In the last week or so two more pirate stations in New Jersey and Illinois have been silenced. These are unusual cases. According to the Associated Press the NJ station, “El Sol 95.3,” was raided on Wednesday. It was run “by a group calling itself the Moors. The group has claimed U.S. laws do not apply to it because its members are indigenous Americans who have lived on the continent since the beginning of time….A man who answered the door said the station was authorized under the ‘Great Seal’ and offered a homemade document signed by ‘Queen Ali.'”
The station in Illinois was raided as part of a nationwide sweep last week involving a multi-state investigation into the Black Disciples gang. The station was run out of one of several buildings on Chicago’s south side that (according to prosecutors) the BDs had completely taken over. It reportedly broadcast “public service announcements” to BD-affiliated dope peddlers: things like where police were heaviest at any given time and other helpful street-level intelligence.
More fodder for the pirate-bashing: you can almost hear it already. “Not only do they f*ck with airplanes, but pirates also belong to gangs!” Seriously, though, a lot of enforcement activity has taken place in the last month involving multiple FCC field offices: a little extra caution and vigilance never killed a station.
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