COLUMBUS — The government has announced new charges including murder against alleged members and associates of the MS-13 gang in Ohio.
Some of the charges carry the possibility of the death penalty.
Prosecutors say a federal grand jury on Thursday charged 23 individuals in a racketeering conspiracy that includes five killings as well as attempted murder, extortion, money laundering, drug trafficking, assault and other charges.
Thursday’s indictment brings to 29 the number of alleged MS-13 gang members charged in central Ohio in recent months.
The charges include a killing in 2006 in Perry County and four in Columbus in 2008, 2015 and 2016.
The indictment includes three counts of murder in aid of racketeering and one count of murder through the use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, crimes that could make some of the defendants eligible for the death penalty, according to U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman.
The indictment charges members of the gang with the December 2006 murder of Jose Mendez, a suspected confidential informant, in Perry County and the November 2008 murder of Ramon Ramos on Lockbourne Road. The charges also include the 2015 murders of Carlos Serrano-Ramos, a suspected rival gang member, and Wilson Villeda, both killed in the Innis Road area, and the December 2016 murder of Salvador Martinez-Diaz, a suspected rival gang member, on Melroy Avenue.
Fifteen of the defendants live in Columbus while the others are in Dayton, Indianapolis, California, Virginia, or have been deported. Nelson Alexander “Mula” Flores is a fugitive.
The government says El Salvador-based MS-13 consists chiefly of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. It is the first and only street gang to be designated a “transnational criminal organization.”
Authorities say the gang has more than 10,000 members and associates, operating in at least 40 states, including Ohio. The gang is divided into “programs,” which are in turn subdivided into “cliques.” The Columbus clique belongs to the East Coast Program, Glassman said.