Prosecutor: 34-Year-Old Man Gets 17 Years for Role in Area Street Gang Racketeering Activities

A 34-year-old Jackson Township (Ocean County) man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for his racketeering role in various criminal street gang activities in several Monmouth County towns, Monmouth County First Assistant Prosecutor Julia Alonso announced on Thursday.

Xavier “HS” Reed was sentenced to the 17-year prison term on Wednesday, July 9, by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Jill G. O’Malley.

Reed had previously pleaded guilty to a charge of first-degree racketeering conspiracy. Reed’s sentence is subject to provisions of New Jersey’s No Early Release Act (NERA), which mandates that 85 percent be served prior to the possibility of parole. Reed will also be subject to parole supervision for five years upon his release from prison.

The case background …

Multiple investigations were launched into Reed’s criminal activity, dating as far back as the summer of 2019, which identified Reed as a high-ranking member of the G-Shine set of the Bloods, a local street gang.

Reed then made efforts to join forces with other local gangs to be the “ringleader,” as he called it, of a criminal enterprise consisting of members from different gangs, including the G-Shine Bloods, as well as 47 NHC and Grape Street sets of the Crips, that would ultimately work toward a common goal of having “a lot of the power,” of the local gang activity, mostly centered in the areas of Asbury Park, Neptune and Freehold Townships.

The focus of the racketeering and criminal enterprise centered around transfers of community firearms, drug distribution, retributive assaults, dogfighting, and gang-related shootings that plagued the Asbury Park-Neptune area during 2020.

The gang-related violence included the shooting homicide of 24-year-old Christian Lahens of Asbury Park, on March 23, 2020. Nahzee Z. Coger, 21, was sentenced earlier this year on Feb. 12, to 15 years in a state prison, after pleading guilty to one count of first-degree aggravated manslaughter, in connection with the death of Lahens.

Twenty-nine other codefendants previously pleaded guilty to various crimes ranging from racketeering conspiracy, aggravated manslaughter, attempted murder, unlawful possession of firearms, distribution of CDS, and dogfighting.

The case was handled by Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Bogner, Director of the MCPO Major Crimes Bureau and Assistant Prosecutor Joseph Cummings, Director of the Narcotics and Criminal Enterprise Bureau.

— Edited press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office