Brooklyn Gang Leader Gets 24 Years For Murder-For-Hire Plot: Feds

BROOKLYN, NY — A Brooklyn gang leader hired to help kill a suspected snitch more than a decade ago will spend 24 years in prison, according to prosecutors.

Ronald Williams, 47, was sentenced Monday for the 2013 murder plot, which unfolded after local drug dealer Leon Campbell decided to kill a customer he suspected was cooperating with law enforcement, according to prosecutors.

Campbell offered to pay Williams $5,000 to carry out the murder, which he passed off to one of the members of a the East Flatbush and Canarsie-based ‘90sCrew street gang he led, prosecutors said.

“Ronald Williams showed his indifference for a human life when, without anyhesitation, he accepted money to kill someone suspected of being an informant for federal lawenforcement,” United States Attorney Breon Peace said. “Our district is a safer place with this dangerous and ruthless felon off the streets."

Campbell first came up with the plan to kill his customer after he saw DEA agents following him while he was delivering marijuana in Brooklyn. He spotted the agents, fled, and assumed that the customer he had been delivering to was working as an federal informant, prosecutors said.

A few days later, Campbell, who also goes by "Country," called up Williams and made his $5,000 offer, according to prosecutors.

Williams agreed and picked a gang member to carry out the crime, but the murder was foiled by federal agents, prosecutors said.

When authorities searched Williams' home on East 96th Street, they found three handguns, several pounds of marijuana, a drug ledger, a safe and a police scanner, officials said. Williams was convicted in 2018 on charges related to the murder plot, his drug dealing and weapons possession, prosecutors said.

Campbell pleaded guilty to similar charges and was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2019.