Member of Fruit Town Brims Bloods Set Sentenced to 63 Months in Prison for Role in Criminal Enterprise

NEWARK—A ranking member of the Fruit Town Brims set of the Bloods criminal street gang in Jersey City, New Jersey was sentenced today to 63 months in prison for his role in a criminal enterprise that involved drug distribution and violent crimes, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Tequan Ryals, 34, of Jersey City, previously pleaded to one count of racketeering conspiracy in the second superseding indictment against him. Ryals entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler, who also imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Tequan Ryals, along with fellow gang members, conspired to distribute quantities of heroin in Jersey City between December 2008 and February 25, 2009. Ryals also made two sales that were monitored by law enforcement on December 10, 2008 and December 18, 2008. As a member of the Fruit Town Brims, Ryals participated in the set’s activities on a daily basis from 2004 until he was arrested. Between December 2008 and February 2009, he acted as a middleman drug distributor; he was supplied bricks of heroin by an associate of the set and resold them to gang members.

The second superseding indictment was unsealed in January 2011 and charged 15 defendants, including Ryals, with racketeering conspiracy and other offenses—including acts pertaining to murder, murder conspiracy, aggravated assaults, a kidnapping, firearms offenses, and various controlled substance distribution conspiracies.

The charges in this case were the first of its kind in the federal District of New Jersey to dismantle the leadership of a gang from various cities. The gang members charged in this indictment ran the gang’s activities in Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, and other locations.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward, along with law enforcement officers from the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office, under the direction of Sheriff Frank X. Schillari; the Paterson Police Department, under the direction of Police Chief William Fraher; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Matthew W. Horace; the Jersey City Police Department, under the direction of Police Chief Thomas J. Comey; the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Edward J. DeFazio; the National Gang Targeting Enforcement and Coordination Center, under the direction of Director Adam W. Cohen; and the New Jersey Department of Corrections, under the direction of Commissioner Gary M. Lanigan.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Melissa Jampol, Lisa Colone, and Robert Frazer of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.