Hayward, Wisconsin (AP/Journal-Sentinel)

A three-year investigation into drug related crime on the Lac Courte Oreilles Chippewa Reservation resulted in more than 50 prosecutions meant to rid the area of a street gang with significant presence in Milwaukee.

While gang violence in Milwaukee barely makes the news, the presence of the Latin Kings gang hundreds of miles from southeastern Wisconsin was treated as a threat to peace on the reservation.

The prosecutions around the reservation brought long prison terms for dozens of people, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported July 2.

Robert G. “Bobby” Smith, an avowed member of the Latin Kings, was sentenced to 13 years in prison in the murder of 23-year-old Cody Badbear Wade on the reservation in 2002.

Smith, the son of a former Sawyer County sheriff’s deputy, told investigators an admitted gang leader on the reservation, Charles Gokey, ordered members to “light up” on Wade. This year, Gokey was sentenced to almost 20 years for crack cocaine distribution.

The judge said the punishment was meant “to assist the government’s mission to substantially reduce the impact of drug and drug-related crime on the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation.”

After Wade’s killing and other gang-related violence on the reservation, the tribal council declared a state of emergency in September 2002, and Sawyer County, federal and state agencies formed a task force.

Investigators say the federal probe continues and more arrests are on the way.

According to the Journal Sentinel, court documents and interviews show how tribal members spending time in Milwaukee brought crime back to the reservation.

Gang members would get drugs and sometimes guns in Milwaukee or the Twin Cities and sell them on the reservation, court records show.

“The influences come from cities like Milwaukee. We have a lot of tribal members all over. When they come back from the city, they bring a lot of the negative things with them,” said Brian Bisonette, a member of the council that governs the tribe.

Several residents said the investigation resulted in a decrease in the amount of drugs, illegal guns and gang graffiti on the reservation.

“You can just feel it. The tension has gone down quite a bit,” said Paul DeMain, managing editor and CEO publisher of News from Indian Country, a national publication he runs from the reservation.

Some, though, are still worried.

“You still have the ingredients here,” said Bill Cadotte, a tribal program specialist. “There is a lack of jobs, there is a lack of programming here for young people. It’s a total problem here.”