A member of the violent Frankford drug trafficking organization known as SG1700 will spend the rest of his life in federal prison, plus 30 more years on top of it.
Kelvin Jimenez, known as “Nip,” 35, of Philadelphia, was sentenced to life in prison plus 360 months, to run consecutively, and eight years of supervised release by United States District Judge Juan R. Sánchez. The sentence was announced this week by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
The crimes arose from Jimenez’s membership in SG1700, also known as L-Block, a violent drug trafficking organization that operated in the Frankford section of Northeast Philadelphia. Jimenez and three co-conspirators were charged by superseding indictment in March 2023 with racketeering conspiracy, violent crimes in aid of racketeering including murder, and numerous additional offenses. The killings in the case included that of Philadelphia Police Sergeant James O’Connor.
In March 2025, Jimenez was convicted at trial of all charges against him, including racketeering conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracy, maintaining a drug-involved premises, murder, assaults in aid of racketeering, and related crimes. As proven at trial, Jimenez sold large quantities of narcotics over a multi-year period as part of SG1700, using violence and threats of violence to protect the gang’s reputation and drug territory.
“The Department of Justice is zeroing in on the worst of the worst, particularly vicious gangs and DTOs like SG1700,” U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said. “Jimenez and his co-conspirators’ violent tactics claimed lives and changed families forever, including that of Sergeant O’Connor. As today’s sentence shows, those unleashing criminal mayhem in our city and targeting law enforcement will answer for it, with severe consequences.”
ATF Philadelphia Field Division Special Agent in Charge Eric DeGree said Jimenez’s enterprise “subjected Philadelphia’s Frankford neighborhood to deadly shootouts targeting rivals for too long,” and that the sentence “demonstrates the high price criminals will pay when they terrorize our communities, especially when their violence turns against law enforcement officers like Sergeant James O’Connor.”
Police Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel said O’Connor “gave his life protecting this city, and we will never forget his sacrifice or the family he left behind,” adding that “no sentence can undo that loss” but the outcome “is an important measure of accountability for the violence this organization inflicted on our communities.”
The case was investigated by the ATF and the Philadelphia Police Department, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ashley Martin, Christopher Diviny, and Lauren Stram.
