The last defendant of 18 La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang members charged in connection with a multi-year investigation by federal, state, and local law enforcement was sentenced today. The investigation involved charges of racketeering conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, attempted murder in aid of racketeering, kidnapping, drug trafficking, firearms offenses, obstruction of justice, and destruction of evidence.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, the defendants were members and associates of MS-13’s Thompson Place Locos Salvatrucha clique, which has operated in Nashville, Tennessee, since at least 2014. MS-13, an international street gang composed largely of individuals of Salvadoran or Central American descent, seeks to protect its power, territory, reputation, and profits through murder, attempted murder, drug trafficking, robbery, kidnappings, extortion, and other criminal activities. In addition, cooperation with law enforcement is strictly prohibited under MS-13’s rules. Members are required to confront, fight, and/or kill rival gang members and to retaliate quickly and viciously against anyone who disrespects or threatens the gang’s authority, power, reputation, or control of a neighborhood. Prospective members committed murders to gain entrance into MS-13 or to earn respect among the members.
In addition to drug distribution and firearms offenses, the defendants were also convicted of conspiring with each other and committing acts of violence, including the following:
On April 6, 2016, MS-13 members and associates, including Jose Pineda-Caceres, murdered Victim 1 because they believed he was a rival gang member. They lured Victim 1 to a secluded field in a rural area of Davidson County, Tennessee, under the guise of going to smoke marijuana. When they arrived at the field, the gang members confronted Victim 1 about their belief that he was in a rival gang before shooting him multiple times, killing him.
On July 31, 2016, MS-13 members and associates, including Pineda-Caceres, went to a South Nashville nightclub, where Pineda-Caceres saw Victim 2, who he believed was a rival gang member. Victim 2 and his younger sister, Victim 3, were at the nightclub with friends, celebrating Victim 3’s 18th birthday. When Victim 2 left the nightclub with his friends and Victim 3, Pineda-Caceres and another MS-13 associate chased Victim 2’s car on Interstate 24 and shot into it. A bullet stuck Victim 3 and killed her. Pineda-Caceres fled the United States after this murder but was arrested when he returned to the United States in November 2017.
On Nov. 13, 2016, MS-13 members and associates, including Jorge Flores, were at a South Nashville nightclub when they saw Victim 4, who they believed was a rival gang member. The MS-13 members and associates, including Flores, followed Victim 4 from the nightclub to his apartment in Antioch, Tennessee. An MS-13 member shot Victim 4 and then fled. Victim 4 died from his injuries.
On or about Jan. 18, 2017, MS-13 members and associates, including Jorge Flores, saw Victim 5, who they believed was responsible for a recent murder of an MS-13 member, at a Wal-Mart in Antioch. The MS-13 members chased Victim 5 as he rode in a car with his girlfriend and her young children. The MS-13 members eventually cornered the car and shot into it, striking Victim 5 multiple times.
In February 2017, MS-13 members and associates, including Carlos Ochoa and Jorge Flores, conspired to murder rival drug dealers, Victims 6 and 7. The MS-13 members also conspired to murder another MS-13 member because he associated with Victims 6 and 7. On Feb.18, 2017, MS-13 members and associates chased the three victims in a car for miles and attempted to kill them by shooting at them. The gang members chased their victims to a South Nashville nightclub, shot at them, and continuously shot into the nightclub, which was filled with patrons. The following weekend, on Feb. 25, 2017, MS-13 members and associates chased the victims again and shot Victim 6 in the neck and torso, causing Victim 6 to suffer life-threatening injuries. Metropolitan Nashville Police Department officers promptly provided medical care to Victim 6, helping to save his life.
On April 2, 2017, MS-13 members and associates were inside a South Nashville nightclub when they saw Victims 8 and 9. The gang members informed another MS-13 member and MS-13 associate, who were not in the nightclub, of the victims’ presence inside the nightclub and the gang members’ belief that the victims were rival gang members. The MS-13 member and associate outside of the nightclub retrieved an AK-47 rifle and shot Victims 8 and 9 multiple times when they left the club, killing them both.
On May 21, 2017, MS-13 members, including Flores and Kevin Tidwell, were parked in the parking lot of a South Nashville nightclub when they saw Victim 10, who they believed to be a rival gang member, pull into the parking lot. The gang members drove next to Victim 10’s car and shot him numerous times in his head and torso as he sat in his car, killing him.
On May 27, 2017, MS-13 members were at a convenience store in South Nashville, where Tidwell got into a verbal altercation with Victim 11 and felt disrespected. Tidwell got into a truck driven by Flores and waited behind the store until Victim 11 and Victim 12 drove away from the store. The MS-13 members chased the car while shooting at it with an AK-47 rifle and a 9mm pistol. Victim 11 was struck by the gunfire and died from his injuries. The MS-13 members later burned the truck in an abandoned field.
On June 17, 2017, several MS-13 members were at a nightclub and confronted Victim 13 for falsely claiming to be an MS-13 member. The gang members summoned additional members to the club for assistance. When the additional members arrived, a fight ensued between the MS-13 members and Victim 13 and his friends. Gerson Serrano-Ramirez ultimately retrieved an AK-47 rifle from a car and fired a round of ammunition into the air. The MS-13 members then forced Victim 13 into a car and took him to a secluded location, where they beat him.
On July 25, 2017, at Serrano-Ramirez’s home, Serrano-Ramirez physically assaulted Victim 14 for saying that MS-13 members and their drug activities were causing problems in a local nightclub. Serrano-Ramirez accused Victim 14 of cooperating with law enforcement, then pointed a rifle at him, choked him with the strap of the rifle, sprayed bleach in his eyes, suffocated him by placing a plastic bag over his head, and broke one of his fingers with a pair of pliers.
On Sept. 24, 2017, MS-13 members, including Luis Colindres, saw Victim 15, who they believed to be a rival gang member, in a South Nashville nightclub. MS-13 members watched him leave the nightclub with two other individuals, then drove to his apartment complex to await his return. When Victim 15 arrived, the gang members blocked the car with their car, got out, and shot Victim 15 in the head and torso multiple times, killing him. The members also shot one of the car’s passengers, Victim 16, in the head and torso multiple times to prevent him from cooperating with law enforcement.
Later that evening, on Sept. 24, 2017, MS-13 members and associates, including Flores and Colindres, lured Victim 17 to a secluded location to murder him for failing to repay a drug debt. When Victim 17 arrived, they ordered him into the trunk of a car and shot him multiple times. They then drove Victim 17’s body to Cheatham County, Tennessee, where they burned him inside of the car’s trunk to destroy evidence of the murder.
Throughout the course of the conspiracy, the MS-13 members committed several armed carjackings of citizens near the Nashville, Tennessee, area.
The defendants were sentenced as follows:
- Jorge Flores, 31, life plus 65 years in prison;
- Kevin Tidwell, 30, life plus 30 years in prison;
- Luis Colindres, 27, 55 years in prison;
- Jose Pineda-Caceres, 25, 52 years and three months in prison;
- Gerson Serrano-Ramirez, 36, 34 years in prison;
- Carlos Ochoa-Martinez, 34, 30 years in prison;
- Francisco Avila, 26, 30 years in prison;
- Franklin Hernandez, 24, 28 years and 11 months in prison;
- Jason Sandoval, 38, 20 years in prison;
- Oscar Delgado-Flores, 30, 19 years and eight months in prison;
- Angel Daniel-Garcia, 38, 13 years and nine months in prison;
- Bryan Paredes, 27, 10 years in prison;
- Jose Calderon, 24, 10 years in prison;
- Hector Venturas, 28, 12 years and seven months in prison;
- Juan Melendez, 25, eight years in prison;
- Franklin Pineda-Caceres, 23, seven years and six months in prison;
- Sergio Alvarado-Ochoa, 30, two years and six months in prison; and
- Anabely Caceres, 44, time-served sentence of one year and one month.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Acting U.S. Attorney Thomas J. Jaworski for the Middle District of Tennessee; Special Agent in Charge Marcus Watson of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Nashville Field Division; Special Agent in Charge Rana Saoud of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Nashville; Acting Special Agent in Charge Erek Davodowich of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Louisville Field Division; U.S. Marshal Denny King for the Middle District of Tennessee; Chief John Drake of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department; and Director David Rausch of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation made the announcement.
The ATF, HSI, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, La Vergne Police Department, and Kentucky State Police investigated the case.
Deputy Chief Matthew Hoff of the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ahmed Safeeullah and Brooke Farzad for the Middle District of Tennessee prosecuted this case.
This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at www.justice.gov/OCDETF.