Three illegal alien members of a vicious gang based in El Salvador have been convicted of a long list of heinous crimes including murder, according to a Justice Department press release.
30-year-old Jose Luis Reynaldo “Molesto” Reyes-Castillo, 27-year-old David Arturo “Herbi” Perez-Manchame, and Joel “Momia” Vargas-Escobar were involved in at least nine murders.
‘These defendants carried out a campaign of terror marked by murders, kidnappings, and brutality.’
The three illegal aliens are from Honduras and El Salvador.
They were convicted of charges that include conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise involving murders and attempted murder, murder in aid of racketeering, kidnapping in aid of racketeering, and attempted murder in aid of racketeering, as well as various gun crimes.
The three participated in the murders of rival gang members in Nevada and California and in some cases kidnapped and tortured their victims.
In one case from Dec. 2017, Reyes-Castillo and another gang member kidnapped a victim from Mendota, California, and brutally murdered him with a machete and knives, leaving the victim’s remains unrecognizable.
In another from Jan. 2018, Reyes-Castillo and Vargas-Escobar kidnapped a victim and shot and stabbed him to death after driving him into the desert. They believed the victim had defected to a rival gang, the DOJ said.
In Feb. 2018, Reyes-Castillo and Perez-Manchame kidnapped a victim who they believed was a rival gang member based on a tattoo and the clothing he wore. They stabbed him over 200 times, and his body was found decomposing in the mountains about three weeks later.
The three illegal aliens all face life in prison when they are sentenced in November.
“These defendants carried out a campaign of terror marked by murders, kidnappings, and brutality,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah in the press release.
“Their reign of violence ends today,” he added. “The Las Vegas Homeland Security Task Force is unyielding in its mission — we will hunt down violent gang members, dismantle their networks, and drive transnational criminal organizations out of our communities. Southern Nevada will not be a refuge for predators or the terror they attempt to unleash.”
RELATED: Nationwide ICE sweep leads to arrests of hundreds of DREAMers and MS-13 gang members
The DOJ released a photo of Reyes-Castillo that showed him posing with two firearms.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel said that stamping out criminal gangs is a special focus of the FBI and claimed gang arrests were up 322%.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Read the full article here
