Thread: A Maryland teen, lured to the woods, becomes latest victim of gang-related killings

A Maryland teen, lured to the woods, becomes latest victim of gang-related killings


Montgomery County Park Police officer Lt. Dave McClintock checks out an MS-13 sign carved into a tree in a nature area in the vicinity of Veirs Mill and Randolph roads. (Michael Williamson/The Washington Post)

By Dan Morse
July 7 at 7:24 AM

Members of the violent MS-13 street gang enlisted a 19-year-old girl to lure another teenager — thought to be a rival gang member — into a darkened Montgomery County park where he was stabbed to death, according to police accounts of the county’s 10th gang-related killing in the last 10 months.

The accounts, filed this week in Montgomery District Court, underscored the horror of the slaying, with at least three assailants — one of them just 16 years old — who either held down the victim or repeatedly stabbed him.

“We really are seeing an unprecedented level of gang-related homicides,” said Capt. Paul Liquorie, director of the Montgomery Police Department’s Special Investigations division.

In one of the suspected MS-13 killings last year in the county, assailants allegedly threw heavy rocks down on the victim as he crawled away from an attack toward a stream, according to court records. In another, the victim was told, “Get on your knees,” before being shot in the face, neck and shoulder while in the woods.

In the latest case — the June 16 death of Cristian Antonio Villagran-Morales, 18, in Malcolm King Park in Gaithersburg — police arrested two suspects late last week, and are looking for two more. Officials are expected to discuss the case at a news conference later Thursday.

Vanesa Alvarado, 19, was one of two suspects arrested in connection with a June killing in Montgomery County. (Courtesy of Montgomery County Police)

Police identified the two arrested suspects as Vanesa Alvarado and Juan Gutierrez-Vasquez.

Alvarado is accused of being the 19-year-old who lured the victim into the park, according to a police affidavit. Detectives allege that the victim sent repeated texts to Alvarado, apparently thinking they were going to meet at the park to have sex.

In earlier Montgomery gang slaying, attackers stab, throw rocks, at victim

Gutierrez-Vasquez, 16, gave a detailed rundown of what happened next, police said.

“He stated he is a member of the MS-13 criminal street gang and this was a murder of an alleged rival gang member,” detectives wrote. “He stated the victim was lured into a wooded area and attacked by his co-conspirators. He stated he initially held the victim’s legs down, while others were stabbing the victim, and then he also stabbed the victim with a knife.”

Court records do not indicate if Gutierrez-Vasquez or Alvarado have retained attorneys. Both were held on a $1 million bond. Police describe Alvarado as an “associate” of MS-13, a large gang with ties to El Salvador.

She was born in Silver Spring, according to court records. It wasn’t immediately clear where Gutierrez-Vasquez was born.

The Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, operates drug rings, human trafficking and prostitution networks extending from its base in El Salvador to Mexico, the United States and Canada, according to the Treasury Department. In October 2012, Treasury designated the group a “transnational criminal organization.”

In Montgomery County, Liquorie, the police captain, said that six of the 10 gang-related slayings are linked to MS-13, and the other four are linked to local neighborhood gangs, often called crews.

For years, MS-13 has been the Washington region’s largest and most notorious gang.

In 2014, after years of relative quiet for the gang, FBI officials noted an upswing in violence. Experts attributed part of the resurgence to gang leaders in El Salvador attempting to reconstitute operations here in order to make more money.

In a report written last month, Montgomery police officials cited another factor: the wave of teenagers migrating, without parents, from the gang violence of El Salvador and other Central American countries.

It’s not necessarily that the teenagers are arriving as hard-core gang members. What seems clear, Liquorie said, is that by the time the teenagers get to Montgomery County, they often are isolated, broke, unable to speak English — and prime targets for MS-13 members in the area.

“They are probably the most susceptible youths for gang recruitment,” Liquorie said. “They fall into this trap. They don’t have family to necessarily fall back on.”

And that recruitment is taking on modern-day approaches, centered in large part on social media.

Existing gang members — in Montgomery and in El Salvador — follow social media postings by the new immigrants, looking for connections they may have to certain towns or people in El Salvador. They then use that information as leverage to threaten and bully teenagers into joining gangs.

“It’s a small world,” Liquorie said of all the connectivity.

The newcomers — living in neighborhoods that already have a presence of MS-13 and its rival, 18th Street — can feel a need for protection, which also drives them to gangs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...9b1_story.html

These are the "darling" youngsters that Obama, Hillary, Jeh Johnson, Reid and Pelosi are dumping into OUR neighborhoods!

Casa de Maryland is a haven for these illegals and they need to be shut down.

All UAC's apprehended at the border should be immediately handed over into the care and custody of THEIR Embassy and be sent back at their countries expense!

No papers, no entry, no rights, no freebies, no court, no lawyer, no judge, no detention!