Caswell Senior, also known as Casanova 2x, was sentenced to 15 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Philip M. Halpern for racketeering and narcotics offenses (RICO) stemming from his leadership role in the Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation Bloods Gang, a faction of the more prominent Blood gang in New York.
It was announced on June 27 by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York that Casanova was sentenced for his role in a Florida shooting in 2020, a New York City robbery in 2018, and drug trafficking of marijuana.
“As part of the racketeering conspiracy, Senior participated in a shooting in Florida on July 5, 2020, and a robbery in New York City on August 5, 2018, and conspired to traffic over 100 kilograms of marijuana,” the Southern District of New York wrote on a press release.
“Caswell Senior is not just a notorious recording artist, but he is also a high-profile leader of a vicious street gang and a magnet for gang violence,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said. “At a crowded Miami house party, Senior personally fired a gun that seriously injured and could have killed a victim, inciting a shootout. Further, Senior’s stature in the community was central to Gorilla Stone’s successful recruitment and nationwide expansion. Today’s sentencing — along with the other significant sentences that have been imposed in this case — shows once again that gang life is not worth it and will lead to many years in prison.”
On May 11, 2022, he pled guilty before Judge Halpern to one count of conspiring to conduct and participate in the conduct of Gorilla Stone’s operations via a pattern of racketeering behavior and one count of conspiring to distribute more than 100 kilos of marijuana.
Casanova, one of 12 defendants condemned in the Gorilla Stone case , was sentenced to four years of supervised release and had to pay $50,000 in addition to the jail term.
Compared to his cohorts, Casanova’s sentancing was the fourth largest, compared to defendants “Donnie Love,” who was sentenced to 248 months, “Baby,” who was sentenced to 234 months, and “Jayecee,” who was sentenced to 207 months in prison.
When he heard his fate, he was already serving time at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, N.J.
Casanova’s life behind bars is not easy; he was stabbed while serving his time at the institution, and he was supposedly the subject of a nasty prison incident in which Casanova was cut in the face by another inmate.
The event occurs only days after the former gang member rejected his affiliation with the Blood gang.
“I thought I needed to stay in the life in name because it was a way to promote my career. I don’t care what the government tells you. I am telling you the truth. I was not involved in the daily activities of this gang. I wasn’t anyone’s boss. What I was and I regret this was a person that they could use to promote themselves in a world I swear to you I was trying to leave. I clearly did not do a good enough job of this as I did find myself in one bad situation after another,” Casanova said in court, hoping that he would have gotten a light punishment.
