MS-13
Deportation Snarls Racketeering Case
Homicide Suspect Expelled Before Indictment





By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 3, 2008; Page C06

An alleged member of Mara Salvatrucha who was under investigation in connection with a homicide and a shooting in the District was deported a few weeks before he and three other men were indicted on federal racketeering charges. Prosecutors now face the frustrating process of trying to have him extradited to the United States for trial.

The deportation of William Osorio-Rivas, 20, to El Salvador has thrown a wrench into the prosecution of the men charged in a racketeering indictment filed in June that in a news release U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor hailed as a "wake-up call" to gang members.

Authorities had been investigating Osorio-Rivas's alleged connection to an April 2007 homicide and shooting since at least late last year, law enforcement sources said.

The deportation problem arose after Osorio-Rivas was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in January and charged with immigration fraud. Authorities found fraudulent Social Security cards and green cards in the Forestville home where he was staying, court records show.

Law enforcement sources said authorities charged Osorio-Rivas to ensure that he remained in the United States pending an indictment in the investigation of the gang, also known as MS-13.


In April, when a U.S. magistrate judge threw out the charges for lack of evidence, Osorio-Rivas was returned to ICE custody, court records show.

He remained under investigation in the racketeering case, but neither prosecutors nor ICE agents expected Osorio-Rivas to be deported before they were able to obtain an indictment, according to three law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation.

But Osorio-Rivas was deported May 23, according to an ICE spokesman. The spokesman, Brandon Alvarez-Montgomery, said the agency had to deport Osorio-Rivas because he was not charged with a crime and an immigration judge had ordered his removal.

At a hearing last week, prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Richard Leon that they needed more time to extradite Osorio-Rivas. They declined to comment after the hearing.

But Salvadoran officials may be reluctant to do that, even if they are able to find and arrest Osorio-Rivas. Osorio-Rivas and the other defendants are eligible to face the death penalty if convicted, and some countries have expressed concerns about extraditing citizens in death penalty cases. A spokesman for the El Salvador Embassy did not return phone messages seeking comment.

Prosecutors said they had not determined whether they will seek the death penalty.

Former prosecutors and defense lawyers not working on the case said the prosecution of the other three men could be hampered if authorities cannot extradite Osorio-Rivas. Their attorneys could question why Osorio-Rivas is missing and what role he may have played in the alleged incidents, they said.

"They can do the 'trying the proverbial empty chair,' blaming the guy who is not there," said Preston Burton, a longtime D.C. criminal defense lawyer.

Osorio-Rivas was charged along with William Cordova, 23, Jose Gutierrez, 19, and Melvin Sorto, 21, with being part of a racketeering conspiracy, in the federal indictment filed June 10 in U.S. District Court.

The indictment alleges that the men conspired to kill rival gang members and those who tried to interfere with MS-13, a violent street gang that has its roots in El Salvador.

The four were charged in the April 2007 shooting death of Edwin Ventura and wounding of Nelson Maldonado in the 2900 block of Sherman Ave NW. Osorio-Rivas was the driver and Sorto was a passenger in a Ford Expedition that Cordova and Gutierrez jumped into after shooting Ventura and Maldonado, the indictment alleges. The group then sped away, the indictment says.

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