Thread: TN: Rico laws put MS-13 in jail for 25yrs

MS-13 member gets 25 years for involvement in RICO conspiracy
By: Staff Reports
Posted: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 1:38 pm
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A member of La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years in prison and five years of supervised release for his participation in a racketeering enterprise.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Ed Yarbrough of the Middle District of Tennessee announced the convction of Manuel Marquez, a/k/a "Morro," who was sentenced in Nashville by Chief Judge Todd J. Campbell of the Middle District of Tennessee.

At his plea hearing on Dec. 17, 2007, Marquez admitted that he and others involved in the MS-13 gang conspired to participate in a pattern of racketeering activity in the Nashville metropolitan area that included murder, attempted murder and witness tampering.

Marquez admitted that on April 12, 2006, he and other MS-13 gang members fired handguns at a rival gang member and his girlfriend. The rival gang member was struck several times and sustained permanent physical injuries, court documents show. Marquez also admitted that on May 21, 2006, he and other MS-13 gang members fired a handgun at an individual who was suspected of being a member of the rival street gang Brown Pride. The victim was struck and wounded in the arm.

He too admitted that on June 17, 2006, he and other MS-13 gang members shot and killed two rival gang members sitting inside a car at a traffic light, along with several other crimes.

Marquez is the last of the defendants to be sentenced on RICO charges stemming from an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Nashville on Jan. 10, 2007. The indictment charged 14 members of MS-13 with conspiring to participate in the affairs of a racketeering enterprise and related charges including murder, attempted murder, assault, weapons charges and obstruction of justice.

Thirteen other defendants were previously sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to the RICO conspiracy.

According to the indictment, the MS-13 gang is a violent international criminal organization composed primarily of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from El Salvador. The purpose of the racketeering enterprise was to preserve and protect the power, territory and profits of the MS-13 enterprise through violent assault, murder, threats of violence and intimidation.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jimmie Lynn Ramsaur of the Middle District of Tennessee and Trial Attorney John Han from the Criminal Division's Gang Unit.

The case was investigated by the Criminal Division's Gang Unit; the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Tennessee; Metro Police Department's Gang Suppression Unit; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and the Davidson County District Attorney General's Office.

Oh yeah OK, put him in jail where he can continue to run the gang. Sorry but I think the death penalty should be given to all gang members convicted of murders! There's a deterrent! This man cannot be rehabilitated.