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Two MS-13 Members Are Convicted of Racketeering
Md. Verdict Marks Milestone In Federal Prosecution of Gang

By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 15, 2006; B02

In the first major victory for federal prosecutors in a sweeping legal assault on MS-13 in Maryland, a federal jury in Greenbelt yesterday convicted two members of the violent Latino street gang of criminal racketeering.

Edgar Alberto Ayala, known as "Pony," 29, and Oscar Ramos Velasquez, 21, known as "Casper," both Salvadoran immigrants, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder to further the racketeering enterprise.

The racketeering prosecution is part of an investigative and legal offensive begun by federal authorities last year against a gang that as recently as five years ago was little known outside law enforcement circles and the neighborhoods it operates in.

Locally, law enforcement officials have attributed dozens of homicides and nonfatal assaults in recent years to MS-13 members in suburban Maryland, Northern Virginia and, to a lesser extent, the District. Nationwide, federal officials have formed an MS-13 task force, which began operating last year out of FBI headquarters.

The jury's decision, reached during five days of deliberations, means that both men are eligible for a maximum possible sentence of life in prison without parole.

The defendants were among 22 in Maryland charged more than a year ago under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The RICO indictment alleges that members of MS-13, a gang also known as Mara Salvatrucha, killed six people and attempted to kill four others between April 2003 and June 2005 in Prince George's and Montgomery counties.

Eight of the attacks were in Prince George's, and two were in Montgomery, in neighborhoods that hug the border between the counties. In addition, federal prosecutors presented evidence that Ayala participated in the fatal shooting of a Fairfax County teenager.

Ayala and Velasquez showed no emotion as the guilty verdicts were read.

Ayala's relatives and Gary A. Ticknor, his attorney, declined to comment. According to evidence presented by the government, Ayala was a leader of one of the local MS-13 cliques.

Velasquez's attorney, Richard C. Bittner, repeated a theme yesterday that he set forth in his opening and closing arguments -- that being a member of a violent gang does not make a person guilty of that group's actions.

"If the pope was in the Nazi youth, was he responsible for the Holocaust? No," Bittner said. "I haven't seen anyone say he [Velasquez] planned a murder, participated in a murder or was present when a murder occurred."

Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said "chilling" evidence presented by federal prosecutors showed that MS-13 members live by the motto "kill, rape and control."

"We hope this conviction sends a message to them and their conspirators," Rosenstein said.

At least four onetime members of MS-13 testified for the government about the gang's inner workings and about attacks carried out by gang members.

One of the most important witnesses was Noe "Shorty" Cruz, a former MS-13 member who wore a wire to a handful of gang meetings and called his police handler to tip him off about planned attacks and the location of firearms in the homes of gang members.

Cruz agreed to become an informant after meeting with Prince George's police Detective Felipe Ordo?o, who is a member of a local-federal anti-gang task force. Cruz said he was disgruntled because the gang had killed one of his friends, who was also an MS-13 member, and because fellow gang members criticized him for not attending enough meetings.

For nearly three years, Cruz risked his life by gathering evidence against members, who, he testified, would have cut out his tongue and killed him if they had discovered his actions.

Cruz is now in the federal witness protection program and has been moved to another state. Rosenstein praised the work of county police in identifying gang members and persuading some to cooperate with the government. The investigation was led by agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Federal prosecutors presented evidence that MS-13, made up primarily of immigrants from El Salvador and other Latin American countries, is not just a typical street gang but an international criminal conspiracy.

For example, members in Maryland receive directions from MS-13 leaders in El Salvador, local MS-13 gang members pay dues at meetings, and some of that money is sent to gang leaders in El Salvador, according to government witnesses.

Before the trial began, three MS-13 gang members named in the indictment pleaded guilty to racketeering or related charges. Seventeen defendants await trial on racketeering charges.

U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow scheduled sentencing for Ayala and Velasquez for Feb. 23.