A gang leader has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for shaking down businesses in the Korean American community in Gwinnett County, Georgia reports the Coos Valley News.
Eugene Chung and his gang demanded protection money from local businesses and counted on their silence to continue their scheme.
One of the victims broke that silence after being threatened with a gun and beaten so badly he was knocked unconscious and his nose was broken.
The victim continued to make payments under FBI surveillance.
“This case, and sentencing of Mr. Chung to federal prison, came about from brave and informed community members who understood their rights and were willing to stand up for those rights by working with our federal agents and federal prosecutors in order to put a stop to Mr. Chung and his gang,” said U.S. Attorney John Horn. “He *(Chung) bragged that he and his associates were ‘professionals’ at extortion and that harming their victims was one more way to get people to pay. The community is safer now that he and his fellow gang members are off the streets.”
According to the Gwinnett Daily Post, an undercover federal agent posing as the victim’s uncle told the gang he was interested in purchasing marijuana for distribution and sale.”
Chung and his fellow gang followers took the bait.
“If you ever need us to beat anybody up, we’re professionals at that,” prosecutors quoted Chung as saying. Chung described his gang as “best at making people crippled” and could make people “permanently limp, blind or deaf.”
The FBI secretly recorded all of Chung’s actions, including the collection of protection money and the making of physical threats. He was arrested along with all his gang members in 2013. Most will spend between six and 10 years in prison.
“The community is safer now that (Chung) and his fellow gang members are off the streets,” Horn said.
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