A reputed “international leader” of the migrant gang MS-13 ordered murders and oversaw gun and drug trafficking schemes within the US out of a jail cell in El Salvador, federal prosecutors stated.
Moises Humberto Rivera-Luna, 55, is dealing with racketeering expenses after getting extradited to the US from Guatemala and stepping into entrance of a decide in Washington, DC this week — the fruits of an exhaustive 12-year investigation by federal immigration and regulation enforcement authorities.
“The decade-long pursuit of this alleged violent gang member illustrates our office’s resolve to remain focused and bring to justice those who violate the law no matter where they are, no matter how long it takes,” Edward Martin, US Lawyer for Washington, DC, stated in an announcement.
Rivera-Luna, also called Viejo Santos, or Previous Saint, was one in all seven reputed MS-13 bosses indicted in 2013 for allegedly ordering murders, kidnappings and assaults from the South American jail, and ordering hits on turncoat gang members, in keeping with a superseding federal indictment within the case.
The gang chief is accused of giving the inexperienced mild for the murders of Felipe Enriquez, 25, whose physique was present in Maryland in 2010, and 27-year-old Louis Alberto Membreno-Zelaya, who was brutally stabbed to dying in 2008 and dumped within the nation’s capital, the feds stated.
Rivera-Luna and MS-13 cohort Marvin Geovanny Monterrosa-Larios, who was additionally locked up in El Salvador, used cell telephones to run gang “cliques” within the DC space, the indictment stated.
As soon as launched from jail, Rivera-Luna fled to Guatemala, the place he was taken into custody pending extradition proceedings — which led to his court docket look this week.
He’s now being held with out bail whereas awaiting trial.
MS-13 has been behind widespread violence and trafficking within the US for years, together with on Lengthy Island and within the New York metropolitan space.
Earlier this month the state division designated the gang, together with the Venezuelan road gang Tren de Aragua, as a international terrorists organizations and declared battle on each.
