A gang of 32 young men between the ages of 15 and 24 from the borough of Queens, New York, were arrested and charged with nearly 100 felony counts, including three murders committed in recent months.
District Attorney Melinda Katz said Thursday that this is the largest operation against a single group in the history of the borough of Queens, according to local press reports.
Queens Gang Youths Arrested
We announced the largest single gang takedown in Queens history w/ @NYPDnews. Thirty-two reputed Bad-Co Ballout members were variously charged with murder, attempted murder & other crimes.
We will not allow our neighborhoods to become shooting galleries. https://t.co/3HK4BHx3Sl
– Queens DA Katz (@QueensDAKatz) November 21, 2025
The defendants were charged with a total of 97 counts, including murder, attempted murder, possession of weapons, conspiracy and other offenses.
Six of the 32 members face life imprisonment.
The alleged offenders were members of the Bad-Co Ballout gang and prowled the Queens Village neighborhood in Queens with a campaign of terror and outright violence that they sometimes even bragged about on social media, according to allegations by the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
“These defendants have become the most violent gang in the borough of Queens, generating fear and violence throughout the area,” said District Attorney Melinda Katz.
Katz added that “at least three fatal shootings were allegedly linked to the gang in a year-long investigation.”
According to prosecutors, the gang was led by 21-year-old Jahvon “Shady” Attapoku, who allegedly gave orders on who was to kill whom and when, and allegedly armed groups of local teenagers.
According to the indictments, the shootings Attapoku ordered were usually in broad daylight at busy intersections, near schools or fast food restaurants, and left innocent bystanders of all ages injured or dead.
One of these crimes was in September 2024, when the alleged perpetrator, then 15 years old, started shooting after getting into a fight with another gang.
Shots struck and killed a 66-year-old man driving a car, which ended up crashing into a 23-year-old woman sitting on the sidewalk.
She suffered severe injuries that still prevent her from having good mobility.
“For years, members of these rival gangs would terrorize communities in Queens, turning neighborhoods into their own deadly playgrounds and then brag about it on social media,” explained NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch.
Filed under: Queens Gang Youths Arrested
With information from EFE
