A Jacksonville drug trafficker whom prosecutors blame for planning four murders has been indicted with a dozen co-defendants on racketeering charges linked to killings, robbery and shootings.
Brian Gregory Brightman, 32, was already facing at least 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2025 to operating six “trap houses” for selling drugs at locations across the Northside as well as at a trailer the government has labeled a “mobile trap house.”
The new charges mean that Brightman and others could eventually get 20 years to life behind bars, said U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe, who said Brightman led a violent drug gang that used the name Slime. Some might even a qualify for the death penalty, although no decision has been made to seek that,
Kehoe said.
“They are going to be brought to justice,” Kehoe told reporters as he announced the indictment, saying Slime’s days as a drug organization “are no longer.”
The group’s operation amounted to “a seven-year crime spree,” said Christopher Whitley, assistant special agent in charge for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Jacksonville.
The 43-page indictment underscored the violence and intimidation that Kehoe said characterized Slime, which the indictment said used assaults, shootings and killings “to establish the group’s dominance,” protect its territory and drug business and to infringe on other drug groups’ territory.
Older Slime members generally operated trap houses while younger members and “associates” performed the violence, either for promises of pay or to gain status, the indictment said.
One of the men indicted with Brightman, 21-year-old Devonne Rivers, is awaiting trial in state court on charges from two April 2024 killings in the 7000 block of Garden Street that are mentioned in the indictment. The State Attorney’s Office filed notice in April that it plans to seek the death penalty.
Also, Rivers and another person named in the indictment, 23-year-old Terrance Williams, were convicted in state court in in January of an attempted murder referenced in federal charges.
Rivers was sentenced to life in prison and Williams to 40 years but Rivers has appealed. A transcript shows attorneys and the trial judge discussed subjects including whether to ban use of the words "slime" and "gang" in front of jurors.
Members sometimes used “slime” as a verb to describe robbing or killing people from rival groups, the indictment said.
A recitation called a “factual basis” that was attached to the plea deal Brightman signed in 2025 said he sometimes operated five trap houses simultaneously in 2024. That document said two of the sales points, on Main Street and on Pitts Road near the Dinsmore area, “conservatively estimated, each would sell approximately $3,000 worth of methamphetamine and fentanyl per day.”
The agreement said the trap houses sold pot and crack cocaine as well as meth and fentanyl. It said Brightman or someone working with him collected cash from the houses “on a near daily basis” and dropped off meth, fentanyl and crack daily at Pitts Road, where the trailer was parked.
Slime’s drug trade also impacted neighboring Nassau County, county Undersheriff Jon Hooper said during the announcement. He said the racketeering case underscored the need for law enforcement agencies to work cooperatively, since crime hardly stops at jurisdiction lines.
The indictment listed other several other locations as Slime trap houses, including homes on Woodbine Road, New Berlin Road, West 22nd Street and West 23rd Street and Walnut Street.
Arraignments haven't been held yet for defendants to enter pleas.
Times-Union editor Scott Butler contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville drug gang behind 4 killings, feds say
