The Egleston Square-based Boylston Street gang targeted by today’s drug raid is known for its violent feud with Hyde Square’s Mozart Street gang, which allegedly has spread mayhem for years not only in Jamaica Plain, but even internationally. The year 2010 was an especially bloody one between the gangs, according to the Boston Police Department, which blamed the following crimes on the gang war:
- Aug. 2010: Two non-fatal shootings in Egleston Square.
- Oct. 2010: The shooting death of Luis Torres on Boylston Street.
- Nov. 2010: A gun and knife battle inside Centre Street’s Same Old Place restaurant that erupted as customers dined. It left three combatants dead and a bystander wounded.
- Nov. 2010: The killing of an alleged Mozart Street gang member in the Dominican Republic.
Two shocking, broad-daylight killings in JP in 2008 also were part of the gang war, according to Boston Police and the DA’s Office. They include the shooting of Luis Troncoso, a reported Boylston Street gang associate, on a Southwest Corridor Park basketball court along Boylston Street on Patriots’ Day, and the October shooting of Garivaldis Peña, a reported Mozart Street gang associate, in the front yard of his home on Rossmore Road in Stonybrook.
At least two other homicides and many other violent and drug-related crimes are attributed to the gangs by police and prosecutors.
Updated version: This story has been updated with more homicide incidents.