Two high-ranking members of a Montgomery and Prince George’s counties-based branch of the fearsome Salvador-based MS-13 gang were convicted of running a criminal racket and other charges by a federal jury Thursday.
Israel Ramos Cruz, 30, an illegal immigrant, was the leader of the local outpost of the gang, and Santos Maximo Garcia, 30, was the group’s treasurer. Garcia’s conviction doesn’t reach beyond the racketeering charges, but Cruz also has been convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, witness tampering, assault with a dangerous weapon and use of gun during a violent crime, among other charges.
“Joining MS-13 is a ticket to federal prison,” Rod Rosenstein, U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, said in a statement. “Forty-seven alleged MS-13 members have been charged with federal crimes in Maryland. The young men who were convicted today will probably spend the rest of their lives in federal prison.”
Defense attorneys had downplayed both the gang’s violent nature and the roles the two played during the course of the six-week trial.
But according to testimony, the two were involved in eight murders in Maryland, one in Virginia, numerous attempted murders, and assaults on an MS-13 gang member from El Salvador, juvenile females and rival gang members.
The two attended and ran numerous MS-13 meetings. During one meeting, members watched video of Prince George’s County gang investigators, identified the officers and discussed ways to retaliate against them, according to testimony.
In one particularly violent incident, Cruz gave the green light for fellow gang member Randy Calderon to be assassinated after Calderon stabbed and killed a rival gang member without permission and Cruz came to believe Calderon would go to the police. Calderon was told he would be celebrating his killing of the rival gang member by putting up graffiti, but before he removed the spray paint from his pocket, he was shot by an MS-13 member Cruz had sent to do the deed.
Eighteen MS-13 members have already been convicted as being part of this same conspiracy to operate a gang in Maryland, and a total of 30 have been charged.
Cruz faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison, and Garcia faces a maximum of life in prison.
