Schuele Boys is a street gang based in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

, specifically East Side, Buffalo, in the areas of Grider and outskirt of Genessee-Moselle.

History

The gang established themselves in Grider, Buffalo, New York in 2000 and headquartered in the street of Schuele Avenue in which they would sell various narcotics including

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

crack cocaine Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be Smoking, smoked. Crack offers a short, intense Euphoria (emotion), high to smokers. The ''Manual of Adolescent Sub ...

and

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

and spearhead acts of violence. Besides

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestion, ...

, the gang gains revenue through acts of violence and debt collecting. These acts include

robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person o ...

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...

contract killing Contract killing (also known as murder-for-hire) is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of compensation, moneta ...

arms trafficking Arms trafficking or gunrunning is the illicit trade of contraband small arms, explosives, and ammunition, which constitutes part of a broad range of illegal activities often associated with transnational criminal organizations. The illegal tra ...

, and selling stolen property. The gang sometimes bought narcotics, specifically cocaine in most cases, to repackage and resell after buying them from other gang members. The gang also participated in a number of drive-by shootings. During investigations by the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

New York State Police The New York State Police (NYSP) is the state police of the U.S. state of New York; it is part of the New York State Executive Department and employs over 5,000 sworn state troopers and 711 non-sworn members. The New York State Police are re ...

, and Erie County Sheriff Deputies against the Schuele Boys which included listening in on gang members’ phone conversations,

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing, or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as ...

and undercover drug purchases, the conductors of the investigations had to stop what they were doing and make arrests before gang members could harm their rivals. Members of the gang create

rap music Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

, some of it in the drill genre, which shows gang activity including the production of illegal narcotics under the Schuele Boys' record label "Gone Entertainment". In the music videos produced by the members, they show themselves in what is claimed as Schuele Boys territory including areas south of the

Erie County Medical Center Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) is a hospital with 550 beds located in the East Side of Buffalo, New York and a member of the Great Lakes Health System. It is the primary teaching hospital for the University at Buffalo. It is also a New York ...

. Music videos and songs entitled "Front Door" and "Dinner Table" were used in the prosecution of some Schuele Boys members. According to U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr., members of the Schuele Boys were the target of the 2010 mass shooting outside the former City Grill restaurant in downtown Buffalo. 4 people died directly after or during the shooting, a fifth victim died years later. In 2017, 28 members of the Schuele Boys were arrested for narcotics distribution and homicides in Buffalo, in one of the member's residences, $19,000 in cash and 300 grams of cocaine were found and confiscated by the

Buffalo Police Department The Buffalo Police Department (BPD) is the second-largest city police force in the state of New York (state), New York. In 2012, it had over nine hundred employees, including over seven hundred police officers. The Buffalo Police are headquart ...

References

{{Organized crime groups in Buffalo, New York 2000 establishments in New York (state) African-American gangs Gangs in Buffalo, New York Street gangs