The Cobb District Attorney’s Office said Friday that 23 people have been sentenced to long prison terms for a range of gang-related criminal offenses in the county in 2015 and 2016.
In a release, DA’s office spokeswoman Kim Isaza said that members of Get Money Squared, Wildlyfe and 2200, three criminal street gangs with roots in Cobb, pleaded guilty to drive-by shootings, drug offenses, thefts, car break-ins, assault, street-gang terrorism, criminal trespass, disrupting a public school and firearms violations.
One of the crimes tied to the defendants included a car break-in on Manning Road in the East Cobb area in January 2016.
Another case tied to the crime spree, according to prosecutors, was a drug sale at Windy Hill Road and Circle 75 Parkway in May 2016.
Isaza said Cobb Superior Court Judge Reuben Green handed down sentences ranging from 10 years to 20 years.
She said many of them were given first-offender status, which means that if they complete their custody and probation periods without further incidents, their records will be sealed.
Isaza said the defendants are between 20-27 years old and come from Cobb, Woodstock, Lawrenceville, Atlanta, and Dothan, Ala. The last of the defendants was sentenced last month, she added, and all of them pleaded guilty to racketeering.
Investigating the case were the Cobb Police Anti-Gang Enforcement Unit, Smyrna Police, Marietta Police and Cobb County School District Police.
“Members and associates of these gangs admitted that they sold drugs, broke into dozens of cars to commit thefts and committed acts of violence against people outside the gangs, all to increase their status within the criminal organization and further the gangs’ violent reputations,” said Cobb Senior Assistant District Attorney Jaret Usher, who prosecuted the case, in a statement.
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