Six face federal drug, firearms charges

By Sara Jean Green,
Seattle Times staff reporter

February 16, 2006

SEATTLE – Six members of an East African gang operating in Seattle’s University District are facing federal drug-trafficking and firearms charges after the latest in a series of arrests that have netted drugs, cash and weapons.

More arrests are expected as federal agents and Seattle police continue their investigation of a gang known as the East African Posse, Seattle police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said at a news conference Monday.

During the arrest of four of the six men that took place last week, officers also seized two vehicles, $70,000 cash, 800 grams of cocaine with an estimated street value of $56,000 and three weapons — two handguns and an SKS assault rifle with a folding bayonet.

“The results are as good as they get,” Kerlikowske said, referring to the months-long investigation conducted by the Violent Gang Task Force, a multi-agency group led by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), with members from the FBI and the Seattle Police Department. “More will flow from this.”

Last year, police officials held dozens of meetings with University District business owners and residents who complained about drug dealing and frequent gunfire in the area. The visibility and violence of gang members in the neighborhood intimidated citizens, Kerlikowske said.

“The people who’ve been impacted by drug dealing and violence, we couldn’t tell them what was going on,” he said.

The East African Posse is one of 30 known gangs in the Seattle area. But based on members’ volume of drug dealing and the violence they employ, “I’d put them in the top five,” the chief said. The gang, he said, “is an embarrassment” to immigrants from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia who make up Seattle’s East African community.

John McKay, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, said the cases against members and associates of the East African Posse are being prosecuted federally to ensure they will face significant prison time if convicted.

There are at least six other cases now pending in U.S. District Court as a result of the investigation into the East African Posse that’s been dubbed “Operation End Game,” Kerlikowske said. In addition to “open-air drug dealing,” a handful of the gang’s members have already been charged with kidnapping, assault and prostitution.

The chief said detectives are looking at possible links between the gang and at least one unsolved homicide.

Though Kerlikowske declined to discuss the homicide, police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said it was “a good bet” the chief was referring to the slaying last May of 21-year-old Demsas Tesfay, a member of Seattle’s Eritrean community. Tesfay was fatally shot while sitting inside a parked sport-utility vehicle in the 4200 block of Pasadena Place Northeast.

According to court documents filed in U.S. District Court, Yohannes Ambachew, who in November pleaded guilty to possession of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute, “is currently under investigation with respect to his potential role in a gang-related homicide which occurred in 2005 in the University District” — another apparent reference to the Tesfay shooting.

He is to be sentenced in April on the drug charge and will likely face a 10-year prison sentence, according to court documents.

In another recent case, three men, Daniel Malede Ambaw, Kahsay Mamo Abraha and Matthew Alex Erickson, were arrested in August on a 10-count indictment. The charges included allegations of drug violations, assault and kidnapping, including the kidnapping of a teenage girl and a woman who were taken from Everett to Los Angeles so they could become prostitutes, court documents say.

A total of 14 people have been arrested so far, though several suspects remain at large, including two of the six men named in the 32-count indictment filed last month.

The four men arrested last week are Tewoldeberhan Mekonnen, Daniel Mengisteab Yohannes, Robel Mekonen and Liban Farah Ali. Officers are still looking for Awad Yimer Aynisher and Merhawi Hagos Haile.

“We think we’ve made a significant dent in their infrastructure,” said ATF Special Agent-in-Charge, Kelvin Crenshaw. The majority of suspects already in custody are naturalized U.S. citizens, he said.