Elias Gudino: Ohio drug lord faces charges after 3 men were found bound, gagged and shot to death
COPLEY, OHIO: An Ohio man was arrested on Friday, March 10, after three bodies were found at two scenes a few miles from each other that same morning. The slain men had been bound and gagged and shot in the head. Elias Gudino, 58, who lives in Copley, was arrested and charged with one count of aggravated murder and one count of attempted aggravated murder.
While two of the bodies were discovered in Akron, Ohio, the third was found not far away in Copley, according to the Copley Police Department. It has now started a joint investigation with the Akron Police Department. Two of the bodies were reportedly discovered on the side of the road in wooded areas, Fox News reported.
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The men were possibly kidnapped
"On Friday, March 10, 2023, about 8:50 AM, the Copley Police Dispatch Center received a call reporting a body lying adjacent to the roadway in the 2100 block of Wright Road. Copley police officers arrived on the scene and discovered a deceased adult Hispanic male who had been bound and gagged. The male was lying close to the edge of the roadway and appeared to have been dumped there sometime overnight," Copley Police Department said in a press release, adding that the suspect was located the same day late in the afternoon.
On the day of his arrest, a passerby called Akron police after noticing two of the bodies dumped on Cordova Avenue in a wooded area running between the city street and a sound barrier blocking Interstate 77 North. Copley police received a similar call just about 20 minutes later about a body that was dumped off Wright Road, less than 2 miles away from the Cordova Avenue dump site.
Police believe the murdered men were possibly kidnapped and brought into Summit County. However, they said investigators believed the incidents were "isolated" and the community is not in danger any longer. The victims have not been identified and a motive has not been established yet.
Who is Elias Gudino?
According to public records, Gudino once owned La Michoacana Taqueria and a grocery in the 1400 block of Copley Road in West Akron. Court records revealed he was born in Mexico but became an American citizen after coming to the US in the 1980s.
Investigators zeroed in on Gudino after obtaining a search warrant for his Henetta Avenue home, according to Akron Beacon Journal. Gudino had reportedly been sentenced to 150 months in prison in 2010 after federal officials discovered and broke up a national drug ring he allegedly led from Akron. The ring was referred to as the 'Elias Gudino Drug Trafficking Organization,' as per court records.
Investigators gathered that Gudino had been trafficking drugs since the 1990s. He reportedly had an operation based in southern Mexico, but it spread across Colorado, Oklahoma, and other states. Investigators later found eight kilograms of cocaine hidden in a compartment near the radiator of a car they stopped. Gudino and another man were reportedly inside the vehicle. Gudino pleaded guilty to two federal charges involving drug trafficking some months later, and his 150-month prison sentence was followed by five years probation. He was released from prison in November 2017 but remained on probation for at least through May 2022.