PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — A plot to kill two prosecutors, a witness and rival gang members unraveled after the man who was supposed to carry out the murders became a federal informant.
Kareem Pires of Massachusetts pleaded not guilty Monday in Rhode Island U.S. District Court to his alleged role in the interstate murder plan. He’s accused of plotting to kill two rival gang members, along with a witness tied to a separate drug trafficking case against Elijah Melton, a co-defendant in the murder-for-hire conspiracy.
“The witness was to be killed with a firearm and the use of a silencer that [Pires] was to have provided,” assistant U.S. attorney Stacey Erickson said during Pires’ arraignment.
Erickson said Melton and Pires are fellow gang members in Brockton and they had also planned to kill two rivals as part of the scheme. Separately, Melton is also accused of plotting to kill two Massachusetts federal prosecutors. Melton is scheduled to be arraigned on July 10.