Ex-Member Of MS-13 Wore a Wire For Agents

At the meeting, one gang member lamented "that crazy vato loco is busting everybody," according to the transcript. Vato loco is Spanish slang for crazy guy. Cruz said this was a reference to county police Detective Felipe Ordoño, a gang investigator who was Cruz's handler. At the time, Ordoño was arresting many gang members, Cruz said.

There was talk of another officer, and one gang member said, "There's a lot of status for one of those cops, you know," according to the transcript. Cruz explained that whoever killed an officer would gain much respect within MS-13.

Someone turned on a TV, and a video was played. It showed Ordoño, Roberto Acevedo, who at the time was a county police officer, and Todd Okray, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, in the Langley Park area, Cruz said. Okray is the lead agent in the racketeering investigation.

No attempts on the lives of the three law enforcement officers have been reported.

Cruz testified that he joined MS-13 at 14 in his native El Salvador. He was initiated into the gang by being "jumped in," or beaten, by fellow gang members. He came to Maryland the same year and joined a local MS-13 clique, the Sailors, which entailed another initiation beating, Cruz said.

Cruz said that he became disenchanted with the gang after the Nov. 22, 2003, murder of friend and fellow gang member Randy "Fenix" Calderon in Montgomery County. Cruz said he learned at a gang meeting that Juan Carlos "Stokey" Moriera, also an MS-13 member, shot Calderon. Moriera is charged in the indictment.

At the meeting, gang leaders explained that Calderon was killed because he had fatally stabbed a rival gang member inside the Silver Spring apartment of an MS-13 leader, Cruz said. Gang members were not upset about the murder but were upset that Calderon did it inside the apartment of a gang leader, Cruz testified.

In December 2003, Cruz was charged with assaulting his girlfriend, a charge that was later dropped, Cruz said. After Cruz was released from jail, Ordoño visited him, and he began talking about gang activities because of the Calderon killing, Cruz said.

In August 2005, when federal agents and police arrested nearly two dozen MS-13 members under an indictment, Cruz said he was picked up, too, to maintain his cover. He testified that the government has relocated him.