goon squad

plural goon squads

1. USderogatoryidiomaticinformalA group of individuals serving as enforcers, bodyguards, assassins, and the like, especially persons hired for such a purpose and using violent, thuggish methods.

   He denied charges that the union was using "goon squads," as strong-arm detachments are called on the West Coast, and asserted that any violence was provoked by the employers.

   1938 September 9, Russell B. Porter, “Unionists Battle Store Employes in San Francisco”, in New York Times, page 9

   2 more examples

   No one has ever accused Uganda's mercurial President Idi ("Big Daddy") Amin Dada of running a democracy. . . . In Kampala, the capital, much of the terror is committed by Big Daddy's personal goon squad, the 3,000-man Public Safety Unit.

   1974 June 17, “Shooting the Moon”, in Time

   But becoming the "Spirit Father" to a group of cave dwellers threatened by "bandits, insurgent guerrillas" and "goon squads hired by greedy logging companies" gives him a newfound purpose in life.

   2003, Michael Upchurch, "What's Cooking on Mindanao?" (Review of Dream Jungle by Jessica Hagedorn), New York Times, 5 Oct., p. A13