Racketeering Case Includes 4 Murders
By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Three leaders of the violent street gang Mara Salvatrucha collectively participated in or planned four Washington area murders during a span of about two years, a federal prosecutor said yesterday as the second racketeering trial involving members of the gang got underway in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.
One of the defendants, Omar "Duke" Vasquez, told FBI agents that he met with leaders of the gang, known as MS-13, in prison in El Salvador to ask them to halt the "green light" to kill his brother, a fellow gang member, Assistant U.S. Attorney James M. Trusty said during the hearing.
Vasquez, 28, later told FBI agents that the leaders agreed to call off the hit, and Vasquez agreed in return to go to Mexico to oversee an MS-13 enterprise in which gang members robbed trains, Trusty said.
Trusty, echoing a theme sounded by federal prosecutors last fall during the trial of two other defendants in the MS-13 case, said that the gang abides by the ethos, "rape, kill, and control." It "uses guns, uses knives, machetes. This gang works together locally, nationally, even internationally," Trusty said.
In their opening statements, defense attorneys for Vasquez and co-defendants Henry S. "Homeboy" Zelaya, 20, and Jose "Piranha" Cruz Diaz, 27, said federal prosecutors were trying to convict their clients by describing the actions of the gang.
"MS-13 is not a defendant in this case," said Manuel J. Retureta, the defense attorney for Cruz Diaz.
Timothy Mitchell, Zelaya's defense attorney, suggested that the government was "overreaching" by portraying MS-13 as an international conspiracy.
"Is it really, as the government would suggest to you, a highly-organized enterprise?" Mitchell said.
The racketeering prosecution is part of a broad investigative and legal offensive launched against the gang in 2005 by federal, state and local authorities.
As recently as five years ago, MS-13, which consists primarily of immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and other Latin American countries, was not widely known outside of law enforcement circles. In recent years, law enforcement officials have attributed dozens of local homicides and nonfatal assaults to the gang, with most of the attacks occurring in suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia.
In 2005, federal prosecutors in Maryland charged 22 alleged MS-13 gang members under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The RICO indictment alleges that members of the gang killed six people and attempted to kill four others between April 2003 and June 2005 in Prince George's and Montgomery counties.
On Nov. 14, a federal jury in Greenbelt convicted two defendants, Edgar Alberto Ayala, 29, known as "Pony," and Oscar Ramos Velasquez, 21, known as "Casper." Both face a maximum sentence of life in prison and will be sentenced in May. Nine other defendants have pleaded guilty to racketeering or other charges.
In his opening statement yesterday, Trusty said Zelaya killed a gang rival, Noel B. Gudiel, who was fatally shot in Langley Park on April 20, 2003. According to charging documents from Prince George's police, five MS-13 members beat and kicked Gudiel. When Gudiel fell to his knees, Zelaya shot him, Trusty said.
The other homicide victims cited in the trial are Randy "Fenix" Calderon and Eliuth Madrigal, both killed in Montgomery on Nov. 22, 2003, and Anthony Campos, who was killed in Fairfax County on Jan. 21, 2005.
Trusty said Zelaya founded a local MS-13 clique, the Teclas faction. The group works with and supports other MS-13 factions, such as the Sailors, with the groups sharing guns and information on law enforcement efforts, the prosecutor said.
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