A violent Brooklyn Bloods “godfather” leader who once blasted a disloyal gang member’s leg off was sentenced Thursday to 23 years in federal prison.
Quandell “Chucky” Smothers, 33, was such a terrifying presence in East New York that the man whose leg he shot off lied about it on the witness stand, the feds said — despite identifying him as the shooter on the scene, at the hospital, in a line-up and in grand jury testimony.
Despite that turnabout testimony, Smothers was convicted at a Brooklyn Federal Court trial in February 2023 of racketeering conspiracy and gun charges.
Smothers, who in 2014 survived being shot by police, was a member of the Elite Assassin Millas gang from 2006 to 2019, rising through its ranks to become the ““godfather” or “big homey,” the trial established. He also became the top man in the New York Bloods, which oversaw the Elite Assassin Millas. The gang referred to itself as “Homicide Town,” and called East New York “Gun Town.”
Under his reign, the gang got into several shootouts, two of which left victims paralyzed. One of the gang’s shootings ended in the 2015 murder of Michael Tenorio in Cypress Hills, prosecutors said.
Members were expected to earn money through credit card fraud and drug trafficking, then pool their cash in a “kitty” for the gang’s benefit.
Smothers sold drugs as well, on a stretch of Ashford St. between Liberty Ave. and Glenmore Ave. known as “A-Block,” which he ruled over with gun violence, the feds said.
The leg shooting took place on April 30, 2011, after Smothers’ right-hand man, “Dooley,” robbed a rival gang member nicknamed “Nuke.” Nuke, it turned out, was in business with Elite Assassin Millas member Damian “Hex” Bullock.
Bullock and Nuke came to the A-Block looking for revenge, but Smothers had other ideas. He shot Bullock several times in the leg at close range, and the damage was so severe the limb needed to be amputated, the feds said.
Bullock, who testified at the trial from his wheelchair, lied to protect Smothers at his trial, the feds allege, repeatedly denying Smothers shot him and at one point calling him his “best friend.”
He was charged with perjury in March, and that case remains pending.
“Mr. Smothers caused harm not only to the victims of his conspiracy, but to the entire community, which lived in an atmosphere of fear,” said U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, who handed down the sentence.
Six other members and associates of the gang have pleaded guilty to crimes including murder, murder conspiracy, assault, and interstate stalking. Tyshawn “Reck” Corbett, described as a “shooter” for the gang, got the most serious sentence of the bunch, 45 years, in January. He was convicted of Tenorio’s murder, as well as of two attempts to kill the same man in 2016 and 2018.
“Smothers, who fancied himself the gang’s ‘Godfather” and East New York his ‘Gun Town,’ deserves the decades behind bars imposed today for leading a criminal enterprise that endangered the community with their mindless killing, shootings and assaults of rivals,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Thursday.
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