A years-long investigation by the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office and the FBI Safe Streets Gang Task Force has led to the indictment of a man investigators identified as an alleged gang leader in Lowndes County, Georgia, the sheriff's office announced on Monday, November 2. A Lowndes County grand jury returned the indictment on October 28, 2026, according to the sheriff's office, in a case announced in Valdosta and reported by Fox 49.
Source: Fox 49 (Valdosta)
The man charged is Richard Devonne Faulk, also known as “Mr. Tailormade.” Investigators identified Faulk as an alleged leader of a local faction of Sex Money Murder (SMM), described as a nationally recognized criminal street gang organization. Authorities said the investigation examined Faulk's alleged involvement in criminal activity throughout Lowndes County, including violent offenses and firearm-related incidents. Every part of that description is an allegation by investigators; Faulk has not been convicted of these charges.
The charges in full
Faulk was indicted on three violations of Georgia's Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act — under O.C.G.A. sections 16-15-4(a), 16-15-4(b) and 16-15-4(d) — and on one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, under O.C.G.A. 16-11-131, the sheriff's office said. The gang act is the Georgia statute prosecutors use to charge participation in, and leadership of, criminal street gang activity as a felony in its own right, on top of any underlying offenses.
The sheriff's office said Faulk also faces recidivist sentencing allegations under Georgia law based on prior felony convictions. If convicted, he could face up to 70 years in prison, subject to applicable sentencing laws and the court's determination, the office said.
Who ran the investigation
The investigation was conducted by the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office Special Operations Division together with members of the FBI Safe Streets Gang Task Force — the FBI's long-running program that pairs federal agents with state and local officers against violent street gangs. The sheriff's office said it received assistance from the Georgia Attorney General's Office and from Assistant District Attorney Zack Register of the Southern Judicial Circuit during the indictment process, and it credited the Valdosta Police Department, saying previous Valdosta investigations provided evidence supporting the broader gang investigation.
Background: SMM and Georgia's gang prosecutions
Sex Money Murder is not a new name to Georgia prosecutors. In a separate federal case unsealed in the Northern District of Georgia in 2023, 23 alleged SMM members and affiliates were charged in a 12-count indictment with racketeering conspiracy, drug trafficking and firearms violations. Federal prosecutors in that case described SMM as a set of the Bloods that originated in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, spread through the Bronx in New York and into the South, including Georgia, operating both inside prisons and jails and on the street. That history is the backdrop against which Lowndes County investigators describe the local faction in the Faulk case — it is context from a different case, not evidence in this one.
Lowndes County itself has seen sustained gang prosecution in recent years. The Georgia Attorney General's Gang Prosecution Unit and the Southern Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office announced a 44-count gang indictment in Lowndes County in February 2025 charging seven people in a different alleged gang case. The Faulk indictment, built over years by the sheriff's Special Operations Division and the FBI task force, is the latest step in that local campaign, this time aimed at an alleged faction leader rather than a group of defendants.
The sheriff's office announcement states it plainly: an indictment is a formal accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
What happens next
The case now moves through the courts of the Southern Judicial Circuit, where the indictment was returned. The sheriff's office announcement gave no arraignment or trial date, and no court date had been published with the indictment news as of Monday. What is established is the shape of the fight ahead: three gang-act counts and a firearm count, a recidivist allegation that raises the sentencing stakes to a cited maximum of 70 years, and a defense that will test a years-long task-force investigation in open court.