Biography
Cecilio "Chui" Ferguson, also known as Cecilio Ferguson-El, was a Black Liberation Army member and Republic of New Afrika citizen arrested on March 26, 1982 in the federal Brink's/Nyack RICO prosecution. He was sentenced to twelve years, held at FCI Lewisburg under BOP number 04372-054, and released on November 20, 1989.
Biographical sources
A Third Circuit disposition dated May 27, 1988 identifies Cecilio (Ferguson-El) in an appeal involving the U.S. Parole Commission and the warden of the U.S. Penitentiary at Lewisburg. This supplies an additional name and location reference; it does not establish life dates.
Federal sentence confirmed under alternate case names
The appellate opinion captions this defendant as Cecil Ferguson, also known as Mo and Chui, matching Cecilio Chui Ferguson. It states in paragraph 6 that Judge Duffy sentenced Ferguson and Edward Joseph on February 15, 1984 to twelve and one-half years. Paragraph 5 distinguishes their accessory-after-the-fact convictions from the RICO and substantive robbery/murder counts on which they were acquitted. The recorded sentence has been corrected from twelve years and the blank sentencing date filled. These are sentence details, not proof of a prison admission date.
The contemporary FBI appendix independently gives the same February 15 date and twelve-and-one-half-year term. Earlier admission remains unknown; the existing arrest and release fields were not changed or treated as newly verified uninterrupted custody. No independently identified photograph was located; same-name social-media results were excluded.
Sources: United States v. Ferguson, 758 F.2d 843 (2d Cir. 1985), paragraphs 5–6; FBI report appendix, PDF page 50, sentencing dispositions.
Primary appellate chronology corrects March1982 arrest
United States v.Shakur,817F.2d189, paragraph13, records a March25,1982 warrant and Ferguson and Joseph arrested the following day. The arrest field and biography are corrected to March26,1982, not March22. The Justice Department-hosted historical account also places the raids March26. Neither an arrest nor the1984 sentence establishes a first prison admission or proves uninterrupted custody to the existing1989 federal endpoint.
Breakthrough’s Spring 1982 prisoner correspondence directory names Chui (Cecil Ferguson) with the historical mailing address Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York, NY. This is a contemporaneous mail-directory reference; it does not establish first physical admission, exact transfer, final release or uninterrupted housing there. The editorial’s March 22 arrest date is not adopted over the stronger appellate March 26, 1982 chronology. The original illustration on printed page 6 directly labels Chui Ferguson, matching the same issue’s explicit Chui/Cecil name bridge and the existing appellate-source alias. The cropped image is a contemporary drawing credited to Breakthrough, not a photograph or a generated likeness.
The investigation account and chronology record actual arrest March 26, 1982 under Cecil Ferguson (also printed Fergusen). The September 3, 1983 verdict convicted him as an accessory after the fact, rather than on every original conspiracy/robbery allegation. The chronology reports twelve and one-half years, but its February 16, 1984 sentencing date conflicts with the independent appellate February 15 date. No actual custody total or new release day is inferred.
Report of the New York State Policy Study Group on Terrorism, November 1985, PDF page 65.
