A federal grand jury in California added nine people allegedly connected to the MS-13 gang to an indictment regarding a series of previously unsolved homicides, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
The indictment, which was filed on Aug. 5 and unsealed this week after four of the defendants were arrested, alleges the defendants participated in the murders of four people, including one victim whose remains were found during a wildfire 10 months later.
The charges added to an expansive July 16 indictment that had already charged nearly two dozen MS-13 gang members and alleged associates whom prosecutors accuse of being involved in various killings, according to a Justice Department news release.
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The superseding indictment including Wednesday’s nine additions now names 31 defendants, including 21 who were charged with conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. This charge alleges nearly 300 “overt acts,” including murder, drug trafficking, and extortion, Wednesday’s indictment added.
Prosecutors accuse a number of the defendants of shooting or hacking to death a total of 11 people. Five of the victims were hacked to death in the Angeles National Forest, according to court documents.
The indictment claims that the killings were carried out “for the purpose of gaining entry to and maintaining and increasing position in MS-13 Los Angeles,” court documents said.
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The defendants are allegedly connected to MS-13 Los Angeles’s Fulton clique, which the Justice Department described as “a particularly violent subset of MS-13 that operates in the San Fernando Valley and has been bolstered by an influx of young immigrants from Central America.”
Representatives for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
