The alleged leader of the gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) on the east coast of United States, Miguel Angel Corea Diazhas been sentenced by the country’s justice system to life imprisonment for contributing to the organized crimeas reported by local media on Saturday.
The 41-year-old Salvadoran, nicknamed “Reaper” (ripper), was sentenced this Friday to the maximum penalty he faced following a jury found him guilty of several crimes related to murder and drug trafficking last November, the Department of Justice disclosed in a note.
Korea, resident in Long Branch (New Jersey), was arrested in 2017 as a result of an extensive investigation into the trafficking and distribution of illegal drugs in Long Island (New York) that concluded that the subject directed a “reign of terror” far beyond that state.
the condemned “reported directly” to the leaders of the MS-13 in El Salvador and was responsible for implementing “his program of violence and intimidation on the east coast” of the US, detailed Anne T. Donnellythe prosecutor for Nassau County, where Long Island is located.
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“Working with more than 20 agencies, we have disrupted MS-13 operations on the East Coast,” he added. Donnellywhich highlights the work of the Maryland State Attorney’s Office and the FBI.
The US attorney general in Maryland, Erek L. Barronfor his part, considered that Korea’s “brutality” is “almost immeasurable.”
Corea was accused during the trial of controlling and operating, along with another individual in the hands of justice, Junior Noe Alvarado Requenoa faction called “Sailors Clique” of the MS-13 between 2015 and 2018 and commit crimes of murder, extortion, drug trafficking, money laundering and witness tampering.
The faction had its headquarters in Langley Park (Maryland) and extorted immigrant-run businesses in the area by charging them “rent for the privilege of operating in MS-13 territory,” in addition to trafficking marijuana and cocaine, according to prosecutors.
Most of the proceeds were sent to the gang’s leaders in El Salvador to help advance their goals through transactions and intermediaries that avoided scrutiny by authorities.
Among other things, prosecutors accused Corea and Alvarado of ordering a group of gang members to kill a high school student from nearby Lynchburg, Virginia, over a marijuana dispute. hand before killing him.
Alvarado, nicknamed “Insolent” and “Tranquilo,” 24, of Landover, Maryland, also faces life in prison and will be sentenced later this month.
