on to play professionally in South America for 2 years. It was a chance discussion with a former FBI agent turned professor that led him to apply for a job at APD. As a new patrol officer, Dennis utilized his keen street smarts and ability to adapt under any circumstance to excel. In 5 short years, he worked his way up the ranks to Detective. He would lead the Criminal Intelligence Unit (Gangs) for 7 years and Zone 6 Criminal Investigations Division for 9. Certified as a gang expert, Dennis has testified in well over 10 major trials, prosecuting gang-related crimes from murder and shootings to armed robbery. 22
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GANG GANG ATLANTA
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