Washington, DC…Eight illegal aliens and members of the violent transnational criminal organization Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13, have been sentenced for participating in a racketeering conspiracy that included witness tampering and multiple murders of individuals as young as 14.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese defendants, acting on behalf of a transnational criminal gang, carried out brutal murders, killing victims with machetes, baseball bats, and their bare hands, and then glorifying their violent acts by sending photos of their carnage to MS-13 leaders in El Salvador,\u201d said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department\u2019s Criminal Division. \u201cThe Department commends the brave law enforcement officers and those who came forward to help law enforcement to resolve these cases. The lengthy sentences imposed send an unmistakable message that MS-13 and its accompanying violence are not welcome in the United States. The Criminal Division will relentlessly pursue MS-13 and hold those accountable who bring MS-13 violence to American communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s sentences send a clear message \u2013 those who carry out violence for transnational criminal organizations will be held accountable, no matter where the orders come from,\u201d said Acting U.S. Attorney John G.E. Marck for the Southern District of Texas. \u201cThese defendants used brutality to advance within their criminal enterprise, and now they face the consequences.\u00a0The Southern District of Texas will diligently continue working to dismantle violent criminal gangs that threaten our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis case centers on when MS-13 violence was at its peak in Houston. These gang members are among the most ruthless and violent criminals we\u2019ve seen. They made our communities their killing fields,\u201d said Special Agent in Charge Jason Hudson of the FBI Houston Field Office. \u201cToday\u2019s hefty sentences should send a message to other violent terrorist organizations that the rule of law and justice will eventually catch up to you. This investigation, and today\u2019s sentences, would not have been possible if it weren\u2019t for our partnerships with the Houston Police Department, the Harris County Sheriff\u2019s Office, and our law enforcement partners in El Salvador.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAll eight of these MS-13 gang members illegally entered the country \u2013 including Aguilar Ochoa who illegally entered the U.S. four times \u2013 and went on to reign terror on our local communities,\u201d said Acting Special Agent in Charge Erin Burke of Immigration and Customs Enforcement \u2013 Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Houston. \u201cWorking in conjunction with our partners, we were able to bring an end to the lawlessness that they\u2019ve spread and hold them accountable for their depraved actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, Edgardo Martinez-Rodriguez also known as Largo, 35, was sentenced to 50 years in prison and Wilman Rivas-Guido also known as Inquieto, 30, was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Six other MS-13 members have been sentenced to lengthy terms of imprisonment in connection with this case: Miguel Angel Aguilar-Ochoa also known as Darki, 40, Wilson Jose Ventura-Mejia also known as Discreto, 30, and Walter Chicas-Garcia, 28, each received 50-year sentences. Marlon Miranda Moran, 26, was ordered to serve 35 years in prison, while Luis Ernesto Carbajal-Peraza, 34, and Carlos Garcia-Gongora, 28, were ordered to serve 45 years in prison. All have been and will remain in custody.<\/p>\n
All are El Salvadoran nationals illegally present in the United States. They previously pleaded guilty, admitting to being members of MS-13 and participating in a criminal enterprise responsible for murders, extortion, drug trafficking, robbery and obstruction of justice in and around the Houston area from 2017 through 2018. In February 2025, the U.S. State Department designated MS-13 as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. MS-13 engages in violent criminal activity across the United States, including in Texas, Virginia, Maryland, New York and California, and throughout the countries where it operates, such as El Salvador and Honduras. MS-13 routinely uses intimidation and violence, including murder and assault with deadly weapons like machetes, baseball bats, firearms, and ligature strangulation, all to maintain power, reputation and territory.<\/p>\n
According to court documents and statements made in court, Martinez-Rodriguez and Rivas-Guido, who were sentenced today after admitting<\/a>\u00a0to involvement in murder ordered and approved by high-ranking MS-13 leaders in El Salvador, who at times monitored executions by phone. Members carried out the murders to increase or maintain rank within the gang and targeted individuals believed to be rival gang members, law enforcement cooperators or people working against MS-13\u2019s interests. After the murders, members sent photos of the victims\u2019 bodies to leadership in El Salvador as proof of the executions and in an effort to rise in rank, sometimes further mutilating or dismembering the bodies before sending the photos.\u00a0<\/a>Martinez-Rodriguez was a high-ranking leader in the conspiracy and initiated numerous murders ordered and approved by MS-13 leaders in El Salvador.<\/p>\n FBI and HSI conducted the investigation with assistance from police departments in Houston and Galveston, Texas, and Prince George\u2019s County in Maryland; Sheriff\u2019s offices in Harris and Liberty Counties in Texas; Texas Department of Public Safety; University of North Texas Center for Human Identification; U.S. Marshals Service and Texas Office of the Attorney General.<\/p>\n Trial Attorneys C\u00e9sar S. Rivera-Giraud and Ben Tonkin of the Criminal Division\u2019s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Keri Fuller and former Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Britni Verdeja for the Southern District of Texas prosecuted this case.<\/p>\n This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force nationwide initiative, which is a White House directed, interagency effort to integrate federal, state, and local partners in targeting transnational criminal organizations, and led by the prosecutorial Joint Task Force Vulcan.<\/p>\n This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Washington, DC…Eight illegal aliens and members of the violent transnational criminal organization Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13, have been sentenced for participating in a racketeering conspiracy that included witness tampering and multiple murders of individuals as young as 14. \u201cThese defendants, acting on behalf of a transnational criminal gang, carried out brutal murders, killing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":145522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,16,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-law-enforcement","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/FBIDOJ.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=201009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201010,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201009\/revisions\/201010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/145522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=201009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=201009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=201009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}