A member of a violent Hispanic gang was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the abduction and beating death of a 15-year-old boy and the killing of a 24-year-old man.
Joel “Clon” Ventura-Quintanilla, 25, was a member of the 18th Street gang, which originated in Los Angeles by immigrants from Central America. Like its more recognized arch-rival, MS-13, the 18th Street gang has made the D.C.-area its East Coast home.
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Ventura-Quintanilla and six fellow gang members were indicted in a racketeering conspiracy involving five murders.
Ventura-Quintanilla, admitted to participating in two of the killings, according to charging documents.
Both of Ventura-Quintanilla’s victims were killed because the gang mistakenly believed they were members of MS-13, federal prosecutors said.
“Anyone who wonders about the impact of pernicious gangs that spawn senseless violence need look no further than this case,” said Rod J. Rosenstein, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland.
On Jan. 19, 2009, the 18th Street gang members abducted 15-year-old Dennys Guzman-Saenz from a Hyattsville bus stop, according to charging documents.
Dennys, a freshman at High Point High School, was found dead the next day in Malcolm King Park, with dozens of stab wounds.
Police said he had stayed out of trouble and had resisted pressure to join gangs.
A month later, Ventura-Quintanilla and other gang members killed another man who they mistook as an enemy gang member, prosecutors said.
On Feb. 8, the gang drove into the District of Columbia in search of rival gang members.
They approached two men standing in front of a restaurant in the 3900 block of 14th Street NW, and opened fire, striking both men. One of the victims, Manuel Garcia-Fuentes, was killed in the hail of gunfire.
Detectives received an anonymous tip and developed Ventura-Quintanilla as a suspect.
An illegal immigrant, Ventura-Quintanilla told police that he escaped from the Cojutepeque prison in his native El Salvador, where he had been arrested for homicide and gun-trafficking, according to charging papers.
