Accused South Los Angeles gang kingpin Eugene Henley Jr. pleaded not guilty Friday to charges contained in an updated indictment that adds allegations that he tried to coerce two fellow jail inmates to murder or seriously injure a witness against him in a racketeering case.
Henley, 59, also known as “Big U,” was already facing federal conspiracy charges for running what investigators say was a “mafia-like” criminal enterprise that included murder, human trafficking and extortion.
He was also allegedly linked to the 2021 killing of an aspiring rapper in Las Vegas, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
A federal grand jury in downtown Los Angeles last month charged Henley with seven additional felonies: two counts of solicitation to commit a crime of violence, two counts of tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant, one count of conspiracy to transport an individual in interstate commerce with intent that the individual engage in prostitution, and two counts of wire fraud.
Henley’s attorney has said that the defendant “looks forward to addressing these allegations at trial, where the facts, not headlines, will control.”
Henley and a half-dozen others are scheduled to go to trial in Los Angeles federal court in February 2027.
A 43-count indictment filed in March 2025 accuses Henley of a single count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, along with multiple counts of robbery, extortion, wire fraud and embezzlement.
Before he surrendered to authorities last year, Henley, a self-described anti-gang activist from the South L.A. community of Hyde Park, posted videos on social media denying any wrongdoing.
“Ain’t going to be no real evidence,” Henley posted. “Ain’t going to be no real nothing … Now, they’re saying all that stuff to assassinate my character.”
According to the superseding indictment, Henley asked two inmates about the layout of a housing unit in a downtown lock-up where he believed a witness against him was being held. Henley allegedly offered to pay the inmates to kill or harm the witness to prevent him from testifying at trial against members of what prosecutors refer to as Henley’s organization.
Henley also is newly charged with allegedly paying co-defendant Armani Aflleje, 39, of Koreatown, to transport women across state lines to engage in prostitution.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, for decades Henley “has put on a public facade, masquerading as a reformed gang member and legitimate businessman whose only ambition was to better his community. But defendant wasn’t helping Crenshaw. He was helping himself.”
Henley, who was reportedly instrumental in launching the career of the late Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle, served 13 years in prison for trying to steal cocaine from an undercover sheriff’s deputy in 1991.
A 26-year-old son, Daiyan, is a linebacker with the Los Angeles Chargers.
If convicted as charged, Henley could face decades behind bars, prosecutors said.