Feds see surge in gun violence, drug trafficking

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — West Michigan’s chief federal prosecutor says the region’s urban areas continue to see a rise in violent crime.

In a wide-ranging interview with News 8 on Wednesday, Mark Totten, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan, highlighted several concerning crime trends that have taken lives in 2023.

Totten said illegal guns getting into the wrong hands is partly driving the surge in violence.

“We have a proliferation of illegal guns in our communities right now, which is helping drive the gun violence epidemic, which is killing more young people than ever before,” Totten said. “It’s the No. 1 killer of young people right now.”

In January, Jerreil Martin of Grand Rapids was sentenced to just over three years in prison for buying at least 45 guns and selling them to convicted felons. According to a federal indictment, those weapons were then used in multiple shootings in West Michigan, some of which turned deadly.

“It was really astounding to see where these guns landed,” Totten, whose office prosecuted the case, told News 8. “One of them was used to kill somebody in Flint. One of them fired multiple shots on the Blue Bridge when it was filled with people in downtown Grand Rapids. One killed a 2-year-old in Wyoming.”

Investigators also continue to see more Glock switches on the streets. Those devices essentially turn handguns into machine guns that can fire more than a dozen rounds in just a second. In November, a Benton Harbor man was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for reportedly being the ringleader of a conspiracy to distribute Glock switches in West Michigan.

“They’re indiscriminate in their spray, and they’re killing people in significant numbers,” Totten said.

When Totten took over as chief federal prosecutor a year and a half ago, he said he asked several police chiefs if they had ever seen a Glock switch. They said no.

“A year and a half later, they show up every single week,” Totten said. “They’re everywhere.”

GR man charged with injuring officer, possessing Glock switch

Meanwhile, Totten’s office continues to prosecute drug traffickers in West Michigan. Those players are among the many contributing to a nationwide opioid epidemic.

Nearly 110,000 people nationwide died from drug overdoses last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Totten said we’re on track to see those kinds of numbers again this year.

“We’re continuing to bring cases focused on disrupting the supply lines that are bringing these drugs into our community,” he said.

Many of the deaths involved fentanyl. Totten said the opioid is being mixed into less-lethal drugs, leading to people consuming it unknowingly.

“They’re dying because of it,” Totten said. “Young people who maybe show up at a party, they’re handed what they’re told is a Xanax, a pill they recognize, a name they recognize, and in fact it’s not. It’s a fake pill and it has a lethal dose of fentanyl.”

Teen overdose deaths have doubled in three years. Blame fentanyl.

The prosecutor’s office has also seen a spike in “sextortion” cases in which criminals target teens or kids for sexually explicit images and then threaten to leak the pictures unless the children pay up. The FBI says those cases have doubled since the pandemic.

“They seek to get a compromising image from a young person then immediately turn to extort them,” Totten explained.

In August, two Nigerian men were extradited to Ford Airport to face justice for an alleged sextortion ring targeted more than 100 victims. Samuel Ogoshi and Samson Ogoshi of Lagos, Nigeria, had previously been arrested in January by Nigerian authorities. Prosecutors are still aiming to extradite a third Nigerian national, Ezekial Robert, for the scheme.

Investigators allege one of their victims was 17-year-old Jordan DeMay, a high school football star and homecoming king at Marquette Senior High School who took his own life. Prosecutors say Samuel Ogoshi used a hacked social media account to pose as a young woman and then lured DeMay into sending a nude photo of himself.

Samuel Ogoshi then threatened to send the images to DeMay’s family and friends unless he paid $1,000, investigators said. DeMay paid Ogoshi $300, but he continued to demand money until DeMay eventually told him he was going to take his own life.

“And Samuel Ogoshi, responding through the Instagram persona of Danni Roberts, told him, ‘Do that fast, or I’ll make you do it,’” Totten said in August. “Jordan DeMay then took his life.”

Totten said Wednesday that “we’re seeing a rise all across the nation in this horrible crime.”

Parent alert: Teens dying by suicide amid sextortion scams

The prosecutor also touched on the importance of protecting civil rights. He noted there’s been a nationwide rise in antisemitism, and his office is prosecuting multiple cases reflecting that.

The FBI said earlier this year that more than 11,600 hate crime incidents were reported nationwide in 2022. That’s up nearly 7% from 2021.

Nearly 15,000 law enforcement agencies submitted their data. Not every state requires agencies to report or collect data on hate crimes, so more cases are likely out there.

Most of the hate crimes — nearly 30% of them — targeted Black people. A stark increase in the incidents came against Jewish people, with more than 1,000 cases reported.

Totten charged one of those cases this summer. Seann Pietila, 19, of Pickford, Michigan, is accused of plotting to commit a mass shooting at a synagogue in East Lansing. Law enforcement said they found weapons, knives, ammunition, magazines, gas masks and a Nazi flag in his home.

Pietila has since pleaded guilty and will be sentenced soon, Totten said.

In June, the federal prosecutor brought charges against the member of a white supremacist group accused of defacing a synagogue with swastikas in Hancock, Michigan. That trial is expected to get underway in the spring.

Totten said Wednesday that he has now visited all 49 counties in the Western District, and he wants to continue to pick cases that are responsive to people’s needs.

“Those same threats to public safety are all here,” he said. “Focusing on violent crime, disrupting the flow of illegal drugs, protecting civil rights, protecting children, those are all going to be very important for us.”

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