arrests of eight alleged Buck Wild members last year as a major victory in the fight against Palm Beach County gangs, ranking the group among the most violent in the area.

Jury selection began Monday and is expected to continue into next week in the racketeering and conspiracy trials of five men alleged to have collaborated on a string of shootings, robberies and drug crimes as members of the Buck Wild street gang.

Authorities hailed the arrests of eight alleged Buck Wild members last year as a major victory in the fight against Palm Beach County gangs, ranking the group among the most violent in the area.

Now, five of those men — Marquis Alfred, James Anderson, Larry Coe, Quamaine Falana and James Roundtree — will stand trial together. As of last year, investigators said they had tied the group to at least seven murders and 24 shootings.

Circuit Judge John Kastrenakes, prosecutors and attorneys for each of the five men on Monday interviewed the first of several groups of prospective jurors in the case.

As Kastrenakes predicted in pretrial hearings last week, the biggest hindrance for the potential jurors was an inability to commit to spending May and perhaps most of June hearing testimony in the case.

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