8 alleged “GoodFellas” gang members, associates charged with violent crimes, including attempted murder

Eight alleged members and associates of Atlanta’s “GoodFellas” gang have been charged with violent crimes including attempted murder and attempted carjacking, according to an indictment that was unsealed in the Northern District of Georgia on Thursday. 

The Department of Justice referred to the group as a “violent gang” that recruits members from Atlanta neighborhoods and corrections facilities. Several members of the gang were recently arrested and charged in connection with a July 2024 triple shooting that left two teenagers dead, CBS affiliate Atlanta News First reported. Six other gang members were indicted for conspiring to murder Fulton County Detention officers in November 2024, the DOJ said. 

The defendants identified in the indictment unsealed Thursday are Frank Hubbert, 38; Montavis Jones, 37; Darian Sheppard, 27; De’Andre Jackson, 22; Ephram Marshall, 24; Tahj Rankine, 26; Leonunte Carson, 22; and Ahday Nelson-George, 25. 

All of the defendants, except Nelson-George, have been charged with a varying number of counts of attempted murder in aid of racketeering and discharge of a firearm.

Five of them — Sheppard, Jackson, Marshall, Rankine, and Carson — allegedly fired dozens of shots at an Atlanta gas station, wounding a patrol in February 2021, the Northern District of Georgia U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release. They were allegedly targeting members of another gang.

Also in February 2021, “Sheppard, Jackson, and Marshall, aided and abetted by Hubbert and Jones, allegedly fired approximately 50 rounds at a woman, severely wounding her and two bystanders, including a child,” the news release says. 

Hubbert and Jones are alleged leaders of the GoodFellas gang, the news release says. 

Hubbert and Nelson-George are charged with multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon in aid of racketeering and attempted carjacking. The indictment alleges that in January 2021, the two assaulted three victims at an Atlanta apartment complex and demanded the keys to their vehicle at gunpoint, leading to an exchange of gunfire.

The defendants who were charged with attempted murder face a maximum penalty of life in prison. Nelson-George faces a maximum penalty of 75 years in prison. 

Several defendants have detention hearings set for next week, according to court documents.

The indictment comes after an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, the Georgia Department of Corrections and the Atlanta Police Department, the DOJ said. 

The case is part of the newly announced nationwide initiative “Operation Take Back America,” which the Justice Department said aims to eliminate cartels, gangs and other criminal organizations from the United States. The initiative was launched earlier in March, and combines resources from the existing Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and the Project Safe Neighborhood Programs, according to a DOJ memo.