Short North Posse Fugitive Arrested In North Carolina

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Andre M. Brown, aka ‘Paco’, 33, of Columbus, Ohio was arrested this morning by FBI agents in Charlotte, North Carolina. Brown had been a fugitive since October 2014 when he was charged with nine counts in a superseding indictment that related to his role in the Short North Posse. With the arrest of Brown, there are no longer any indicted Short North Posse members at large.

Seventeen individuals were originally indicted in the racketeering case in July 2014. All of the defendants were accused of being an organized criminal enterprise known as the Short North Posse.

Brown was one of three more people indicted in October 2014 in connection with a series of violent crimes including 13 previously unsolved murders as well as other attempted murders, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, extortion and robbery. The addition to the indictment included an additional 23 felonies, including one murder and nine attempted murders.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Angela L. Byers, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Joseph P. Reagan, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Donald J. Soranno, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien, and Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs announced the arrest.

The superseding indictment which names Brown alleges that beginning in 2005, members of the enterprise originally referred to themselves solely as the Short North Posse. Later some members began subsets of the Short North Posse referring to themselves as the Cut Throat Committee and later the Homicide Squad. Still within the Short North Posse, Cut Throat Committee and Homicide Squad specialized in murders and robberies of rival gang members, other drug dealers, and targets thought to have large sums of cash or firearms. The Short North Posse also identified themselves nationally with the Crips street gang.

The superseding indictment was 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’s Office, and Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien’s Office. Fairfield County Prosecutor Gregg Marx, Licking County Prosecutor Kenneth Oswalt, Muskingum County Prosecutor D. Michael Haddox, Ross County Prosecutor Matthew S. Schmidt, law enforcement leaders from those counties, and officials of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction joined U.S. Attorney Stewart in announcing the original charges.

Brown was charged in the superseding indictment 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; one count of attempted possession with intent to distribute cocaine, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison; and three counts of possession with intent to distribute and one count of attempted possession with intent to distribute a detectable amount of marijuana, each crimes punishable by up to five years in prison.

Stewart commended Assistant United States Attorneys David DeVillers and Kevin Kelley and Special Assistant United States Attorney Brian Martinez, as well as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jimmy Lowe with Franklin County Prosecutor O’Brien’s Office, who are prosecuting the case.

Charges contained in an indictment are allegations. All defendants should be presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.