ROCKAWAY BEACH — Nearly 20 alleged members of a violent street gang were busted this week for conspiring to obtain guns to kill rival gang members — and then bragged about it on social media, prosecutors said.
The 18 members and associates of the "Pop On Site" or POS gang — which also went by the "Fully Loaded Outta Control Crips" and "Young Flocc Boys" — conspired to kill members of other gangs to control the area around the Hammel Houses in Rockaway Beach, according to the Queens District Attorney.
The suspects, between the ages of 16 and 22, turned streets into a "war zone," shooting and wounding eight people between 2014 and 2015, according to District Attorney Richard Brown. Their goal was to boost their status among other gangs including the 70Gs, Body Squad and Gang of Apes, prosecutors said.
“The violence allegedly perpetrated by the defendants in this case is daunting and pervasive," NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said.
They would post about their plans using code, and investigators from the NYPD and the DA monitored cellphone conversations and social media pages to track them, officials said.
Gang members used words like "hammer" and "whoopty" to talk about firearms, and "drill" and "it's litt" to reference shootings, the DA said.
One suspect, Zameer Khan, shot a rival gang member on Beach Channel Drive on Aug. 2, 2014 and then asked another suspect, Unique Wooden, if he heard "bout tht lil movie I made infront the 60es store" on Facebook, the DA said.
Eleven of the 18 defendants were arraigned Tuesday in Queens County Supreme Court, while the rest are pending arraignment, according to the DA.
More than 20 alleged gang members were arrested earlier this summer after an investigation surrounded around the Redfern Houses in Far Rockaway, officials said.
