As Hurricane Ike threatened the Upper Texas Coast, we went to press with the story of the 4th Street Players, a predominantly white Anglo street gang in the Galveston Bay town of Bacliff.
Nine members of the gang, who wore red colors in emulation of LA's Blood gangs, had been arrested in May of last year after a two-year investigation by the FBI, DEA, ATF and several local law enforcement agencies and charged with numerous crimes related to the sale of cocaine, crack cocaine, and methamphetamine. A second indictment arising from the same investigation charged four more members of the 4th Street Players with one or more counts of the sale of crack.
Last week Federal Judge David Hittner sentenced five of them, each of whom plead guilty, to prison.
Robert Wayne "Red" Tucker received 13 months, Amy Nicole Knight got 24
months; Ricky Dale "Ricky G." Gatlin and Scott Aric Howard each
received 30 months and Michael Joseph "Uncle Mike" Reynolds got 121
months. All save the 50-year-old Reynolds, a Dickinson resident and an
associate of rather than a member of the 4th Street Players, avoided
the maximum sentence cited in the original indictment.
Sentencing for the remaining members, including accused 4SP leader
Jason James "Lil' J." Ruppert, has been reset until next month.