Gangs of Staten Island: From Gorilla Stone Mafia to OTA, a look at the crews operating in our borough (interactive map) (2024)

Fatal ambushes, chaos in the streets and tragic endings have been tied by authorities over the years to gang-related violence in areas of the borough that many experts say have been scourged in part by generational poverty borne from systematic racism, layers of trauma in young people and a disproportionate number of drug arrests and convictions.

GANGS OF STATEN ISLAND: This is the first of a five-part series examining the culture, inner workings and tragic fallout of gang-related activity in our borough, and the efforts of law enforcement and community leaders to contain it.

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A wild brawl outside the Staten Island Courthouse in 2018 left a West Brighton man dead and a New Brighton man in handcuffs. Moments later, a 67-year-old woman was shot in the face at a New Brighton bus stop. A crew from West Brighton had gone hunting for vengeance, their stray bullet intended for a rival gang member.

Last March, a 23-year-old reputed member of the Gorilla Stone Mafia (GSM) was shot in the torso in front of multiple witnesses on a commercial block in Stapleton. At a candlelight vigil commemorating the one-year anniversary of the man’s death, another former GSM member was shot 10 times at close range, authorities said. Investigators were eyeing the latter as an internal struggle within the group, according to sources.

A stray bullet from a drive-by shooting last year ended the life of an unsuspecting 52-year-old woman standing in the lobby of a Clifton apartment building. She was a health worker and youth instructor at a local church. During a police press conference that followed, Commissioner Dermot Shea described the Park Hill apartment complex as an area “plagued by some gang activity.”

For more than three decades, rival crews of young people across Staten Island’s North Shore have murdered their peers, dealt narcotics to their neighbors and left local business owners shaken. Law enforcement experts have cited money, street rep, love triangles, revenge and/or social media beefs as motives for the violence. Social justice advocates, meanwhile, point to underlying factors including generational poverty borne from systemic racism, layers of trauma, a disproportionate number of drug arrests and convictions, and the glorification of gangs in pop-culture.

Below is an interactive map showing a dozen or so crews on the Island considered active within the past five years, based on several interviews with law enforcement sources, former gang members and community stakeholders.

A majority of them rep the Bloods in hand signs and slang, though some over the years have repped the Crips, Latin Kings and Mexican Mafia. It should also be noted that while each crew operates out of a specific area, its members in some cases reside in other neighborhoods.

CLIFTON

In the borough’s Clifton neighborhood, Only the Africans (OTA) have earned a scary reputation over the past decade. The group’s founding members were all children of Liberian immigrants who banded together in neighborhood disputes with non-Liberian adversaries, sources said.

Last year, a 19-year-old reputed OTA member was arrested in the armed ambush of two men that left a 21-year-old member of New Brighton’s OS (Original Stackboyz) dead. Surveillance video shows the surviving victim flee on foot before he ultimately collapsed on the sidewalk in front of a shocked bystander.

Authorities named Godkhaliq Daugherty, of the 200 block of Park Hill Avenue, as the gunman, stating at the time he also was a known member of the citywide Young Bosses or YBz.

Two other Clifton-based crews — the Scrappy Killas and FBE (Family Before Everything) — each have come onto the NYPD’s radar within the past five years, though sources say it’s currently unclear whether either remain active.

The drive-by shooting last year in Clifton that claimed the life of an innocent bystander, noted earlier in this article, remains under investigation.

STAPLETON

TNO (Town N----- Only) congregate in the borough’s Stapleton neighborhood.

Police sources said a 27-year-old man who was punched in the face and shot to death last week outside one of the Stapleton Houses’ six buildings was a reputed member of TNO. A motive for the homicide remains unclear.

In 2017, a TNO member was caught with a loaded gun after threatening a man at a West Brighton deli, according to Advance records. The 17-year-old defendant at the time had 10 prior arrests for alleged incidents involving robbery, burglary and discharging a firearm, NYPD officials said.

Another crew tracked at one time by law enforcement was SFL (Stapleton For Life), however, their current status is unknown.

GORILLA STONE MAFIA

Earlier this year, federal investigators charged a Stapleton man with the shooting death of a rival inside the victim’s New Brighton home, as the man laid in bed next to his girlfriend.

Court documents cite the defendant — John (Tragedy) Pena, aka Don Tragg — as the leader of the Gorilla Stone Mafia (GSM), a Staten Island-based set of the Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation (UGSN). While known to congregate in the Stapleton area, they recruit members from across the Island.

Pena, 30, was being eyed by the feds in the candlelight vigil shooting of a former GSM member noted earlier in this article. That investigation, however, remains ongoing and no charges have been filed at this time. The homicide of the former GSM member for whom the memorial was held also remains under investigation.

Court documents describe the UGSN as a criminal organization that is as vast as it is ruthless. Comprised of a “prison lineup” and “street lineup,” the gang is run out of the New York prison system by Dwight (Dick Wolf) Reid, authorities say. The city’s local sets are referred to as “caves,” while the gang is reported to also have a presence in North Carolina and Florida.

One of the gang’s edicts: “Never let the enemy of a ‘rilla live around you,” and “as ‘rillas we must crush our enemies on site.”

NEW BRIGHTON

Local gang experts say New Brighton is split into two sections: “Up the block” and “down the block.”

“Down the block,” in the vicinity of the Richmond Terrace Houses, was at least at one time home to the Grimmy Bosses. Quieter than other crews in regard to breaking news over the years, its members made headlines in a 2015 push-in incident described by police at the time as a domestic dispute.

OS (Original Stackboys) are known to operate along Jersey Street. A member of the group who initially was facing a murder rap in connection to the brawl outside the court house—noted earlier in this article— ultimately pleaded to leaving the scene of an accident. It was determined a West Brighton man was firing a gun at a stolen van driven by the defendant when the van crashed into the gunman.

Also on Jersey Street is the 400, described by one police source as a predominately younger crew. In 2019, three teenage males deemed “known affiliates” of the group were ejected from a criminal courtroom on Staten Island for “unruly behavior,” a spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration said at the time.

The leader of an older New Brighton crew named the Tombstone Gangster Soldiers (TGS), aka Tombstone Gangstas, was convicted in 2015 on a drug distribution charge linked to a law enforcement investigation dubbed “Operation Jersey Boys.”

Years later, police said at least one “Original Stacks” member was involved in a bust dubbed “Operation New Blood.”

MAK BALLER BRIMS

In 2014, gang experts noted a presence of the Mak Balla Brims, aka hats, on the Island.

At the time, authorities described them as one of the most formidable Blood sets in the city, pinning them to a series of high-profile incidents including conspiring to abduct a North Carolina prosecutor’s father, the New York Post reported.

The crew has since split from the Bloods to form the Mak Balla Family, a move made official in a 2020 letter posted on Reddit.

WEST BRIGHTON

The West Brighton area is in part claimed by the 700, presumably referring to a block on Henderson Avenue near Broadway where they’re known to congregate.

Sources say its members were involved in the 2018 slaying of a New Brighton woman at a bus stop noted earlier in this article. A jury in 2020 convicted Isaiah Kelson, 23, of West Brighton in connection with the incident.

Other crews eyed by authorities in that area are YPC (Young Paper Chasers) and the WBz. One police source described the WBz as an umbrella group comprised of smaller crews in the area such as 700 and YPC, though other experts have questioned that theory.

In 2017, a reputed member of the WBz was indicted for allegedly shooting and wounding a man outside a housing complex in his neighborhood.

PORT RICHMOND

The notorious Latin Kings for years have operated out of Port Richmond, although members also have been recruited from neighboring Mariners Harbor and elsewhere.

In the early 2000s, authorities also noted a presence of the Mexican Mafia, which originally was formed within the California prison system. A federal sting operation at the time netted 20 members.

Another crew with a history in the neighborhood is the Paybacc Crips. In 2018, members were tied to the kidnapping of a couple and their toddler during an armed robbery.

MARINERS HARBOR

The northwest section of the Island — encompassing the Mariners Harbor and Arlington neighborhoods — is home to a pair of crews historically at odds with each other: MH and the Harbor Gang.

In 2015, the Harbor Gang also was embroiled in a feud with OTA that resulted in at least two shooting incidents.

Two years later in an unrelated incident, a 28-year-old from Mariners Harbor — who police had tied to a crew repping the Crips — was shot and killed in a dispute outside a banquet hall in Port Richmond. Law enforcement sources ultimately tied an ex-con who was charged in that shooting — 39-year-old Wilbur Butler — to a crew repping the Bloods.

G STONE CRIPS

A police investigation into a fatal shooting two months ago in Mariners Harbor suggested the presence of the G Stone Crips on Staten Island, when sources claimed the victim was, at least at one time, a member of the Brooklyn-based gang. A 16-year-old male was being questioned in connection with the incident, though as of this time no arrests have been made.

A GENERATIONAL PROBLEM

Complicating the issue of street violence for local law enforcement and peace advocates is the cyclical nature of it.

An assault, robbery or other personal affront by one individual or group prompts a retaliatory response. A pattern that in some cases has repeated itself over the course of months, years or even decades. Ongoing issues between crews from West Brighton and those from New Brighton serve as one of several examples.

Looking ahead in this series, the Advance/SILive.com will examine the inner workings of gang culture on the North Shore as told by those living it; the devastating fallout of street violence as told by the families and business owners who have fallen victim; and the ongoing debate over criminal justice as told by borough leaders on both sides of the issue.