BOSTON — A 31-year-old Peabody man and known member of the Gangster Disciples was sentenced on Friday, May 1, 2026, to more than four years in prison for threatening two victims with physical violence to extort money out of them while he was incarcerated in state prison.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, Damien Willette was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns to 51 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
In September 2025, Willette pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make interstate communications with the intent to extort and making interstate communications with intent to extort. He was indicted in March 2025 along with co-conspirators William Walley and Michael O’Shea.
O’Shea was sentenced in January 2026 to 51 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts also reported.
Federal prosecutors say Willette, who was incarcerated with his alleged co-conspirators, threatened two people, a former Gangster Disciple who was recruited into the gang by Willette and that person’s romantic partner, while serving state prison sentences.
Willette expected the former Gangster Disciple to provide financial assistance to him and other incarcerated gang members from November 2020 to May 2024. Gangster Disciple gang members refer to this practice as “aid and assistance,” prosecutors said.
Willette told the former gang member that he would be “blessed out” of the gang if he continued providing “aid and assistance,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. But the former gang member attempted to disassociate from the Gangster Disciples soon after being recruited. When he stopped providing assistance, his romantic partner continued providing money on his behalf.
Beginning in or around March 2023, Willette and his alleged co-conspirators began threatening the victims with physical violence if they stopped providing them with money while the men were incarcerated, prosecutors said.
Willette warned the victims that if they failed to provide “aid and assistance,” the former gang member would not be “blessed out” when Willette was released from state prison. Willette also said he would have gang members pistol whip the victims and warned that “it’s going to be bad for you and everyone you know” if they failed to provide money, according to prosecutors.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Ted E. Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division, announced the sentence Friday. The Massachusetts Department of Correction and the Lawrence Police Department assisted in the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip C. Cheng of the Organized Crime & Gang Unit is prosecuting the case.
