A former DeKalb County police officer is among 32 gang members named in a federal indictment, according to published reports.
U.S. Army veteran Vancito Gumbs, 23, was an active Dekalb County police officer when he took a better paying side gig as a hitman for the notorious street gang Gangster Disciples.
In court documents obtained by the Daily Beast, Gumbs confessed to carrying out “kill-on-site” orders from gang leaders.
Gumbs was one of the gang’s “enforcers” who killed witnesses who might testify against the gang in court.
Enforcers also extorted rapper Rick Ross, identified in the indictment only as “R.R.,” who was forced to pay the gang for the use of its name and symbols, prosecutors say.
The 32 gang members arrested in Georgia are part of a wider federal sweep that netted 16 more alleged gang members in Tennessee.
“I’m saddened to learn one of our former officers was involved in this,” DeKalb County Police Chief James Conroy said at a news conference Wednesday.
“There are bad apples in every organization. This was a bad apple,” Conroy added.
According to the indictment, the alleged gang members are responsible for committing 10 murders, and 12 attempted murders. One of the murder victims was Tyshawn Lee, the 9-year-old Chicago boy who was lured into an alley and shot execution-style last November.
To generate more revenue, gang members committed bank and credit fraud of more than $450,000, and routinely torched their cars and homes for the insurance proceeds, according to court papers.
Gumbs resigned from the police force in 2015 when he was under investigation by his superiors. Someone tipped off police that Gumbs was using illegal drugs.
The Gangster Disciples are active in 24 states.
