Mustafa Al-Yasiry, a Middle Eastern / Arab man, was killed on April 18, 2014, in southwest Detroit, in a burst of street violence that unfolded at the Big Apple Market. Investigators later described the killing as a gang attack—an ambush where several members of the Latin Counts converged on Al-Yasiry, beat and assaulted him, and the assault ended with a gunshot that took his life.
In the months that followed, the homicide became one of the acts folded into a wider federal crackdown on the Latin Counts and other violent offenders operating across southwest Detroit and nearby Downriver communities. Under the “Detroit One” partnership—an effort combining local and federal agencies—authorities announced sweeping enforcement actions and indictments in the area. One early racketeering case named Victor Vasquez as a defendant alleged to have aided and abetted the use of a firearm during a crime of violence that caused Al-Yasiry’s death, along with other charges tied to violence used to enforce the gang’s territory.
As the investigation sharpened, prosecutors unsealed a superseding indictment that directly identified a suspected triggerman. Devin Dantzler, of Ecorse, was charged with using and carrying a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence causing death and with murder in aid of racketeering; another defendant, Christopher Pierce, was charged with assault resulting in serious bodily injury in aid of racketeering. In the government’s telling, several Latin Counts assaulted Al-Yasiry at the Big Apple Market, and Dantzler shot and killed him.
Years after the killing, the case resolved not with a single dramatic trial, but with a series of guilty pleas that tied the murder to the gang’s larger racketeering conspiracy. Federal prosecutors announced that Dantzler and Vasquez admitted responsibility for causing Al-Yasiry’s death as part of racketeering conspiracy pleas, with authorities describing the attack as gang violence meant to intimidate and control the neighborhood. Officials also said multiple other Latin Counts members pleaded guilty for roles connected to the murder.
Sentencing followed. Vasquez received a 30-year federal prison term after pleading guilty to the RICO conspiracy, with the government stating that the assault on Al-Yasiry occurred at Vasquez’s direction and ended when another Latin Counts member came up from behind and shot Al-Yasiry. Dantzler’s case ended with a 30-year sentence as well, imposed after a guilty plea to the racketeering conspiracy, reflecting an agreed-upon term memorialized in court records.
