CLAYTON, Mo. -- Several members of a St. Louis-area motorcycle gang have been charged in the killings of three men who disappeared mysteriously in 2007 and whose remains were later found.

Three members of the Invaders gang have been charged with murder and two others are facing charges connected to the 2007 slayings, St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch said Tuesday.

According to prosecutors, Stephen "Sticky Steve" Morris and Herman "Oz" Ozwalt picked up one of the victims, fellow gang member Alan Little, 61, at a prison following his release that May. They drove Little to his home and shot and killed him, authorities said. Little's remains were found in a Ste. Genevieve County sinkhole in April 2009 on property that had recently belonged to a parent of one of the gang members.

Prosecutors say Ozwalt and another gang member, Edward "Special Ed" Boroughf, shot and killed 39-year-old Randy Greenman and 36-year-old George Whitter after summoning Greenman to Boroughf's home that September.

Boroughf and Ozwalt shot Greenman, who was involved in a marijuana distribution operation the gang was running, then found out that Whitter was waiting in Greenman's car and killed him too, McCulloch said.

Raymond Bodway helped Boroughf and Ozwalt dispose of the bodies, the prosecutor said.

McCulloch said Little and Greenman were killed for disobeying the gang's protocol over its drug operation, and that Whitter was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan said some defendants cooperated with federal authorities during a marijuana investigation, helping to break the murder cases.

Boroughf pleaded guilty in October to two federal firearms charges and a charge of conspiracy to distribute in excess of 1,000 kilograms of marijuana. He was sentenced in July to 21 years in federal prison.

Morris, 47, of St. Mary, was charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the killing of Little.

Boroughf, 40, of St. Louis County, was charged with one count of first-degree murder and one count of armed criminal action in the killing of Little, two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action, one count of second-degree arson and two counts of hindering prosecution in the killings of Greenman and Whitter.

Ozwalt, 63, of Eureka, faces two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action and one count of hindering prosecution in the killings of all three men.

Eugene Smith, 55, of St. Louis, was charged with one count of second-degree arson and one count of hindering prosecution.

Bodway, 38, of St. Louis County was charged with hindering prosecution.

It wasn't clear if the men had attorneys. Missouri's online courts website, Missouri Case.net, has not been updated with details on this case, and phone messages seeking comment left at McCulloch's office were not immediately returned.

It also wasn't clear where the defendants were being held. A St. Louis County jail spokesman said only Bodway was jailed there. He did not return a later message seeking comment.