COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Gang members murdered people during
robberies, tried to kill rivals and intimidated witnesses including
fatally shooting one to keep her from going to police, all in efforts to
control their reputation and territory, federal prosecutors said
Tuesday.
Dealing heroin, cocaine, pain pills and marijuana,
robbing people and murders-for-hire were the only source of income for
members of the Short North Posse during crimes dating to 2005, according
to an indictment made public Tuesday.
Short North Posse members
routinely supplied themselves with guns and ammunition, helped gang
members in prison by giving them money and also produced songs about
their gang and methods that were posted on social media sites as
intimidation tools, the indictment said.
"The Short North Posse controlled the neighborhood through intimidation, fear and violence,"
according to the indictment.
In
total, 17 men were indicted on 25 charges in what U.S. Attorney Carter
Stewart called the biggest federal murder indictment in Ohio history.
The charges include allegations of 13 killings, 12 of them previously
unsolved. Investigators have prosecuted the same gang going back to the
1990s.
"We can’t say that it’s been decimated, we can’t say that
it’s been dismantled. That’s our goal," Stewart said. "But I can tell
you that they’ve taken a significant hit, especially on the enforcement
side."
A December indictment of 22 people targeted the gang’s drug
dealing, while Tuesday’s charges focused on violent crimes. Divisions
of the gang who dubbed themselves the "Homicide Squad" and the "Cut
Throat Committee" specialized in murders and robberies of rival gang
members, drug dealers and individuals thought to have a lot of money or
guns, the indictment said.
Investigators made a public appeal for
tips in February and the leads that came in, along with investigators’
efforts, led to the indictment, Stewart said.
Every murder has a cost to society and every victim matters, said Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs.
"Even
if this is drug dealer to drug dealer, they all matter to us," she
said. "The fact that we’re prosecuting and looking for these violent
criminals should tell our community how much we care about the safety
overall of the community."
The Short North district north of
downtown Columbus is now a vibrant shopping and restaurant district, but
it was a run-down and at times dangerous area before the first gang
crackdown in the 1990s.
Several of the defendants were already in
jail or prison on other charges, which aided with witness cooperation,
said Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien.
"They weren’t out on the street directly intimidating people," he said.