The second-ranking leader of the D.C.-area Latin Kings gang has pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges, admitting he ran a violent criminal organization involved in drugs, prostitution and murder.
Remy Heath, 26, also known as “King Remy” and “King Mello,” faces a maximum of life in prison at his sentencing scheduled for May 27.
Federal prosecutors in Maryland called Heath an original member of the first Latin Kings gang in Maryland, known at first as the Royal Lion Tribe.
Heath, of Hyattsville, helped form the gang in 2007, and rose to a leadership position, serving as what the gang called the Second Crown, or “Cacique,” for the local gang.
In his plea agreement, Heath conceded the gang had thousands of members scattered across the United States and overseas, and he took his orders from bosses in New York and Chicago.
Heath was one of 18 Latin Kings members indicted in November 2009. Federal authorities captured most of the suspects but Heath was able to flea from authorities. He was arrested months later at a residence in Wyandanch, N.Y.
Authorities accused Heath and others of firebombing an occupied residence at the Marylander Condominiums in Langley Park, shooting up rival MS-13 members and agreeing to murder a security guard at an apartment complex.
In January 2009, Heath and three other gang leaders agreed to kill a female gang member for “snitching” on Latin Kings members in an explosives and weapons investigation. Heath and another leader then created a hit list of Maryland Latin Kings members suspected of betraying the group, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the gang members fired shots at MS-13 members, and robbed the home of a drug dealer at the Marylander Condominiums and a prostitute at a motel in Laurel, prosecutors said.
Gang members who wavered from the strict gang code were also punished, prosecutors said. Gang leaders sliced one member with a knife for violating gang rules and tried to shoot another victim in the leg for wanting to leave the Latin Kings, prosecutors said.
