{"id":368200,"date":"2026-08-11T08:12:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T08:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/368200\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T08:12:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T08:12:30","slug":"federal-authorities-bust-violent-drug-trafficking-gang-in-jacksonville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/368200\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal authorities bust violent drug trafficking gang in Jacksonville"},"content":{"rendered":"

A dozen members of a violent drug trafficking gang in Jacksonville have been arrested on felony drug and murder charges after a 16-count federal indictment.<\/p>\n

U.S. Attorney Gregory Kehoe<\/a> called the arrests \u201ca killer blow\u201d to a drug trafficking ring known as the Slime Enterprise.<\/p>\n

Kehoe identified Brian Gregory Brightman \u2014 also known as \u201cBoss Hog\u201d \u2014 as the leader of the gang, which sold marijuana, crack cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl, mainly in Jacksonville\u2019s Northside and Oceanway neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Gang members used murder, threats of death and intimidation to protect what the gang had assembled over seven years and to retaliate against competitors, Kehoe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cProtecting and expanding their territory and enforcement of their entire enterprise was of paramount importance,\u201d Kehoe said. \u201cHow did they do that? They did it through assaults, shootings, attempted murders, murders to protect and expand their territory, as I said, and to retaliate, which is an important element here \u2014 retaliate against anybody they perceived to have done any wrong on them or anybody in the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"U.S. Attorney Gregory Kehoe stands at a lectern surrounded by law enforcement from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Nassau and Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Offices and others on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. He announced 12 arrests related to a violent drug trafficking gang in Jacksonville. | News4Jax<\/p>\n

Slime stored and sold drugs in so-called trap houses all over the city. Brightman also used a trailer \u2014 a mobile trap house \u2014 that he \u201cdrove around Jacksonville to engage in his narcotic trafficking and distribution,\u201d Kehoe said.<\/p>\n

If convicted, the defendants face 20 years to life in prison, with the death penalty possible on the murder charges, Kehoe said.<\/p>\n

One more person named in the indictment is still being sought, Kehoe said.<\/p>\n

Some of the drug deals and violence drifted north, Nassau County Sheriff\u2019s Office Undersheriff Jon Hooper said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Nassau County Sheriff\u2019s Office Undersheriff Jon Hooper speaks at a news conference Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. | News4Jax<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the course of this investigation, it was determined that Brian Gregory Brightman and members of his organization were supplying illegal narcotics into Nassau County,\u201d Hooper said. \u201cTheir distribution network extended beyond Jacksonville and into our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The indictment alleges that in October 2022, Brightman asked a Slime member and an associate to murder a rival gang member. The indictment said Brightman and another man killed someone else Nov. 29, 2023. And again in early April 2024, Brightman and others killed two people, the indictment said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The indictment also contains multiple incidents of threats and intimidations against rival gang members, including an attempted murder in December 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dozen members of a violent drug trafficking gang in Jacksonville have been arrested on felony drug and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-368200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}