U.S. Attorney Gregory Kehoe speaks at a news conference Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, about the arrests of 12 gang members in Jacksonville. | News4Jax
Published on August 10, 2026 at 5:22 pm
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A dozen members of a violent drug trafficking gang in Jacksonville have been arrested on felony drug and murder charges after a 16-count federal indictment.
U.S. Attorney Gregory Kehoe called the arrests “a killer blow” to a drug trafficking ring known as the Slime Enterprise.
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Kehoe identified Brian Gregory Brightman — also known as “Boss Hog” — as the leader of the gang, which sold marijuana, crack cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl, mainly in Jacksonville’s Northside and Oceanway neighborhoods.
Gang members used murder, threats of death and intimidation to protect what the gang had assembled over seven years and to retaliate against competitors, Kehoe said.
“Protecting and expanding their territory and enforcement of their entire enterprise was of paramount importance,” Kehoe said. “How did they do that? They did it through assaults, shootings, attempted murders, murders to protect and expand their territory, as I said, and to retaliate, which is an important element here — retaliate against anybody they perceived to have done any wrong on them or anybody in the organization.”
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Slime stored and sold drugs in so-called trap houses all over the city. Brightman also used a trailer — a mobile trap house — that he “drove around Jacksonville to engage in his narcotic trafficking and distribution,” Kehoe said.
If convicted, the defendants face 20 years to life in prison, with the death penalty possible on the murder charges, Kehoe said.
One more person named in the indictment is still being sought, Kehoe said.
Some of the drug deals and violence drifted north, Nassau County Sheriff’s Office Undersheriff Jon Hooper said.
“During the course of this investigation, it was determined that Brian Gregory Brightman and members of his organization were supplying illegal narcotics into Nassau County,” Hooper said. “Their distribution network extended beyond Jacksonville and into our communities.”
The indictment alleges that in October 2022, Brightman asked a Slime member and an associate to murder a rival gang member. The indictment said Brightman and another man killed someone else Nov. 29, 2023. And again in early April 2024, Brightman and others killed two people, the indictment said.
The indictment also contains multiple incidents of threats and intimidations against rival gang members, including an attempted murder in December 2024.
