According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), two members of the international MS-13 (La Mara Salvatrucha) gang living in Nashville were found guilty by a federal jury for their roles in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) case.
Specifically, Jorge Flores (pictured above, right), 30, aka Peluche, and Kevin Tidwell (pictured above, left), 29, aka Miklo, both of Nashville, were convicted in their roles in a RICO conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, attempted murder in aid of racketeering, drug trafficking, and destruction of evidence, the DOJ revealed.
Tidwell, at one point on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s “Top 10 Most Wanted” list, was arrested in June of 2017 after a highway chase on Interstate 65 in Williamson County ended in a crash.
Four other members of MS-13, two from El Salvador and two from Honduras, were also convicted.
“The defendants were convicted of RICO conspiracy, five murders, multiple attempted murders in aid of racketeering, conspiracies to commit murder in aid of racketeering, firearms offenses, tampering with evidence, and drug distribution,” the DOJ said. “They will be sentenced at a later date and each face a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison.”
The DOJ said that the two convicted gang members from Nashville, Flores and Tidwell, killed a person they believed to be a rival gang member outside of a Nashville bar in May of 2017. They shot the victim 11 times while sitting in his own car.
The pair went on to commit further heinous crimes in the months that followed, according to the DOJ:
Tidwell and Flores also shot and killed a victim on May 27, 2017, because the victim insulted MS-13. They chased down the victim’s car and shot the victim while the victim attempted to flee. On Sept. 24, 2017, Flores murdered a victim and other MS-13 members and associates lured the victim to a secluded location in Nashville, shot the victim, and placed the victim’s body in the trunk of a car. Flores then burned the car with the victim’s body in the trunk in Cheatham County, Tennessee.
As part of the years-long investigation, authorities determined that MS-13 gang members killed six more people in Nashville between 2016 and 2017. The suspects in those murders have all been convicted.
Several organizations, including federal law enforcement entities like the ATF, HSI, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, along with local law enforcement entities like the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, investigated the case.
The DOJ also detailed some of MS-13’s rules and organizational structure:
MS-13 dedicates its members to preserving and protecting the power, territory, reputation, and profits of the gang through the use of intimidation and violence, including murder and promoting the gang through acts of murder, robbery, drug trafficking, and other criminal activities.
MS-13 members are required to follow various rules, chief among them being that cooperation with law enforcement is strictly prohibited, and it is understood within the gang that anyone who assists police will be punished with death. Members are also 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. By committing murders, the defendants gained entrance into MS-13 or earned respect among the other members.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
Photo “Jorge Flores” and “Kevin Tidwell” by Metro Nashville Police Department.
Dangerous gangs in Nashville? Say it isn’t so John Cooper……