Yet another prison gang has been accused of using prepaid debit cards to manage drug programs outside the prison. Yesterday, the FBI announced that 21 members of the Black Guerilla Family (“BGF”) plead guilty to participating in a racketeering conspiracy. The gang used prepaid debit cards to run parts of their operation.

According to the FBI press release, several of the gang members extorted other inmates and managed drug trafficking operations while in prison. Some of the proceeds of the extortion and drug trafficking activities were transferred into prepaid debit card accounts.

The Baltimore Sun, which has covered the case extensively, describes prepaid debit cards (and in particular, GreenDot prepaid debit cards) as being the “currency of the prison system”.

We are guessing that being labeled as the “currency of the prison system” may not exactly be the product positioning preferred by the prepaid card industry.