Final four men in six-man crack trafficking ring sentenced to federal prison

Each of the men were sentenced during hearings held Aug. 8 in U.S. District Court, Rock Island, before Chief District Court Judge Sara Darrow.

Rasheem Damonte Bogan, 31, of Davenport, also known as “Sheem,” was sentence to 180 months, or 15 years, in prison to be followed by five years on supervised release.

Christopher William Pullman, 35, of Rock Island, also known as “Dime,” also received a 15-year sentence to be followed by 10 years on supervised release. Due to Pullman’s criminal history his sentence was enhanced, according to federal authorities. 

Raheem Jacques Houston, 30, of Rock Island, also known as “Heem,” was sentenced to 120 months, or 10 years, in prison to be followed by five years on supervised release.

Devell Carl Lewis, 35, of Davenport, was sentenced to 126 months in prison, or 10 years and six months, to be followed by five years on supervised release.

The two other members of the conspiracy were sentenced in March of 2022.

Brandon Jerome Pullman, 32, of Rock Island, also known as “Tall B” or “B,” was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by five years on supervised release. He is currently serving his sentence in the U.S. Penitentiary in Thomson, Illinois. He is scheduled to be released on June 24, 2028, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. 

Cortez Deangelo Cooper Jr., 29, of Davenport, also known as “Tez,” also was sentenced in March of 2022 to a term of 10 years and five months in prison to be followed by five years on supervised release. He is currently serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Oxford, Wisconsin. He is scheduled to be released March 29, 2030, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. 

There is no parole in the federal prison system.

Additionally, Bogan, Lewis, and Houston are part of a group of 12 Quad-City gang members indicted by a federal grand jury on May 22 of this year on multiple racketeering charges in U.S. District Court, Davenport.

In that case, the indictment accuses the 12 of conspiring to engage in what federal authorities said was a “years-long” pattern of violence including murder, attempted murder, robbery and drug trafficking.

The men charged were members and associates of a criminal organization known as the “Arsenal Courts Posse,” “Zone Fifth,” “Fifth Street Mafia,” “Rock Town Money Getters” and “Money Team.”

The Arsenal Courts reference is to the apartment complex built by the United States Housing Authority from 1940 to 1941 to house defense workers at the Rock Island Arsenal. The housing project was known as Arsenal Courts and had a reputation for criminal activity in Rock Island’s west end. The complex is known today as Century Woods. It is located in the 1400 block of 5th Street.

The enterprise’s origins date to Rock Island in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

According to federal authorities, Arsenal Courts is where the organization’s members lived or frequented. Between 2009 and 2011, the younger members and associates began referring to themselves as the “Zone Fifth,” or “Fifth Street Mafia.”

The indictment alleges that the objective of the enterprise was to distribute illicit drugs, obtain money and things of value, and earn and maintain respect in the Quad-Cities.

To those ends, the indictment alleges the members committed murder, robbery, trafficking in illicit drugs and threatening others with violence.

Trial dates are still being set in that case.