MS-13 Gang Member Slapped With Life Sentence for Ordering D.C. Area Killings

Rachel Acenas
By Rachel Acenas
May 1, 2024US News
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MS-13 Gang Member Slapped With Life Sentence for Ordering D.C. Area Killings
Members of the MS-13 and 18 gangs remain inside their cells at the maximum security prison in Izalco, Sonsonate, El Salvador, on Sept. 4, 2020. (Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images)

An MS-13 gang member has been sentenced to life in prison for ordering a series of killings in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area during the summer of 2019.

Melvin Canales Saldana received his sentence in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria on Tuesday. He was among 12 gang members indicted in 2022 on murder, racketeering, and drug trafficking charges.

The gang leader, known as “Demente,” was considered second-in-command of the Sitios clique of MS-13. Prosecutors said that he ordered his subordinates to patrol the Virginia and Maryland areas in search of rival gang members to kill.

When none could be found, the gang members targeted random civilians instead, according to prosecutors John Blanchard and Matthew Hoff. It was part of the process of achieving status within the gang, prosecutors argued.

They also referred to the metro Washington, D.C., area as a “hunting ground,” during the summer of 2019. In June of that year, the bodies of Milton Bertram Lopez and Jairo Geremeas Mayorga were found in a wooded area of Prince William County, Virginia.

Another victim, Eric Tate, was targeted in August of that year while on his way to meet someone at an apartment complex. In September 2019, Antonio Smith was traveling home from the convenience store when he was shot six times. The victim asked the shooters why he was being targeted before he was killed.

Gang members formed hunting parties and killed those unfortunate enough to cross their path, according to prosecutors. But the targeting of innocent civilians was against Mr. Canales’ wishes and he repeatedly warned gang members to “do things right,” according to defense attorney Lana Manitta. But they chose, on their own, to kill random people and portrayed them as legitimate, rival gang members to get a promotion, she argued.

Mr. Canales joined the MS-13 gang as a teenager when he lived in El Salvador. He came to the U.S. illegally in 2016 to evade arrest in his home country. MS-13 participates in weapon smuggling, human smuggling, and illegal firearm sales, according to federal authorities. Since its inception, it has grown into a transnational operation after initially being formed by Salvadoran immigrants that came to the United States in order to escape the civil war.

“Some of its members were trained in guerilla warfare and the use of military weapons. The gang is well-organized and is heavily involved in lucrative illegal enterprises, being notorious for its use of violence to achieve its objectives,” according to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) gang profile.

In 2004, the FBI created the MS-13 National Gang Task Force to target gang members and deport them back to their home countries. The DOJ created a transnational criminal task force specifically targeting MS-13 in 2018. In February 2023, “three of the highest-ranking MS-13 members in the world” were arrested on terrorism and racketeering charges, according to federal prosecutors.

“The Justice Department will continue to use the full force of our law enforcement authorities to disrupt and dismantle MS-13 and other transnational criminal organizations and hold their leaders accountable,” according to a statement by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Three other MS-13 gang members were convicted for their roles in the summer 2019 killings, including the gang’s first-in-command, Marvin Menjivar Gutiérrez.

Mr. Canales’s attorney said she plans to appeal his conviction.

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