By Silas Morgan
Orlando Sentinel
ORLANDO, Fla. — Nearly a dozen Florida gang members and associates were indicted on racketeering charges for smuggling drugs into prisons across the state and attempting to kill their own members, Orlando’s top federal prosecutor said Friday.
The indictment of 11 members or associates of the Sex Money Murder-24K gang was announced at a news conference in Orlando by Gregory Kehoe , U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, who said seven had been arrested that day and four were already incarcerated.
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“They constantly communicate with one another … have hit lists out, take care of transgressors, and it’s all done for the purpose of obviously making money, trafficking narcotics,” he said of the gang. “But also taking care of the organization and expanding the organization out as they see fit.”
The gang is a subset of the wider Sex Money Murder gang, which itself is an offshoot of the infamous California Bloods gang.
Kehoe said while many members of the gang are incarcerated, members both behind bars and out on the street continue to operate. The gang built a sophisticated drug smuggling network throughout the Florida prison system.
Large amounts of drugs, such as methamphetamine, were smuggled into an estimated five correctional facilities across Florida , Kehoe said, but an investigation continues into whether more facilities were included.
The U.S. Attorney identified two defendants, 40-year-old Hernando Thompson , or “T-Murder,” and 37-year-old Tyrone Conaway , or “Darkside,” as high-level leaders of the gang who orchestrated much of its criminal activity.
“Conaway conspired with Thompson to manage and organize Sex Money Murder-24K to protect this drug distribution network,” he said. “How did they do this? They murdered any member of Sex Money Murder-24K for violating the rules.”
To this end, the gang created a “hit list” to eliminate members and rivals. The gang once conspired to kill one of their own members because he allegedly lied about not knowing the location of a rival gang member’s family. He was later stabbed in prison, the U.S. Department Justice said in a news release Friday.
Conaway, while incarcerated at the Avon Park Correctional Institution in Highlands County in January 2023 , directed Sex Money Murder-24K members at the DeSoto Correctional Institution to kill another member who allegedly lied to and stole from the gang, the release said. That member was stabbed inside the prison less than two weeks later.
The release identified two of the defendants as Orlando residents: 38-year-old Terry Tillman and 30-year-old Alvin James , or “Headshot.” Tillman is accused of stabbing a Sex Money Murder-24K, despite being that man’s “big homie,” or mentor, when he was put on a hit list, according to Kehoe.
James is accused of sending texts coordinating the killing of a rival gang member with Thompson and even searching the state prison system’s website to see what facility the target was in, Kehoe said. The rival’s face was slashed during an attack in prison and stabbed by two inmates in another prison less than a month later.
Eddie James Rhodes III, 30, of Apopka , also known as “Dizzy,” Elsie Laboy , 40, of Mount Dora , nicknamed “Z-Queen,” and Junio Sanvil , 30, of Mount Dora were also among those charged with the drug smuggling conspiracy.
Kehoe also hinted that there will be more arrests in the future.
“It is a problem that the correctional officers have to deal with on a daily basis,” Kehoe said, “and the only thing what we need to do is we need to continue with indictments such as this and press this and try to to prosecute, disrupt and dissemble these types of organizations as we move forward.”
The defendants were indicted on charges ranging from racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering and drug conspiracy.
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