The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

September 6, 2008

Drug suspect accused of gang activity

Investigators tie Mankato man to Twin Cities-based gang Family Mob

By Dan Nienaber

MANKATO — A Mankato man charged Thursday for allegedly selling crack cocaine also is accused of dealing drugs for the benefit of a gang.

A criminal complaint charging 25-year-old Richard Ramon Gordon with third-degree drug sales and committing a crime for the benefit of a gang, both felonies, ties him to a Twin Cities-based gang called the Family Mob.

The gang, which has a violent past in Minneapolis, has had known members arrested in Mankato before, including Gordon’s brother, 30-year-old Cedric Lamont Berry.

The drug charge stems from a Minnesota River Valley Drug Task Force sting in December where an informant was used to allegedly purchase a small amount of crack from Gordon. Drug agents had hoped to buy an “eight ball,” or about 3.5 grams of cocaine, for $200, but only received just over 1 gram, the complaint said.

It wasn’t until April that drug agents received information that Gordon was a gang member. That information came from another gang member, 27-year-old Steven Rena Stone, who was working out a plea agreement for a felony drug charge.

Stone was arrested in March after the task force searched his Tanager Path townhouse and found 64 grams of cocaine.

He had been arrested about a year earlier when investigators allegedly found 70 grams of cocaine in the Hilltop Lane apartment where he was living at that time.

Stone, who was sentenced to a minimum of three years in prison in May, admitted to being a member of a Chicago gang called the Black P Stone Nation. Part of his plea agreement required him to provide information about gang activity in Mankato.

Stone gave investigators the names of several gang members and said Gordon was a member of the Family Mob.

There are occasional clues that gangs involved in drug dealing and other serious crimes are in the area, said Jerry Huettl, Mankato Department of Public Safety director. But there hasn’t been a spike in gang activity as there was a couple years ago when a string of assaults and at least one drive-by shooting occurred.

People do need to be aware of what’s going on around them, he said. Not just for gang activity, but for anything involving public safety.

According to the complaint filed Thursday against Gordon, Berry is a lead member of the Family Mob. The brothers were living together in the 800 block of South Broad Street when task force agents were buying cocaine from Gordon, the complaint said.

The complaint also names several other people who task force members suspect are Family Mob members, including 25-year-old Daniel Lee Johnson, a cousin to the brothers.

Berry and Johnson have both been arrested for drug- and firearm-related charges in Mankato. The men also drew statewide media attention when they were arrested for a gun incident in Minneapolis that was the first to use the city’s ShotSpotter sensors in December 2006.

The sensors had been turned on for the first time within hours before they zeroed in on shots fired in a Minneapolis neighborhood. Berry was arrested after a police chase involving a car that was in that area when police arrived. Johnson’s fingerprints also were pulled from the car, which had been rented by Berry, police records said.

Ten days after posting bail and being released from the Hennepin County Jail for the Minneapolis incident, Berry was arrested in a January 2007 drug sting in Mankato.

“It is known that a number of family members of Richard Gordon are members of the Family Mob,” the complaint against Gordon said. “It is also known that Richard Gordon associates with these family members and has also lived with them.”

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