Latest defendant convicted of MD-13 gang activity with watercraft murders

Lina Portman3 weeks ago

3 3 minutes read

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA — The final defendant was sentenced Tuesday in a major MS-13 gang case that included four homicides, two of which were reported in Prince William County.

Six defendants were convicted in two federal trials and sentenced to prison. All but one of the defendants received multiple life sentences.

Prosecutors say all six defendants were part of MS-13's Sitios Locos Salvatrucha clique, which spread across northern Virginia and other locations. Between at least 2017 and 2020, gang members traveled to Long Island, New York, to obtain cocaine from Marvin Menjivar Gutierrez, the leader of the gang's clique in the United States. The cocaine was then transported to the Washington DC area and sold in nightclubs and bars with the profits used to sell more cocaine, buy weapons and help other MS-13 gang members in the United States and in El Salvador.

In spring 2019, Menjivar Gutierrez and his second-in-command Melvin Canales Saldana ordered gang members to start killing in order to help younger members rise through the ranks and boost the clique's reputation, prosecutors say. The first murder was carried out by three gang members, including defendants Cristian Arevalo Arias and Carlos Turcios Villatoro. Prosecutors say two victims were lured to a wooded area, shot and stabbed by gang members. Gang members believed one of the victims belonged to a rival gang and the second victim was killed to eliminate witnesses.

The third victim was killed in Woodbridge in August 2019. Arevalo Arias, Manilester Andrade Rivas and others went to the Glen Arbor Apartments in Woodbridge to search for rivals, leading Arevalo Arias to fatally shoot a victim.

The following month, defendant Jairo Aguilera Sagastizado traveled from New York to Woodbridge and spent hours traveling through Northern Virginia and Maryland with two other gang members looking for rivals to kill. When they were unable to find a rival, they shot dead a victim who was walking home from a 7-Eleven in Dumfries.

“MS-13 represents a cycle of death in our society that cannot be tolerated and must be eradicated. MS-13 sells the poisons that destroy communities, families and lives, and uses the profits to buy the weapons that “They are using it to kill our people in the streets,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Jessica D. Aber said in a statement. “That’s why federal, state, and local law enforcement is employing a coordinated, comprehensive, and strategic approach to systematically dismantle these organizations and end their ability to do harm.”

Defendants convicted in the MS-13 case include:

Marvin Menjivar Gutierrez, 32, of New York, received multiple life sentences

Convicted of racketeering conspiracy; murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; use of a firearm during a federal violent crime resulting in death

Melvin Canales Saldana, 32, of New York, received multiple life sentences

Convicted of racketeering conspiracy; murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; distribution of cocaine

Cristian Arevalo Arias, 28, of Virginia, received multiple life sentences

Convicted of 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 using a firearm in federal violent crimes resulting in death; witness tampering by killing; distribution of cocaine

Carlos Turcios Villatoro, 26, Maryland, received multiple life sentences

Convicted of 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 a firearm in federal violent crimes resulting in death; witness tampered with by killing

Jairo Aguilera Sagastizado, 28, of New York, received multiple life sentences

Manilester Andrade Rivas, 34, of Virginia, was sentenced to 14 years in prison

Convicted of racketeering conspiracy; conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; distribution of cocaine