The Peoria County State's Attorney's Office is filing racketeering charges against 10 alleged members of a violent street gang known as the Snakes.
Those arrested include four adults and six juveniles. In a news release, the state's attorney's office said they are all linked to "a rash of violence that has plagued the area for the last two years," including at least three murders and 12 shootings.
Eighteen guns were confiscated, including four equipped with switches that convert the gun's firing to fully automatic.
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act charges, known as RICO for short, often are filed at the federal level. Thirteen members of the Peoria Bomb Squad street gang were convicted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District in Illinois in 2019.
The state's attorney's office said this is the first time the office has filed these charges at the county level.
“This violent group joined together to terrorize our community. The sheer volume of violent crimes committed by the group is exactly what the RICO statute was designed for, so today they can join in the charges,” Peoria County State's Attorney Jodi Hoos said in a statement.
Korion Hopkins, 18; Keon Patterson, 20; Messiah Carpenter, 20; and Quandarius Jones, 22 were all indicted by a Peoria County grand jury on Tuesday. Two 16-year-olds and four 17-year-olds also face charges in juvenile court. Hoos' office has filed petitions to move those cases to adult court.
"Although tedious and involving many long hours of work, this demonstrates the dedication of the Peoria Police Department in bringing closure to our community who have been victimized by these violent offenders," said Peoria Police Chief Eric Echevarria in a prepared statement. "If not for the hard work and dedication of our detectives, two murders from 2023 that went cold would not have been solved."
The Central Illinois Emergency Response Team (CIERT), U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Peoria County Sheriff's Office also collaborated on the investigation.
The Snakes were also one of two gangs involved in an after-prom shooting in April near Chillicothe that left one teen partially paralyzed.
Juvenile crime has been a flashpoint in the state's attorney's race ahead of next week's election, where incumbent Democrat Hoos faces Republican Robert Boucher. Juvenile crime in the city of Peoria was up 30% in 2023 compared with 2022.
The state's attorney's office, along with the 10th Judicial Circuit and other stakeholders, are working to get a new juvenile treatment court launched next year in Peoria County that would target additional services and supervision toward the youth criminal justice system's "frequent fliers."
