Gang member sentenced

Published 11:00 pm Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Another member of the Bounty Hunter Bloods street gang has been sentenced to prison following a guilty plea to federal offenses.

Darren Antoine Pollard, 35, of Portsmouth, was sentenced Wednesday in federal court to 21 years in prison for participating in a pattern of racketeering activity, including a home invasion and conspiring to distribute controlled substances, and for possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.

According to court documents, Pollard and other members of the Bounty Hunter Bloods/Nine Tech Gangsters, who were operating in Suffolk, Chesapeake and Portsmouth at the time, participated in a home invasion robbery in Portsmouth in the summer of 2006.

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Pollard, who had worked with some of the people who lived in the home, attended a party there with other gang members, left the home and then returned with guns, demanding money, U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride said in a press release.

One man at the party was chased through the house at gunpoint by one of the gang members, while another gang member pointed a gun at a woman and tore a gold chain from her neck.

Pollard and the other gang members went through the pockets of the other residents before they fled the scene. He was also involved in distributing illegal narcotics, MacBride said.

Eleven members of the Bounty Hunter Bloods/Nine Tech Gangsters street gang have pleaded guilty for their roles supporting a criminal racketeering enterprise that engaged in murders, attempted murders, armed robberies, assaults and narcotics trafficking in Suffolk, Portsmouth and Chesapeake.