Mobile Prosecutors Win Drug-Gun Case Conviction Under New Anti-Gang Law
By Dale Hines
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News
February 26, 2026
MOBILE, AL. A new law meant to put some teeth into drug and gun related crimes committed by serial offenders was put to the test so to speak during a trial in Mobile involving Marcus Dewayne Cobbs Jr., 24, who was with drug trafficking and weapon charges.
On Wednesday, the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office won the case with the enhancement of the new law. It was the first case in the state where the new anti-gang statute law that the Legislature passed the anti-gang statute in 2023 was added.
A jury on Wednesday found Cobbs guilty of drug and gun charges and he now faces 25 years to life in prison for trafficking marijuana to benefit a criminal enterprise. Sentencing is set for April 30TH, 2026.
“This case represents a turning point in how we combat organized crime in Alabama,” Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood said in a statement. “The Criminal Enterprise statute was created to dismantle criminal networks, not just arrest individuals at the scene. Today’s verdict proves that when criminals organize, we will organize too and we will hold everyone involved in that criminal enterprise accountable.”
Prosecutors alleged that Cobbs was a member of a local street gang – in fact, that he was the founder of the organization. Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Stuart Lang played portions of rap music videos featuring Cobbs rapping about shooting people.
The law requires prosecutors to demonstrate gang membership through at least three criteria listed in the statute. Lang told jurors that prosecutors had proven six different signs – the defendant’s own admissions, in videos played for the jury; identification by a reliable informant; adopting the dress and style of a criminal enterprise; tattoos; associating with one or more members; and being observed in the company of one or more members.
The attorney representing Cobbs, Bucky Thomas, accused prosecutors of trying to distract jurors and said that prosecutors were making his client out to be more than what he was, but the prosecution argued that they had merely laid out the facts of the case.
The trial turned on testimony about drugs and a gun found on Nov. 4, 2024. A Dodge Durango that prosecutors said belonged to Cobbs contained more than 2.2 pounds of marijuana. And there was a gun underneath a grill in the yard. Cameron Hall, who originally was charged along with Cobbs and cut a deal with prosecutors to drop the charges, testified that his co-defendant ordered him to get the gun. Prosecutors argued that was “constructive possession,” under the law.
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