The feds have taken down a large contingent of alleged Boston gang members for the second time this year with drug and fraud charges filed against 19 defendants.

Federal prosecutors working out of Boston charged 10 alleged members and associates of the H-Block Gang for drug conspiracy and nine people allegedly connected to the Mission Hill Gang with financial fraud.

“The fight to keep our streets safe from dangerous gangs and drugs is an ever-constant struggle and, as this case shows, extends to our state’s prison facilities,” said acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy.

The investigation into the H-Block Gang was spearheaded in 2021 by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Boston Police Department and assisted by other federal agencies as well as state and local police departments from Greater Boston. Investigators say they bought cocaine, crack and fentanyl from targets more than 30 times and even uncovered “an elaborate and extensive jail-based drug operation” in a state prison over the course of the years-long detail.

“These are individuals who do not value life, they have terrorized and wreaked havoc in our city,” said Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox. “Partnering and pulling together our resources is powerful, it makes our residents safer, and we are seeing the result of that collaboration today.”

H-Block

H-Block, according to an affidavit filed by Detective Gregory Brown of the BPD, originated in the 1980s as “The Humboldt Raiders,” based around Humboldt Avenue in Roxbury, and by 1995 had established itself “as one of the most violent street gangs” in Boston.

The gang by 2002 went by “H-Block” and had expanded and by 2010 became the city’s “dominant” street gang when it merged with the gangs Columbia Point Dawgs and Mission Hill — which grew the membership to 140.

“Unlike the majority of Boston street gangs, which remain geographically limited in influence to a street, neighborhood, or housing project, H-Block has tentacles and influence throughout the city,” Brown wrote, adding that their influence gave them the confidence to become violent and confrontational with law enforcement.

The influence has also expanded into actual commercial ventures, like record labels, clothing lines — like “44 Wayz” referencing the MBTA bus line through their territory — and rap careers for some of them like Dominique “8-Zipp” Carpenter-Grady, whose lyrics are not suitable for print and designed to antagonize both rivals and the BPD.

The feds on Thursday arrested six people they allege to be affiliates of H-Block and charged them with dealing drugs in Greater Boston, who join four other alleged affiliates already in state custody on similar charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. Three alleged gang members are also charged with peddling drugs in state prison by way of soaking papers with a synthetic cannabinoid known as “K2” as well as PCP. A single sheet of laced paper, they say, could go for as much as $80,000 when sold as individual small strips.

Mission Hill

Nine alleged members and associates of the Mission Hill Gang, centered around Mission Main and the Annunciation Road housing developments, were also separately charged in a complex fraud scheme law enforcement calls “card cracking.”

The investigation was spurred by a flurry of check fraud reports filed by people who had mailed checks in the summer of 2023.

Two alleged gang members drove around Greater Boston to rob U.S. Postal Service collection boxes, looking for checks, according to the affidavit of Special Agent E. Austin Wozniak of the ATF.

The gang members would then “wash” the checks of their intended recipients and would then be made out to other members of the scheme and “recruited account holders,” who would benefit from the fraud, according to Wozniak’s affidavit. Gang members would then use ATMs to take money out of these recruited accounts and would have the account holders approve their transactions.

Earlier bust

The feds in February also arrested and charged 41 members and associates of the Heath Street Gang, of the Mildred C. Hailey Apartments in Jamaica Plain rivals to both H-Block and Mission Hill, on a medley of charges including racketeering conspiracy (RICO), drugs and firearms and fraud.

Members charged

Alleged H Block associates, all of Boston unless otherwise noted, charged are Trea Lankford, who also goes by “Heff,” “Hefina Don,” “Montana” and “Tre Cain,” 33; Dennis “Deuce” Wilson, also known as “Deep Jhonenson,” 36; Avery “Wave” Lewis, 32; Mark Linnehan, 25; Eric Celestino, 30; Timothy “Tool Man” Hearns, who also goes by “King Kill” and “Tooly,” 34; Dominique “8-Zipp” Carpenter-Grady, who also goes by “Eighty” and “Cindy Surin,” 35; Robert “Ribbs” Heckstall, also known as “Buck” and “Buck Corleone,” 41; Jason Bly, 44, of Quincy; and Jerry Gray, 28.

Alleged Mission Hill associates, all of Boston unless otherwise noted, are Imanol Rios-Franco, 24, of Brookline; Jairo “Dash” Cabral-Santos, 22; Brandon Baez, 22, of Framingham; Jiovanny Matos, 25; Josman Romero Delgado, 22; Jonathan Martinez, 25; Anthony Worthen, 28; Tyrone Brimage, 28; and Glenroy Miller, 28.

A man authorities believe to be Jairo “Dash” Cabral-Santos stealing from a U.S.P.S. collection box in Wellesley. The feds say that he and his co-conspirators were looking for checks they could use in an elaborate fraud scheme. (Courtesy / U.S. District Court)