The Insane Gangster Disciples (IGD), described by federal prosecutors as a branch of the nationwide Folk Nation gang, were the target of the largest federal racketeering conspiracy in South Carolina history: a 147-count superseding indictment of 40 defendants announced on 2020-12-10. Prosecutors said three South Carolina sets, each with its own leader, were run from inside SCDC by inmates using contraband cell phones to direct methamphetamine trafficking, firearms sales, a kidnapping that ended in murder, and other violence. All 40 defendants pleaded guilty; set leader James Robert Peterson received life imprisonment and the final defendant was sentenced on 2023-08-18. [1][2][3]
Origins
The Gangster Disciples are a national gang with roots in Chicago, Illinois, dating to the 1970s, and federal prosecutors described them in 2021 as active in at least 25 states. Federal court records in a Georgia case described a hierarchy of positions of authority, including board members, governors, chief enforcers, chiefs of security and local coordinators. The Insane Gangster Disciples (IGD) are described by the U.S. Attorney's Office for South Carolina as a branch of the nationwide Folk Nation gang. The federal indictment unsealed in December 2020 stated, according to Associated Press reporting, that most IGD members in South Carolina are white, unlike most Folk Nation-aligned gangs. The same indictment described internal discipline, including fines and written essays imposed on members who violated rules. [4][1][5]
Footprint in South Carolina
Public references to IGD in South Carolina predate the federal case by two decades. A December 2001 National Drug Intelligence Center assessment listed IGD among retail crack cocaine gangs in North Charleston and described a significant presence in Charleston. A 2005 Richland County Sheriff's Department list of about 50 gangs operating locally included Insane Gangster Disciples and Black Gangster Disciples. [6][7]
In March 2010, five people were sentenced in Florence for gang-related crimes in a case the Attorney General's office prosecuted; the reporting described one defendant as a leader of the Insane Gangsta Disciples, a sect of the larger Folk Nation gang. In Horry County, a 2013 SLED report described a Myrtle Beach-area murder defendant as an IGD member under the umbrella of Folk Nation, a co-defendant in a 2019 Conway robbery-murder trial identified himself as an IGD, and Horry County gang investigators in 2019 named Insane Gangster Disciples among groups monitored in local schools. [8][9][10][11]
The 2020 federal indictment placed defendants in Lexington, West Columbia, Gaston, Columbia, Windsor, Williamston, Anderson, Greenville, Easley, Laurens, Woodruff, Gaffney and York, plus Gastonia and Dallas in North Carolina. Sheriffs from Greenville, Cherokee, Laurens, Lexington, Richland, Anderson and Pickens counties were quoted in the charging announcement. An ATF agent testified in September 2020 that high-ranking IGD members were assigned to different locations and that Matthew Ward's territory was the Columbia and Lexington area. [1][3]
Structure and organization
The U.S. Attorney's Office stated in August 2023 that in South Carolina IGD was divided into three primary sets, each with its own leader. The office identified James Robert Peterson of Gaffney, Edward Gary Akridge of Greenville and Matthew J. Ward of Lexington as leaders of sets within IGD, and said that Peterson, Akridge, Ward and Juan Rodriguez of Woodruff orchestrated the crimes from inside SCDC where they were inmates. The names of the three sets do not appear in the public releases. [2]
At Ward's detention hearing on 2020-09-23, an ATF agent testified that G9 (Akridge) and Man Man (Peterson) held a rank higher than Ward in the Gangster Disciples, and that G9 called the orders and set who sold drugs in which county. The agent testified that Ward was the main target of the investigation, that nothing in the drug conspiracy happened without his direction, and that low-level members did not decide who bought methamphetamine. Ward told FBI agents he was a low-level Folk Nation member; the agent testified that this was not true. [3]
Identifiers and symbols
Published identifiers in the South Carolina case are limited to aliases and one tattoo. The indictment listed Ward as Bones, Peterson as Man Man, Akridge as G9, G9 the Don and Eddie Boss, Aaron Michael Carrion as Cap G, Juan Rodriguez as Fat Boy, Jonathan Eugene Merchant as Merck, Brandon Lee Phillips as Lil B and Sally Williams Burgess as Cricket. The ATF agent testified that Ward has a tattoo on his arm that says Bones. No public source reviewed for this profile describes IGD colors, hand signs or symbols specific to South Carolina. [1][3]
Notable South Carolina cases
The case began in July 2017 as an investigation by ATF, the Lexington County Multi-Agency Narcotics Enforcement Team and the Eleventh Circuit Solicitor's Office into methamphetamine trafficking and illegal firearms sales, and grew to focus on IGD. Between June and August 2019, an ATF confidential informant made recorded methamphetamine purchases from Ward's associates in Lexington and Gaston; Ward was heard on speakerphone during two buys. On 2019-08-22 a search of a Lexington County storage unit seized about three kilograms of methamphetamine and nine firearms, and cooperators attributed at least 49 kilograms of methamphetamine to Ward in 2019. [1][3]
In July 2019 Michelle Dodge, 27, of York County was kidnapped; her car was left near a river in Cherokee County and her body was found in Laurens County with a gunshot wound to the back of the head. On 2019-08-02 the Laurens County Sheriff announced eight arrests, including Peterson, who was serving a 30-year murder sentence; Sheriff Don Reynolds said Peterson orchestrated the killing from prison and that a contraband cell phone allowed him to do it. The federal indictment alleged the defendants waterboarded Dodge and shot her in the foot before driving her in the trunk of a car. The federal case also charged the murder of inmate Kendrick Hoover inside a state prison on gang orders in 2017 and the 2020 shooting of Jeffrey Snipes at his Greenville County home. [12][13][5][14]
On 2020-12-10 a federal grand jury returned a 147-count superseding indictment against 40 defendants, charging 17 with RICO conspiracy and several with VICAR murder and kidnapping; 24 had been charged in the initial indictment for drug trafficking roles. Investigators seized about 40 kilograms of methamphetamine, more than 130 firearms, and quantities of heroin and fentanyl. The U.S. Attorney's Office called it the largest federal racketeering conspiracy in South Carolina history. [1]
All 40 defendants pleaded guilty. Court records show Peterson was sentenced to life imprisonment on 2021-12-21 and Ward to 276 months on 2022-01-31, both by Judge Timothy M. Cain. The U.S. Attorney's Office reported that Akridge received 30 years for RICO conspiracy and VICAR murder, Carrion 35 years for RICO conspiracy and VICAR murder, Aaron Corey Sprouse 20 years for RICO conspiracy and VICAR kidnapping, and Rodriguez 10 years for drug conspiracy; the 40th and final defendant was sentenced on 2023-08-18. Searches of CourtListener on 2026-10-14 found no Fourth Circuit opinion naming the Insane Gangster Disciples. [3][2]
Inside SCDC
Ward was incarcerated in SCDC for the entire two-year investigation and used Facebook Messenger and contraband cell phones to communicate with people outside, according to ATF testimony. On 2019-08-23 SCDC officers searched Ward's cell and found him holding the cell phone connected to the number that had been communicating with the ATF informant the night before. Ward told FBI agents that while in SCDC he would introduce people who wanted to sell methamphetamine to people holding large amounts, and admitted sending Carrion to collect a drug debt from Brian Bruce, who was severely beaten. [3]
SCDC Director Bryan Stirling said at the December 2020 announcement that illegal cell phones enabled the inmates to operate an international drug trafficking ring from inside prison walls and called for federal action on cell phone jamming; the AP reported the department had confiscated more than 4,000 contraband phones that year. The Post and Courier reported in 2019 that the Bloods, Crips and Gangster Disciples had asserted their hold over the state's inmate population, and its timeline of the 2018 Lee Correctional riot described Damonte Rivera, a transfer from McCormick, as a Gangster Disciples member whose stabbing of Michael Milledge set off the violence. Rivera was killed in retaliation; state prosecutions of riot participants continued with guilty pleas in August 2023 and a second trial in September 2024. [1][5][15][16][17][18]
Current status
The federal IGD prosecution closed on 2023-08-18 with the final sentencing; the FBI called it the end of an era for the organization. In May 2025, a federal grand jury in Charleston indicted 16 people in two drug trafficking cases based in North Charleston and West Ashley, several of whom were described as associated with the Gangster Disciple and Fruit Town Piru street gangs; the release did not use the Insane Gangster Disciples name. No public source reviewed for this profile reports on IGD leadership or membership in South Carolina after 2023. [2][19]
