The man who authorities says headed up the violent Mara Salvatrucha street gang in the Washington area faces up to 160 years in prison after a federal jury found him guilty of trying to kill rival gang members.
Dennis L. Gil Bernardez, 33, of Landover will be sentenced Oct. 16 at U.S. District Court in Alexandria. Also found guilty in the attacks was 18-year-old MS-13 member Jose M. Aguilar Orantes of Reston. He faces 95 years behind bars.
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Their convictions Thursday brings to seven the number of MS-13 members convicted of murder this year in Alexandria federal court.
Gang leaders in El Salvador sent Bernardez into Northern Virginia because the gang there, the Western Locos Salvatrucha, was not “representing,” or handling gang business properly, according to FBI agents. Bernardez, an illegal immigrant, headed up the Normandie Locos Salvatrucha, the D.C. and Prince George’s County clique.
On Oct. 6, Bernardez and Aguilar Orantes went to Reston to kill members of the 18th Street gang that previously had assaulted Aguilar Orantes, prosecutors said.
Bernardez and Aguilar Orantes approached the rival gang members at a park.
“Which ones?” Bernardez asked Aguilar Orantes in Spanish. Aguilar pointed to an 18th Street gang member who had recently moved to Virginia from California.
Bernardez pulled a handgun from his waistband and fired one shot, but the bullet went through the California gangster’s sweat shirt, police said.
He turned the gun toward another man, shooting him twice in the back, police said.
A third man held up his hands and said, “I am not in their gang. I have no problem with you.”
Bernardez turned to walk away, then spun back around and said, “I can’t leave any evidence.” He shot the third man in the back and buttocks, according to police.
Police were able to track down the weapon, a .357-caliber revolver, after Bernardez gave it to MS-13 member in Richmond to get rid of. That gangster sold the revolver to a man with the understanding that the gun would be hidden in an auto frame and shipped out of the country. That man turned out to be an FBI informant posing as a MS-13 member.
