COLUMBUS, Ohio – Federal prosecutors say a suspected member of the Short North Posse has been arrested in North Carolina on racketeering, drug and weapons charges.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Andre Martin Brown, who goes by “Paco,” was arrested by FBI agents Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The FBI had offered a $5,000 award for Brown, 33, who was indicted last fall on nine counts, including racketeering, use of a firearm in a drug trafficking crime and attempted possession of cocaine and marijuana with intent to distribute.
The Short North Posse was a Columbus-based gang affiliated with the national Crips gang.
Seventeen individuals were originally indicted in the racketeering case in July 2014. Brown was the last member of the gang under indictment who was not in custody, federal authorities said.
Court records don’t list an attorney to respond to his arrest or the allegations.
The indictment claimed some Posse members branched out and formed groups that called themselves the Cut Throat Committee and the Homicide Squad, specializing in murders and robberies of rival gang members, other drug dealers, and targets thought to have large sums of cash or firearms, U.S. Attorney Carters Stewart’s office said.
Brown was charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy and three counts of use and discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, each crimes punishable by up to life in prison.
He was also charged with attempted possession with intent to distribute cocaine, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison; and three counts of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and one count of attempted possession with intent to distribute, each crime punishable by up to five years in prison.