Members of Mak Balla Family, 9-Trey gangs arrested as 2 indictments charge them with crimes including conspiracy to commit murder

More than two dozen Long Island gang members and associates linked to conspiracies to commit murders, shootings, drug trafficking and other crimes have been charged in two separate indictments, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney and other law enforcement officials said on Thursday.

A 168-count indictment charging 22 members of the Mak Balla Family, a set of the Bloods street gang, alleges the defendants were involved in 38 separate criminal incidents, including 17 shootings, three armed robberies and murder conspiracy. Many of the shootings and other crimes were committed during a turf war between MBF and a rival Bloods set, the Blood Hound Brims, Tierney said during a news conference in Brentwood.

The second indictment said Joseph Baker, 35, a leader of the 9-Trey Bloods set, was incarcerated in a New York State prison when he ordered the shooting of a longtime rival in November 2024. The 23-count indictment, which names Baker and five other 9-Trey members as defendants, also alleged the gang was involved in two shootings.

Both indictments are the result of long-term, multiagency investigations that took a global approach to gang cases, Tierney and other law enforcement officials said. Rather than prosecute individuals separately for gang-related crimes, Tierney said, his office charges everyone involved — the shooter, the leader who ordered the shooting, the gang member who obtained the weapon, as well as gang members who attempted to cover up the violence.

"By doing this, by taking that group approach, we want to effect comprehensive change in our communities and make them more safe," Tierney said at the Police Academy at Suffolk County Community College.

Tierney said collective prosecution has resulted in a sharp drop in shootings: There were 280 shootings in Suffolk in 2021, compared with 90 in 2024.

"The dramatic drop in shooting violence is a direct result of this approach to gang violence: getting a team together and attacking the gang from every angle," Suffolk Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said.

In an incident detailed in the Mak Balla Family indictment, a loaded gun fell out of defendant Tavion Elting’s pocket during an altercation on Nov. 29 — "Black Friday,” the busiest shopping day of the year — at Smith Haven Mall. A bystander kicked the gun away from Elting, and another person placed it in a safe location until it was recovered by Suffolk police, Tierney said.

“That is one of the reasons why they are so dangerous, because they don’t care who is there,” Tierney said. “This is Black Friday. You can imagine what that mall is like on Black Friday, and they were engaging in these acts of violence.”

Elting, 18, of East Patchogue, faces a top count of first-degree robbery and up to 25 years in prison.

“He pleaded not guilty,” said his attorney, John Halverson. “I look forward to fighting the charges.”

Prosecutors said the Mak Balla Family engaged in shootings and other crimes from August 2021 to this April, operating primarily in Mastic, Mastic Beach, Shirley and Coram. Much of the “tit for tat violence” was directed at their rivals, the Blood Hound Brims, according to Tierney. Thirty-one members of the Blood Hound Brims were indicted in February 2024 for violence aimed at MBF members, Tierney said, and many of the charges in the 168-count indictment are the result of retaliatory actions.

Suffolk investigators looking into two shootings in November learned that Baker, a leader of the 9-Trey set, offered to pay $10,000 to have a long-time rival shot in the legs. In a phone conversation recorded by the New York State Department of Corrections, Baker offered defendant Ibn Turner and others $5,000 to coordinate the shooting and $5,000 upon Baker's release from custody, which was scheduled for this month. Baker was actually released from prison in March, Tierney said.

Turner contacted his niece Amber Vasquez, who contracted with defendants Isaac Smith, Dashad Eubanks and Lavell Leftenant to carry out the shooting, Tierney said. Eubanks allegedly shot a patron of a Mastic bar on Nov. 10 while searching for the target, Tierney said. The victim survived the shooting.

The target ordered by Baker was shot in Mastic on Nov. 12, officials said. That victim, too, survived the shooting, officials said.

Baker's attorney, George Duncan, pushed back on the district attorney's allegations.

“My client in no way, shape or form is a Bloods member," Duncan said. "He did not have anything to do with this whatsoever."

Baker, of Bohemia; Turner, 47, of Mastic Beach; Vasquez, 34, of Mastic Beach; Smith, 31, of Selden; Eubanks, 35, of Central Islip; and Leftenant, 30, of Amityville, all face a top count of first-degree assault and 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

Attorneys for Vasquez and Eubanks did not immediately return requests for comment. Scott Zerner, Smith’s attorney, and Matt Rosenblum, Leftenant's lawyer, declined to discuss the charges.