BOSTON (
MyFoxBoston.com / AP) -- Forty-eight leaders, members and associates of the Boston Columbia Point Dawgs will face drug trafficking and firearms charges following a sweep early Thursday morning.
The sweep began at 5 a.m. and involved 500 law enforcement officials.
Police recovered 31 guns, 15 vehicles, different narcotics including heroin and cocaine, and $1.5 million in cash as well as other items in assets.
Of the 48 indicted, seven remain fugitives.
Federal authorities said during a news conference Thursday that the group is the largest and most powerful gang in Boston.
They say the gang started operating out of the Columbia Point housing project in the Dorchester section of Boston in the 1980s, and even named themselves after it. Soon after they were trafficking drugs from Boston to Maine.
The buildings are long gone, but police say this gang grew into a huge problem across the region
Boston Police Commissioners William Evans said, "They were involved in everything."
Officials say the gang's infiltration of drug trafficking territories held by rival gangs led to numerous killings. They cited the 1990s killing of a member who was shot while sitting in singer Whitney Houston's Bentley with her husband, singer Bobby Brown.
The defendants will be prosecuted almost exclusively at the federal level.
"These aren't low level offenses," an official said in a Thursday afternoon news conference. "These are calculated acts of serious violence."
According to the US Attorney, "With these arrests the Columbia Point Dawgs leadership was effectively dismantled and removed from the streets of Boston and surrounding communities."
All of the suspects arrested appeared in federal court and are being held until their next court appearance. If convicted, they could face 5 to 10 years each behind bars.
