Member of violent Third World Mob gang sentenced to 17.5 years in prison

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A Third World Mob (3WM) drug dealer was sentenced in federal court here today to 210 months in prison. Members of the gang were responsible for trafficking more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana.

Teddy Asefa, 37, of Columbus, pleaded guilty in August 2024 less than a week before his jury trial was scheduled to commence. Asefa admitted to trafficking drugs and to committing wire fraud.

According to court documents, Asefa was part of the leadership of the gang. The Third World Mob dealt no less than 500 pounds of marijuana per month from 2015 through October 2022 with total profits of at least $94 million. The gang was subject to a years-long investigation by federal law enforcement.

Third World Mob members brought hundreds of pounds of marijuana into Ohio from other states like California and Georgia to sell in central Ohio. They used U-Haul trucks and rental cars to move the drugs. Coconspirators used rental houses or houses leased or owned in other individuals' names as "stash houses" or "trap houses" to facilitate the drug trafficking and to store significant amounts of cash from the drug proceeds.

For example, in August 2019, gang members possessed a suitcase with approximately $940,000 in cash in it in a house on Phlox Avenue in Blacklick.

Third World Mob leaders and members used violence and the threat of violence to maintain authority over their drug trafficking. Sentencing documents detail that multiple deaths had a nexus to the gang. One person who was killed was thought to owe them money. Another was a Third World Mob member murdered at a house on Reeb Avenue. Several people thought to be at the house the night of that murder were themselves murdered within a few months. Another Third World compatriot was murdered in a drug deal gone bad in front of a Third World Mob stash house on 12th Avenue.

Additionally, Asefa fraudulently obtained at least $16,000 in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, claiming to work in customer service.

In total, seven members of the Third World Mob have been charged federally since 2021. Fellow member Menelik Solomon pleaded guilty in November 2023 and was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison. Klegewerges Abate and Abubakarr Savage were convicted by a jury and found guilty on all counts in August 2024. Another defendant stood trial with Abate and Savage and was acquitted of the single obstruction of justice charge against him. Abate has since been sentenced to more than 25 years in prison and Savage was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.

Dominick S. Gerace II, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Jason Cromartie, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; Joseph O. Dixon, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Detroit; and Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin announced the sentence imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr. U.S. Attorney Gerace recognized the assistance from the Columbus, Whitehall and Tucson, Arizona, police departments and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Elizabeth A. Geraghty and S. Courter Shimeall are representing the United States in this case.

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