The human remains discovered in the aftermath of the Tick Fire in 2019 have been connected to a series of alleged MS-13 murders, according to a new indictment released by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Nine new defendants and a series of previously uncharged murders, including the human remains discovered after the Tick Fire, are included in a federal grand jury indictment unsealed today that significantly expands a wide-ranging racketeering indictment targeting an arm of the MS-13 transnational street gang, according to a Tuesday statement by the DOJ.
See Related: Human Remains Discovered In Canyon Country After Tick Fire
Around 11:15 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019, deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department received a report of human remains near mile marker .62 of Sand Canyon Road, according to Lt. Derrick Alfred with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau.
“An L.A. County Public Works crew was here doing some post-fire clean-up, and they stumbled across what they thought was a human skeleton,” Alfred said at the time.
On Jan. 13, 2019, five MS-13 members and associates drove Oscar Fuentes to a remote part of Santa Clarita. Fuentes, known as “Cadejo,” was an MS-13 member who had drifted from the gang and become addicted to methamphetamine, according to the indictment and a search warrant filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Alleged MS-13 member Chavez Larin, reportedly handed an unidentified conspirator a .38 revolver and ordered him to shoot Fuentes, according to the indictment.
Larin and another MS-13 member then returned to their car as three gang members allegedly took turns shooting Fuentes, passing the gun between them, according to the indictment.
The spent shell casings were then allegedly buried in the yard of an illegal casino and drug den in Reseda, according to the indictment.
This case focuses on MS-13 Los Angeles’ Fulton clique, 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, according to DOJ officials.
“In 2016, the Fulton clique decided to break from MS-13’s traditional program in Los Angeles in favor of a traditional Salvadoran Mara Salvatrucha program,” according to the new indictment. “The key difference between MS-13’s traditional Los Angeles program and MS-13’s Salvadoran program was that the Salvadoran program required a prospective member to have committed at least one homicide before becoming a homeboy,” or full-fledged member.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Mara Salvatrucha was formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, and the street gang is now comprised of tens of thousands of individuals in at least 10 states and several Central American countries, notably El Salvador.
In the mid-1990s, Mara Salvatrucha became associated with the Mexican Mafia and added the number 13 to its name (“M” is the 13th letter of the alphabet). To become a new member of a Mexican Mafia-affiliated gang, an individual underwent a 13-second beating by other members of the gang, officials said.
The 18-count Third Superseding Indictment, which was unsealed following the arrests of four defendants this week, alleges that members and associates of MS-13 murdered 11 people, five of whom were hacked to death with machetes or knives in the Angeles National Forest.
In one murder detailed in the indictment, several MS-13 members allegedly targeted a rival gang member who was believed to have defaced MS-13 graffiti.
On March 6, 2017, according to the original 2019 indictment, the rival gang member was abducted, choked, and driven to a remote location in the Angeles National Forest, where six people attacked him with a machete.
The victim was dismembered, and his body parts were thrown into a canyon after one of the defendants allegedly cut the heart out of the victim’s body, the indictment described.
Of the 11 murders alleged in the indictment, five victims allegedly were killed with machetes or knives, while six allegedly were shot to death. All 11 murders are alleged to have been committed “for the purpose of gaining entry to and maintaining and increasing position in MS-13 Los Angeles.”
The 111-page Third Superseding Indictment names 31 defendants, 21 of whom are charged with conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. The RICO charge alleges nearly 300 “overt acts,” including acts involving murder, drug trafficking and extortion.
The new indictment was unsealed just before scheduled arraignments for three new defendants who were taken into custody in the Los Angeles area. The fourth new defendant was arrested in Colorado. Two new defendants were already in federal custody, and three new defendants were already in state custody.
The RICO case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
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