BROOKLYN, N.Y. — The final defendant in a years-long federal case targeting the violent Brooklyn-based Bully Gang has pleaded guilty, bringing the total number of convictions to 53, federal authorities announced Thursday.
Romeo Gonzalez, charged in 2020 and arrested in June 2025 after nearly five years as a fugitive, pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and heroin as part of the gang’s drug trafficking network in Maine. His plea marks the conclusion of one of the most extensive gang prosecutions in the Eastern District of New York in recent history.
The wide-ranging case saw 48 defendants plead guilty and five others convicted at trial before U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan. Charges across the group included racketeering, murder, assault, gun trafficking, robbery, arson, extortion, bribery, drug trafficking, and money laundering.
“These prosecutions have decimated a violent gang that engaged in drug trafficking on a massive scale, shootings, murder, bribery of corrections officers, and other crimes from New York to Maine,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr.
Authorities said the Bully Gang operated out of Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood and expanded its reach through multi-state drug distribution networks and illegal financial operations. Members used stash houses in Maine and smuggled drugs into Rikers Island by bribing corrections officers. Profits were reinvested in the gang’s operations and further acts of violence.
The ATF/NYPD Joint Firearms Task Force played a central role in the investigation, which began in 2020 and included the use of Crime Gun Intelligence to track illegal firearms connected to the gang.
ATF Special Agent in Charge Bryan Miller said the convictions show the success of a coordinated strategy to dismantle dangerous organizations that use firearms and violence to maintain control.
Two defendants in the case are participating in a federal diversion program for juvenile and young adult offenders.
