The notoriously violent MS-13 gang is starting to shed members in the Washington region because gang members fear prosecution and stiff prison terms, federal prosecutors said in recently filed court documents.
On Friday, 20-year-old Antonio Barrera became the latest MS-13 member to receive a lengthy prison term when he was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the role he played in two Northern Virginia gang shootings. Barrera, an illegal immigrant, pleaded guilty to his role in the shootings in January. Sentences like Barrera’s are starting to have an effect on MS-13 members in Northern Virginia, prosecutors said.
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“In recent months, multiple MS-13 members from the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area have stated that their reason for severing ties from the gang is because of the prosecution and lengthy incarceration of their fellow gang members who committed and supported violent acts,” assistant U.S. attorneys in Alexandria wrote in court documents.
The office declined to comment further.
The two MS-13 members who participated in an Oct. 6, 2008, Reston shooting with Barrera also received stiff sentences after a jury convicted them of their roles in July.
Dennis Gil Bernandez, who opened fire at two rival gang members and an innocent bystander in a Reston park on Oct. 6, 2008, was sentenced to 80 years in prison. The shots permanently injured the bystander and one of the rival gang members.
Barrera and Jose Aguilar Orantes were with Bernandez when he started shooting. Orantes was sentenced to 55 years in prison.
In his guilty plea, Barrera also admitted to opening fire from the back of a car at a group of people standing on a Loudoun County street on Sept. 17, 2008. Barrera believed the group was composed of rival gang members.
The shots that rang out from Barrera’s revolver wounded three people, one whom remains paralyzed from the waist down, authorities said.
