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Authorities have charged a suspected gang member with threatening to assault a police officer, police and court documents show.

Ricardo L. Rodriguez, 33, threatened a Lubbock police officer who was investigating his involvement in a June 5 hit-and-run car accident on the 1500 block of 42nd Street., according to the documents.

He told the officer he would "put a hit" on him through his gang, the Mexican Mafia, a police complaint reads. He also reportedly told the officer he would "wipe out" his wife and "----" him up when he got out of jail.

Texas prosecutors have claimed Hispanic inmates created the gang - also known as the Texas Mexican Mafia or Mexikanemi or La Eme - in the state prison system in the mid-1980s to protect themselves from other inmates.

Rodriguez was arrested earlier this month for failing to report the damage to the car on 42nd Street. A Lubbock County district attorney filed retaliation charges against him on Monday.

Retaliation is a third degree felony and carries a possible punishment of two to 10 years, said Capt. Greg Stevens, a spokesperson with the Lubbock Police Department.

A person can be convicted for making retaliatory threats to public servants, witnesses and informants under the Texas Penal Code.

Rodriguez is being held at the Lubbock County Jail on an $18,500 bond for his alleged crimes.