Harlem Gang Busted After 21 Shootings, Authorities Say

HARLEM, NY — More than a dozen alleged members of an East Harlem gang have been arrested, accused of being complicit in 21 shootings committed over the past several years, authorities said Wednesday.

The 13 people are members of "Chico Gang," a group operating out of NYCHA's Wagner Houses, east of Second Avenue between East 120th and 124th streets.

From November 2017 through last month, the gang's rivalry with another group in the Jefferson Houses a few blocks south led them to commit the shootings, which resulted in 12 victims.

Of those 12, four were innocent bystanders, including a 12-year-old boy shot in the leg in December 2018, prosecutors said.

Many of the 13 people arrested this week had been recruited by older gang members, who had themselves been charged in 2019 with committing 17 shootings in and around the Jefferson Houses in retaliation for the 2016 killing of 16-year-old Juwan "Chico" Tavarez.

Authorities' most recent bust of Chico Gang, in 2019, drew criticism from some in the neighborhood who questioned how serious a threat the group posed. The writer Josmar Trujillo tweeted that the gang "doesn't actually exist," saying he lives on the same block where they allegedly operate.

Years earlier, in 2012, another mass gang arrest at the Wagner Houses sparked outrage from family members who said their relatives were innocent.

"This indictment is one part of our work to break the cycle of violence gripping East Harlem, as teens are recruited to take the place of older gang members and continue their bloody rivalries," District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance said in a statement.

Police also recovered 17 guns over the course of their monthslong investigation, authorities said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio praised the takedown Wednesday morning, saying it came after "months and months of patient, careful work."

"A very small number of people [do] the violence in the city," he said.