COLUMBUS, Ohio – Nearly a dozen members of a Columbus-based hit squad could face the death penalty if convicted of crimes contained in a federal indictment handed down last month, federal authorities said.
The panel indicted 17 members of the street gang known as the Short North Posse and accused them of branching out to form a gang-within-a-gang dedicated to murdering and robbing rival gang members, drug dealers or others believed to have large amounts of cash or firearms, according to the indictment filed June 24.
The men named in the indictment were charged with a series of violent crimes including 12 unsolved murders as well as attempted murders, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, extortion and robbery.
EXTRA: See the list of defendants and charges
The indictment alleges that, sometime after 2005, members of the Short North Posse began referring to themselves as the Cut Throat Committee and later the Homicide Squad. The Short North Posse also identified themselves nationally with the Crips street gang, according to federal authorities.
Among the charges included in the indictment charges are 12 unsolved homicides, 23 attempted homicides, 41 violent felonies and 45 weapons offenses, committed in Columbus, Canal Winchester, Chillicothe, Pataskala, Pickerington, and Zanesville between 2005 and 2012.
U.S. Attorney Carter Stewart says the indictment is a result of a two-year long investigation by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, DEA, ATF, Columbus Police, Franklin County Sheriff Zach Scott and Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien’s Office.