Sentencing for six MS-13 gang members charged with racketeering conspiracy, narcotics conspiracy and the murder of four men concluded today in federal court.
The six defendants were allegedly members of MS-13’s Sitios Locos Salvatrucha clique which primarily operated in Northern Virginia.
Multiple MS-13 members and associates pleaded guilty prior to trial.
The six defendants, all of whom are Salvadoran nationals, were convicted and sentencing is complete. Five of the six defendants received multiple life sentences and will likely never return to life outside a prison cell.
- Marvin Menjivar Gutierrez, 32, of New York, was sentenced to multiple life sentences for racketeering conspiracy; murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; and use of firearm in federal violent crime resulting in death.
- Melvin Canales Saldana, 32, of New York, was sentenced to mulitiple life sentences for racketeering conspiracy; murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; and cocaine distribution.
- Cristian Arevalo Arias, 28, of Virginia, was sentenced to multiple life sentences for racketeering conspiracy; two counts of murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; two counts of use of firearm in federal violent crime resulting in death; witness tampering by killing; and cocaine distribution.
- Carlos Turcios Villatoro, 26, of Maryland, was sentenced to multiple life sentences for racketeering conspiracy; two counts of murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; two counts of use of firearm in federal violent crime resulting in death; and witness tampering by killing.
- Jairo Aguilera Sagastizado, 28, of New York, was sentenced to multiple life sentences for racketeering conspiracy; murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; and use of firearm in federal violent crime resulting in death.
- Manilester Andrade Rivas, 34, of Virginia, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for Racketeering conspiracy; conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; and cocaine distribution.
According to court documents and evidence presented in two trials, from 2017 through 2020, MS-13 members and associates regularly travelled to and from Long Island, New York, for the purpose of obtaining cocaine from Gutierrez, STLS’s leader in the United States. MS-13 members would transport the cocaine to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area to be sold in nightclubs and bars.
STLS used the proceeds of their cocaine sales to purchase more cocaine to sell, to buy weapons and to support other MS-13 members in the United States and El Salvador.
“These defendants, members of the violent MS-13 gang, sold drugs to fuel the gang’s business, surveilled and tracked rival gang members and even murdered innocent victims, all to increase the grip that MS-13 had on the community,” said Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s criminal division. “With today’s sentencing, we are holding these defendants accountable for the havoc they wreaked.”
In the spring of 2019, Gutierrez and Saldana, STLS’s second-in-command in the United States, ordered members to begin committing murders so that the junior members could rise in rank within MS-13 and amplify STLS’s prestige and control.
In June 2019, three MS-13 members, including Arias and Villatoro, lured two victims to a wooded area and murdered them by shooting and stabbing the victims. The MS-13 members believed one of the victims belonged to a rival gang, and then murdered the second victim to avoid leaving any witnesses to the murder.
“MS-13 represents a cycle of death in our society that cannot be tolerated and must be eradicated,” said U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia. “MS-13 sells the poisons that destroy communities, families, and lives and uses the profits to purchase the weapons they use to kill our people in the streets.”
In August 2019, Saldana ordered an MS-13 member to provide Arias with a firearm so other MS-13 members could find and kill any rival gang member. They travelled to the Glen Arbor Apartments in Woodbridge in the hopes of encountering and murdering a rival. They encountered a male victim, and they shot him to death.
In September 2019, Sagastizado travelled to Woodbridge from New York and spent hours driving around Northern Virginia and Maryland with two other MS-13 members looking for a rival gang member to murder at random so that they could rise in rank. Unable to find a rival, the group finally decided to murder a random person, whom they observed walking home from a 7-Eleven in Dumfries; he was shot multiple times and died.
“Members of MS-13 spread fear and violence throughout the country, often through senseless murders, but their control is not limitless,” said David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington field office.
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Crystal Graham
