Latin Kings boss sentenced to prison time
‘King Bam’ will face seven years for racketeering
The onetime “Inca” head of a Boston Latin Kings chapter will spend seven years behind bars.
Angel Calderon, also known as “King Bam,” was sentenced by federal Judge Rya Zobel to do the seven years in prison following by three years’ supervised release after he pleaded guilty to racketeering charges.
Racketeering — also known as RICO, or Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, charges — is a federal count meant to target leaders of organized crime. Calderon pleaded guilty last August and is now the 49th Kings member to be sentenced in a massive federal enforcement operation.
During the investigation, Calderon was identified as the “Inca,” or leader, of the Morton Street Bricks chapter of what these days is formally called the Massachusetts Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation, according to the feds.
U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins’ office had asked for a 10-year sentence, saying, “General deterrence must also be considered, and this Court should be mindful of the message that the sentence will send to violent offenders, particularly gang leaders removed from the street who would direct others to attacks persons who provide information to law enforcement.
A 120-month sentence sends a message to leaders, gang members, and violent offenders that swift punishment and imprisonment for multiple years await them if they choose to organize and commit violence.”
The chapter, which along with the Devon Street Kings account for the Boston presence of the national gang, is named for the Morton Street housing project in Boston, a sect that included a half-dozen members.
Statewide, the epicenter of operations was in New Bedford, where a network of drug-filled “trap houses” formed a base.
The sentencing memorandum for the feds notes that the Morton Street Kings were not “as extensive” of a crew as the Devon Street or New Bedford groups.
The memorandum states that the Kings in general “used violence and fear as a tool to target those in the community, exact revenge, instill fear and enforce a code of silence concerning crimes committed by its members.”
Specifically about the Boston Inca, the feds wrote, “Calderon conspired with members of the Latin Kings regarding the commission of criminal acts and discussed efforts to murder a rival gang member using poisoned narcotics, also known as a hotshot, in 2019.”
The feds continued, “In June 2019, Calderon assaulted a woman at gunpoint and threatened to kill her and her family based upon the belief that she was providing information to law enforcement.”
In that instance, in what the sentencing memorandum calls a “terrifying incident of senseless violence,” Calderon ran up to a woman, shoved a gun in her face, chambered a round and accused her of “snitching.”