Augusta gangs are surging, and they’ve found a surprise funding source

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Coming on the heels of a holiday weekend that brought three fatal shootings across the CSRA, the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office Gang Unit is speaking about the rise in crime.

One major thing the deputies wanted to highlight is that gang activity is spiking here – and it’s only going to get worse.

In Augusta alone, investigators have been looking into nine slayings in a few months: two in September, three in October and four in November.

We sat down with Sgt. Kyle Gould and Investigator Patrick Brown with the Richmond County Gang Unit. It’s one of the first times they’ve sat down with News 12 to discuss crime in Augusta and around the region.

Will: “Do you guys feel like right now in Richmond County there is a gang issue?”

Kyle Gould: “Yes, There there is definitely an issue with these criminal street gangs.”

Patrick Brown: “I think that a lot of community leaders should be aware that there is a growing gang issue.”

Now investigators are saying these violent crimes may be tied to many others – even seemingly minor ones like shoplifting and burglary.

In fact, very few crimes in the CSRA’s major counties are deemed as random.

That’s because deputies say almost all the crimes here, from burglaries to car break-ins to killings, are gang-related.

“I would say a vast majority of the violent crime in this county, in Richmond County, is committed by or associates of criminal street gangs far more than what the, you know, the public sees,” Gould said.

The landscape of how criminal street gangs operate is changing. Brown says the age kids are becoming involved in this activity is trending lower, which is targeting elementary school-age children.

In those instances, the children are becoming more violent.

“A lot of people tend to think that a gang is Bloods or Crips or it’s a large nationwide gang. I think it’s been trending towards hybrid gangs – hybrid street gangs which don’t necessarily have a certain color that they wear or a certain tattoo that they identify themselves with it,” Brown said.

And the surprise link in it all is something we told you about a few weeks ago: checks being stolen out of public mail drops.

“A lot of times, what we’ve seen is that a gang member will steal someone’s information. They’ll use that information to make a lot of fraudulent checks, to make a lot of fraudulent transfers of money, and to make themselves pretty rich off of it. And the victim in that case will get reimbursed. A bank will eat the loss and that on as fees,” Brown said.

Often checks made out to or from businesses to pay bills, they’re typically made out for thousands of dollars. And these checks have been disappearing from those blue public boxes where you drop your mail at the post office.

It’s a crime that started increasing dramatically just a few months ago in Richmond and Columbia counties. Investigators with the sheriff’s office says bank fraud is the top income producer over for criminal street gangs.

“In the past few years, that has been a huge source of revenue for gang , whether it’s been mail theft or just simply people selling information on the dark web,” Brown said.

The criminals change who the check is made out to and then deposit it, often using an automated method like an app.

The challenge will be figuring out how to cut these gangs’ money flow.

“If somebody wants to help us out, people just simply being more secure in their own finances, don’t mail checks. If you can avoid mailing checks, if you can avoid having your personally identifiable information just lying about, throwing it away, that is extremely valuable to gang ,” Brown said.

Copyright 2023 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.