Gangster Disciples and the Folk Nation in South Carolina

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]

Key South Carolina cases

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. [10][11]

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][12]

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]

Inside SCDC

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][13]

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][14][15]

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. [16][17]

Where it stands

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][18]

The full profile, with every source, the county records and a dated timeline, is on the group page.