Members of Down Below Gang sentenced
for drug conspiracy

By Julia Cheever, Bay City News Service

March 8, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - Three members of a violent San Francisco street gang were sentenced in federal court Wednesday to prison terms of up to six years and five months for conspiring to possess and sell illegal drugs.

The three men are among eight members of the Down Below Gang who pleaded guilty to various charges in the court of U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco in December.

Federal prosecutors have said the gang operated in the Sunnydale housing project in the Visitacion Valley district of the city. It sold cocaine base and used violence and intimidation to enforce control over its territory, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Several other defendants who have yet to be sentenced pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge and admitted to committing a total of three murders in 2004.

Those sentenced by Alsup had pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to possess drugs with the intent to sell them.

Alsup sentenced Christopher Byes, 26, to six years and five months in prison; Ronnie Calloway, 26, to five years and 10 months; and Allen Calloway, 24, to one year and 9 months.

The three men are already in custody and will begin serving their sentences immediately, according to U.S. attorney's office spokesman Luke Macaulay.

The five other defendants will be sentenced by Alsup on various dates between March 13 and April 11. The four who pleaded guilty to racketeering agreed to sentences ranging from 15 to 23 years in prison.

The federal investigation and prosecution were carried out in collaboration with the San Francisco police department, sheriff's department and district attorney's office.

When the guilty pleas were entered in December, Police Chief Heather Fong said, "A violent criminal street gang has been removed from the streets of San Francisco."

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