MS-13 Gang in Nashville: Gang Member Sentenced to 19 Years in Prison for Racketeering

Officials in Nashville, Tennessee recently announced that a member of the gang MS-13, or La Mara Salvatrucha as they are known, was sentenced to nearly 20 years (235 months) in prison for his role in a racketeering operation.

The MS-13 gang member, Geovanni Pena was also known by the name Rata. Pena admitted to participating in gang activities in the Nashville area. Some of their racketeering activities included attempted murder and murder.

On January 10, 2007 a federal grand jury in Tennessee indicted members of the MS-13 gang for racketeering activities in the Nashville metropolitan region. The indictment charged 14 different members of the local MS-13 gang with a variety of criminal activities.

Some of the various crimes the MS-13 gang has been charged with committing include attempted murder, assault, murder, obstruction of justice, and weapons charges in addition to participating in racketeering activities.

Pena plead guilty to several of the charges that were filed against him. These charges included being a member of the MS-13 gang. Thinking that people in a crowd were members of a rival street gang, Pena shot his handgun into a crowd of innocent people. Two people were wounded.

He also admitted to shooting another person in the back on September 4, 2006 at the Percy Priest Lake in Nashville. He suspected that the person he shot was in the rival street gang named 18th Street.

While Pena is the first member of the local MS-13 gang to be sentenced, a total of seven of the gang members plead guilty to the racketeering charges that were filed against them. The trial for the remaining seven gang members is scheduled for April 8, 2008.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jimmie Lynn Ramsaur of the Middle District of Tennessee and Department of Justice Trial Attorneys David Jaffe and John Han from the Criminal Division's Gang Squad prosecuted Pena. His sentencing was imposed by Chief U.S. District Judge Todd J. Campbell of the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville, Tennessee.