California Gang Members Charged in L.A. Machete Murders, Racketeering
Dan Whitcomb, Reuters, July 16, 2109
Twenty-two Los Angeles members of the notorious MS-13 gang with nicknames such as “Desastre” and “Lucifer” have been charged with running a criminal racketeering enterprise enforced with a string of murders, some by machete, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
The 12-count U.S. District Court indictment, handed down on Monday in Los Angeles, charges the MS-13 members and associates with killing seven people over the past two years, including gang rivals, people thought to be cooperating with police and a homeless man who was found living on their “turf.”
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The indictment targets a subset of MS-13 known as the “Fulton clique,” which prosecutors say operates out of the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles and has recently mushroomed due to an influx of young Central American immigrants to Southern California.
The court documents say that younger associates of the Fulton clique who want to become full-fledged MS-13 members were required to kill a rival gang member or other adversary to gain initiation.
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{snip} In addition to the murder charges, many of the 22 MS-13 members named in the indictment were charged with racketeering and conspiracy.
Among those charged were the accused leaders of the Fulton clique, Angel Amadeo Guzman, also known as “Splinter” or “Desastre,” Edgard Valasquez, known aka “Snoopy” and Walter Chavez Larin, aka “Delito” or “Dexter.”
