On April 8, 2009, a federal grand jury indicted 24 defendants in two overlapping conspiracies involving drugs, guns, and smuggled goods related to the gang activities of the Black Guerrilla Family (BGF) prison gang. Since then, many of the defendants have had their first appearances in U.S. District Court, and a 25th defendant has been added to the BGF list. As the court proceedings surrounding these cases continue, information about the BGF and its individual members and associates has emerged.

In addition to defendants whose past crimes include violence and drugs, those indicted include three correctional officers, a former corrections employee, and a city Department of Public Works wastewater-treatment plant worker. Also in the picture are people with no appreciable criminal histories, with legitimate jobs (of the do-gooder sort, in some instances), and with strong ties in the local community.

Select defendants in the BGF cases are profiled below, an exercise that presents a close-to-home picture of Maryland's crime scene. With civilians, ex-offenders, and prison employees accused of helping to facilitate gang activities for BGF inmates, some of them serving sentences for serious violence--and apparently seeking to do more--the BGF case raises an uncomfortable possibility: that criminal behavior and illicit gains are so woven into the fabric of life, even putting criminals behind bars doesn't put their criminal careers on hiatus. Rather, according to the government's accusations, the BGF has been able to act with impunity on both sides of prison walls.

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