Three alleged gang members were indicted Friday in the killing of a Cape Cod woman who had testified against the so-called Nauti-Block drug ring, according to the Barnstable district attorney’s office.
The body of 28-year-old Christine Ferreira of Hyannis was found with gunshot and stab wounds at a rest area in Barnstable off Route 6 last September
Tara Miltimore, spokeswoman for District Attorney Michael O’Keefe, said Denzel W. Chisholm, 25, of Yarmouth; his sister, Shannell K. Chisholm, 27, of Mashpee; and Tyrone A. Gomes, 30, of Hyannis, are accused of killing Ferreira in retaliation for her 2011 testimony against a Nauti member who was convicted and sent to prison, according to authorities.
The Chisholms and Gomes were arrested in April as part of a larger federal and local investigation into the Nauti group that resulted in 13 people arrested on federal drug and gun charges.
All three were indicted on charges of murder, kidnapping (with use of a firearm or dangerous weapon, for Denzel Chisholm), intimidation of a witness, and conspiracy.
Denzel Chisholm was additionally indicted on a charge of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, subsequent offense for possession of a firearm without a license, two counts of assault and battery with serious injury, and being an armed career criminal, according to the district attorney’s office.
The defendants will be arraigned at Barnstable District Court in the coming weeks, Miltimore said.
The Nauti group sold blue-tinted heroin and used threats and violence to obtain cooperation from anyone in their way, said authorities.
Ferreira had struggled with drug addiction, according to her mother, Germana Ferreira.
In an interview with the Globe shortly after the murder, the elder Ferreira said her daughter might have testified because investigators warned her that she could face arrest if she did not.
Nicole Fleming can be reached at nicole.fleming@globe.com.
