Even with his cheerful demeanor towards his supporters as he waltzed into a Brooklyn federal court on Thursday, it didn’t change the fact that Ronald Herron would be spending the rest of his natural life in prison.

Ronald Herron, 33, a rapper who also goes by the name “Ra Diggs”, was handed down 12 consecutive life sentences plus 105 years by Judge Nicholas Garaufis after being convicted of 21 crimes, including three murders, racketeering and drug trafficking. Prosecutors say that Diggs ran a set of the Bloods street organization known as the “Murderous Mad Dawgs” that controlled the cocaine and heroin in and around Gowanus and Wycoff Houses in Brooklyn.

His supporters disrupted the proceedings, arguing that Herron was being made an example and according to U.S. Attorney Shreve Ariail, they were precise in that assessment.

“A message needs to be sent that this kind of behavior, this kind of obstruction, this kind of contempt for the law cannot be tolerated.”

-Sha Be Allah(@KingPenstatus)