Folk Nation · street
The Gangster Disciples are a Chicago-origin street gang, founded in the early 1970s under Larry Hoover, whose Folk Nation alliance has had a documented South Carolina presence since at least the 2001 NDIC threat assessment. Public records place GD and Folk sets in Charleston, Columbia, Florence, Myrtle Beach, Sumter, Orangeburg, Laurens and the Allendale-Barnwell corridor, and federal prosecutors charged GD-associated defendants in Columbia (2020), West Columbia (2023), Myrtle Beach (2024) and Charleston (2025-2026). Inside SCDC, the group was identified in the 2018 Lee Correctional riot and in 2019 reporting as one of three gangs holding sway over the inmate population. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
The Gangster Disciples began operating in Chicago in the early 1970s under chairman Larry Hoover, according to the Seventh Circuit's 2000 opinion in United States v. Smith. The court recorded that the organization had approximately 6,000 members as of 1993 and ran a drug distribution business across the Chicago area. Federal indictments returned in 1995 produced a series of convictions that the Seventh Circuit reviewed in Smith, Jackson and Irwin. [1]
Post and Courier reporting in 2019 described the Folk Nation as an alliance of gangs that originated in the Midwest, with the Gangster Disciples as its largest South Carolina component. South Carolina sources use several spellings and labels for the same lineage: Gangster Disciples, Gangsta Disciples, Black Gangster Disciples, Black Gangsters and Disciples, and Folk Nation. [3][10][11][12]
The earliest public federal reference located is the National Drug Intelligence Center's 2001 South Carolina Drug Threat Assessment, which named the Mafia Gangster Disciples as one of two violent gangs located in Charleston. In 2005 a Free Times feature listed Black Gangster Disciples among gangs named by the Richland County Sheriff's Department and described a Columbia teen who endured a 60-second beating by six members to join Folk Nation. In 2006 Sumter County Sheriff's Office Maj. Hampton Gardner said local gang members identified themselves as Folk Nation, Black Gangsters and Disciples. [2][11][12]
Reporting from the 2010s places Gangster Disciples and Folk Nation sets in the Lowcountry, the Midlands and the Pee Dee. A 2011 Orangeburg shooting involved the Stilton/Hill Boys, a group the Times and Democrat described as associated with the Folk Nation. In September 2013 a Summerville shooting was charged as firing at a member of the Gangster Disciples faction of the Folk Nation and three Summerville police officers. In October 2019 a Florence investigator said the Gangster Disciples were probably the biggest gang in Florence. [13][14][15]
The 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office states that Gangsta Disciples activity in Barnwell County frequently spilled into Allendale County, and in May 2016 it relayed an ATF reward for an Allendale fugitive described as a documented Gangster Disciple member. On the Grand Strand, the 15th Circuit Solicitor said in 2024 that there are divisions of Bloods, Crips, Gangster Disciples and Folk Nation in the Myrtle Beach area, loosely tied to the national gangs. [10][16][17]
The Seventh Circuit described the Chicago organization as hierarchical and territorial: below Hoover, his second Gregory Shell and a board of directors sat Governors responsible for geographic territories, Assistant Governors, Regents, coordinators and soldiers. The court recorded an internal code of conduct enforced by punishments called violations, a weekly street tax, and nation work, under which members devoted one day a week to sales for the organization. [1]
South Carolina sources describe local divisions that are loosely tied to the national gang rather than a single state command. A 2020 FBI task force case in Columbia described Rollin 60s Crips occasionally merging operations with Gangster Disciples to increase profit and influence. Horry County police said in 2024 that Gangster Disciples supported Crips in attacks on Bloods during a gang conflict along the Highway 9 corridor. In Charleston, federal prosecutors in 2025 and 2026 charged defendants associated with both the Gangster Disciples and the Fruit Town Piru. [17][4][18][7][8]
Public South Carolina reporting identifies the pitchfork or trident as a Folk Nation symbol, as the Times and Democrat reported in a 2008 story on Orangeburg County graffiti. In 2017 a Summerville High School resource officer reported graffiti consistent with Folk Nation gangs and most likely representing Gangster Disciples. The Seventh Circuit recorded the group's internal vocabulary, including violations for punishments and count for the number of members under a leader. [19][20][1]
On 2012-02-15 the U.S. Attorney's Office announced that a Columbia man described as a Folk Nation member was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for using firearms to rob at least four commercial businesses in the Columbia area. The 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office states that Joey Barfield supplied guns to Gangsta Disciples returning to Barnwell County from prison, that many used the weapons in new crimes, and that Barfield was federally convicted in 2017. [21][10]
On 2020-06-23 federal prosecutors announced 14 defendants charged after a nearly two-year FBI task force investigation into Crips and Gangster Disciples activity across Lexington, Kershaw and Richland counties, with the DEA, SLED and three sheriff's offices participating. On 2023-12-15 the U.S. Attorney's Office announced 20 defendants from an ATF initiative in West Columbia that began in June 2022, including members of the Bloods, Crips and Gangster Disciple street gangs. In Laurens, a Gangster Disciples member known as Cheeze was convicted on 2023-04-21 of murdering Jarius Byrd, a Laurens Police confidential informant, in January 2021, and was sentenced to 40 years. [4][5][22]
On 2024-01-29 the U.S. Attorney's Office announced more than a dozen federal defendants from an FBI-led Myrtle Beach initiative that began in February 2023 and targeted the Rollin 90s Crips, G-Shine Bloods and Gangster Disciples. On 2025-05-22 the office announced 16 defendants indicted for drug trafficking and firearm offenses who operated primarily out of North Charleston and West Ashley, several associated with the Gangster Disciple and Fruit Town Piru street gangs. On 2026-05-20 a Charleston federal grand jury returned a nine-count indictment against 14 more defendants in the same investigation, which began in 2017; 26 people have been charged overall, eight have pleaded guilty, and seizures included 61 kilograms of cocaine, 600 grams of fentanyl and 12 firearms. [6][7][8]
The Post and Courier reported in 2019 that the Bloods, Crips and Gangster Disciples had steadily asserted their hold over the South Carolina inmate population in a state where officials long denied gangs existed. Its 2018 reporting after the Lee Correctional riot stated that the Gangster Disciples, Folk Nation and MS-13 have a presence in state prisons and described an inmate stabbed at Perry Correctional after Folk Nation members labeled him a snitch. [3][23]
The 2018-04-15 Lee Correctional riot began when Damonte Rivera, described as a Gangster Disciples member recently transferred from McCormick, stabbed Michael Milledge; Milledge's Bloods allies then attacked Rivera, and seven inmates died. At the September 2026 trial of inmate Larry White, prosecutors said White was part of a mob of Crips and Gangster Disciples members who used a control, trap, kill strategy against Bloods inmates. A jury convicted White on all charges on 2026-09-24 and he received three life sentences plus five years. [9][24][25]
A related Folk Nation lineage, the Insane Gangster Disciples, is profiled separately. In that federal RICO case the U.S. Attorney's Office stated that four of the leaders orchestrated the crimes from inside SCDC where they were inmates. A 2021 South Carolina Court of Appeals opinion in a Sumter case also referred to visitors believed to be members of the rival Folk Nation gang. [26][27]
Public records from 2024 through 2026 show continued federal attention to Gangster Disciples sets in Charleston, Myrtle Beach and the Midlands, with the Charleston investigation still producing indictments in May 2026. In June 2022 gang ambassadors representing Crips, Bloods, Piru, Gangster Disciples and Folk Nation called a Columbia press conference for a peace initiative. The group's size and designation counts inside SCDC are not published in the public sources reviewed. [8][7][6][28]
A federal investigation that began with North Charleston street gangs in 2017 worked up the supply chain to Atlanta and Mexico. 26 people are now charged.
The Gangster Disciples are a Chicago-origin street gang, founded in the early 1970s under Larry Hoover, whose Folk Nation alliance has had a documented South Carolina presence since at least the 2001 NDIC threat assessment. Public records place GD and Folk sets in Charleston, Columbia, Florence, Myrtle Beach, Sumter, Orangeburg, Laurens and the Allendale-Barnwell corridor, and federal prosecutors charged GD-associated defendants in Columbia (2020), West Columbia (2023), Myrtle Beach (2024) and Charleston (2025-2026). Inside SCDC, the group was identified in the 2018 Lee Correctional riot and i
