Saying “our community has had enough,” Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams on Thursday announced the arrests of 10 members of a violent criminal street gang known as Problem Child Entertainment.
“So PCE centered their illegal activities primarily in and around the northwest part of Jacksonville. And its members have been involved in, as I mentioned before, murders, attempted murders, armed robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, thefts and drug sales.”
The gang first came on the radar in 2014, according to Williams, but it was the 2016 drive-by shooting death of 2-year old Aiden McClendon and the subsequent arrest of two PCE members, charged with his murder, that brought the group into laser focus.
Video of JSO Gang News Service
Williams says the JSO, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the State Attorney’s Office and the FBI spent the past year investigating and building a case against the gang under the federal RICO Act.
The law was created in 1970 as a tool to combat organized crime in the U.S.
The sheriff said there are believed to be 40 criminal street gangs and 800 gang members currently operating in Jacksonville.
Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson at choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter @cydwjctnews.
