A Los Angeles jury on Tuesday convicted five members of the transnational criminal organization Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13) of carrying out six murders to elevate their status within the gang, according to a Justice Department press release.
The victims were killed in a variety of brutal ways — including being strangled, shot, stabbed with knives or a machete, and beaten with a baseball bat — before some of their bodies were dumped off a cliff or down a hillside in the Angeles National Forest, the release said.
After a nine-week trial, the jury also found Walter Chavez Larin, 26, Roberto Alejandro Corado Ortiz, 30, and Edwin Martinez, 28 were guilty of conspiracy in violation of the RICO Act.
