‘Time’s up’: The Crips ran a multi-state drug group from inside jail, feds say

DELANO — Kristopher Thomas has been in jail since 2010, when he was sentenced to 50 years to life for killing a person who recognized himself as a member of a rival Los Angeles Crip gang, in response to courtroom information.

Regardless of being locked away in Kern Valley State Jail, federal prosecutors say 37-year-old Thomas was in a position to management methamphetamine distribution not simply in California however Hawaii, Oklahoma, Alabama and New Jersey. When the DEA launched a federal investigation in 2022, brokers have been in a position to establish the primary of seven contraband cellphones Thomas allegedly possessed over the following a number of months, and safe wiretaps for six of them, courtroom information present.

These particulars, publicized in latest federal courtroom filings, are the most recent demonstration of how incarcerated California gangsters have been in a position to wield management of felony actions within the free world, even after receiving sentences that make their very own freedom a distant chance.

In 2024, DEA brokers and former associates of the Aryan Brotherhood specified by gorgeous element how the all-white jail gang was in a position to management multi-state methamphetamine and heroin rings from inside prisons throughout California. Earlier this 12 months, 4 Nuestra Familia members have been convicted of racketeering after a trial that spelled out how the Northern California-based jail gang saved meticulous information inside jail of drug money owed owed by completely different “regiments,” which have been required to pay dues that have been dealt with and re-distributed by an incarcerated gang accountant.

On this case, Thomas was in a position to organize drug offers out of state, arrange smuggling inside Kern Valley State Jail, and organize for big drug money owed to be collected, in response to federal prosecutors. Thomas’ repute as a gang member was well-established when in 2009, he shot and killed Dequawn Allen close to 87th and Broadway streets in Los Angeles, just because Allen answered Thomas’ query about his personal gang membership. Allen was a part of the 94 Hoover Crips and Thomas was a Essential Road Mafia Crip member, in response to courtroom information.

In August 2022, the DEA wiretapped a name between Thomas an one other MSMC member, Justin Mitchell, allegedly a few $35,000 drug debt that Mitchell hadn’t paid.

“Time’s up,” Thomas allegedly advised him, earlier than sending a girl to gather hundreds in money and cash orders from Mitchell later that day, then appeared upset that solely $28,000 was delivered, in response to courtroom filings.

Thomas, Mitchell, a Westside Bakersfield Crip named Derrick Charles, and a girl named Natasha Bailey, have been all indicted on federal drug distribution and conspiracy fees final 12 months. Mitchell pleaded responsible with no settlement in place, whereas Bailey has repeatedly scheduled and postponed a change-of-plea listening to that facilities on her allegedly conspiring to convey a half-pound of fentanyl into the jail.

Bailey allegedly had an in-person go to with Nathaniel Flowers, a Geer Gang Crip who lived in a cell close to Thomas’, simply earlier than Flowers was caught with a half-pound of fentanyl, in response to prosecutors. They consider that Bailey smuggled it in a pelvic cavity and handed it to Flowers, however Bailey hasn’t acknowledged she was the precise smuggler, and authorities stated in courtroom filings they’re nonetheless working to disprove a “potential counterclaim” that she handed the fentanyl to a different one that smuggled it in and gave it to Flowers.

The fees towards Charles and Thomas are nonetheless pending. Flowers wasn’t a part of the indictment, courtroom information present.

Maybe essentially the most telling element within the prosecution’s case: Just by wiretapping Thomas’ telephones and interviewing one in every of his associates, the DEA was in a position to seize 144 kilos of methamphetamine in two separate crackdowns, in Alabama, Oklahoma, and the Hawaiian island of Oahu, in response to courtroom information. In wiretapped cellphone calls, Thomas appeared to take an curiosity in minutia of drug gross sales, discussing revenue margins, how one can vacuum seal luggage for shipments, and how one can correctly put together jail contraband in saran wrap and electrical tape earlier than it may be smuggled in.

“I said, ‘There ain’t no way you buying them for 1,800 and selling them for 125 on the (ounce),’” Thomas allegedly advised one other particular person, recounting a dialog with a methamphetamine vendor. “You think we believe that?”