“I have to find a permanent solution for [an enemy],” Cecchetelli wrote to other suspected members of the gang’s leadership in late 2018. “We can’t even go old school and merk [kill] the [expletive] because the whole world and every fed in it knows he’s my arch-enemy. I’m gonna have to somehow expose him . . . [Expletive] it, in honor of Al Capone we will reenact the Valentine’s Day massacre.”

One would be “having his party tonight” — assaulted that day, Cecchetelli told a gang member who was secretly cooperating with investigators. Killing the second was more complicated, he wrote.

Two Latin Kings members had disrespected Michael Cecchetelli, the alleged kingpin of the notorious gang’s East Coast operations. Cecchetelli, a 40-year-old from Springfield with ties to the Genovese crime family, decided both had to die, according to an FBI affidavit.


Cecchetelli was one of more than 60 suspected members of the Latin Kings indicted on federal charges Thursday following a five-year racketeering investigation that used informants to infiltrate the highest levels of the gang’s leadership, recording the group’s meetings and preventing at least eight murders, federal prosecutors said at a news conference in Boston.

“We were able to take down nearly all of the leadership,” said US Attorney Andrew Lelling. “It will be extremely difficult for the gang to regroup in the region.”

Lelling called the Latin Kings one of the largest criminal organizations in the world, with “literally thousands of members” involved in murder, drug dealing, gun offenses, and other crimes.

Starting well before dawn Thursday, more than 500 law enforcement officers swept across the state to arrest 47 suspected gang members from Boston to Springfield, Lelling said. They focused on New Bedford, where Lelling said gang members were “brazenly issuing threats to rival gangs over social media.”

“Violence and a known pattern of witness intimidation emboldened the Latin Kings in Massachusetts, but especially in New Bedford,” Lelling said.


Nine people who were charged were already in custody; eight remained at large.

As they searched homes they described as “trap houses,” investigators found two teenage boys who had been reported missing: a 14-year-old from New Bedford and a 16-year-old from Fall River. Lelling declined to provide details.

Investigators also found evidence the Latin Kings were behind the killing of Mario Oviedo, an 18-year-old from Mattapan who was shot Easter Sunday in 2009. They seized dozens of firearms, six cars, six motorcycles, jet-skis, and an ATV, Lelling said.

One of the people charged was Shaun O. Harrison, a former English High dean in Boston who is serving more than 20 years in prison for shooting a 17-year-old student he had enlisted to sell marijuana for him. The student survived.

From prison, Harrison allegedly helped Latin Kings members try to identify confidential informants, officials said. His lawyer in the prior state case did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday.

Cecchetelli ran the alleged criminal enterprise like a well-organized business, Lelling said. Gang members who ran afoul of leadership were listed in spreadsheets. Discussions about violence were sometimes conducted via e-mail. Members were expected to gather proof of other members’ cooperation with police, sometimes through police reports or court records. They lived by a strict code, and had their own legal system for people who broke it.


Cecchetelli is accused of conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs though a pattern of racketeering activity, better known as a RICO charge.

No lawyer was listed for Cecchetelli in court filings Thursday morning.

Joseph R. Bonavolonta, the FBI special agent in charge of the Boston office, told reporters that Cecchetelli has blood ties to the Genovese crime family and ran the Latin Kings, known formally as the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation, like the Mafia.

Cecchetelli was in charge of Latin Kings operations from Massachusetts to Florida, he said.

Investigators on Thursday seized three houses in New Bedford, where the gang stored guns and drugs and shot music videos boasting of its exploits, Bonavolonta said. The owner of the buildings has been charged for his alleged role in supporting the gang’s operations.

The arrests happened in Boston, Springfield, New Bedford, Fitchburg, Chelsea, Worcester, Lowell, and Lawrence, as well as in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Seven FBI SWAT teams and three tactical teams from the State Police and Boston Police Department were on hand to arrest those who agents considered most dangerous.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, a former federal prosecutor, praised investigators for their efforts.

“I am grateful for the work of the US Attorney’s Office, along with the FBI and state and local law enforcement agencies, in undertaking such a comprehensive effort to neutralize the activities of the Latin Kings across New England,” Mitchell said.

“Over the last several years, New Bedford has made considerable progress on improving public safety citywide, and the arrests today in our city will help us close the lid on violent crime.”


Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @TAGlobe.