CHICAGO — A South Side gang leader was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison Wednesday, announced Gary Shapiro, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
Gilbert Spiller, a self-admitted "general" in the Black P Stone Nation gang, pleaded guilty to two counts of selling crack cocaine and one count of illegal sale of a firearm, according to a statement.
Spiller's gang works in "Terror Town," a section of South Shore from 75th to 79th Streets.
Spiller, 37, admitting to selling 62.2 grams of crack cocaine July 13, 2011, and 59.2 grams on July 21, 2011, in the 7800 block of South Kingston Avenue, officials said.
In October 2011, Spiller sold the same person a loaded .40-caliber handgun, knowing the man was a felon on parole and had a "score to settle" with rival gang members, according to a statement from Shapiro's office.
Spiller admitted to joining Black P Stone Nation in grade school, officials said.
“As his life in the gang further hardened, he became involved in violent crime,” the government wrote in its sentencing argument. Spiller “admitted that he was involved in shooting at other people on 5 to 10 different occasions, and believed that he hit the people he was aiming at in roughly half of these shootings.”
Spiller has criminal convictions "spanning two decades," according to a statement. He was convicted of aggravated battery of a firearm and aggravated discharge of a firearm in a drive-by shooting that killed one person and injured four. He has also been convicted of battery of a Chicago police officer.
