Month: June 2024

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The last defendant of the six La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang members who were convicted at two separate federal trials was sentenced today. The six defendants were sentenced for racketeering conspiracy, narcotics conspiracy, and offenses related to the murders of four men in 2019.

According to court documents and evidence presented in the two trials, the six defendants were members of MS-13’s Sitios Locos Salvatrucha clique (STLS), which operated in Northern Virginia and elsewhere for years. From at least 2017 through 2020, MS-13 members and associates regularly travelled to and from Long Island, New York, for the purpose of obtaining cocaine from Marvin Menjivar Gutierrez, STLS’s leader in the United States. From there, MS-13 members would transport the cocaine to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area to be sold in nightclubs and bars. STLS used the proceeds of their cocaine sales to purchase more cocaine to sell, buy weapons, and support other MS-13 members in the United States and El Salvador.   

“These defendants—members of the violent MS-13 gang—sold drugs to fuel the gang’s business, surveilled and tracked rival gang members, and even murdered innocent victims, all to increase the grip that MS-13 had on the community,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “With today’s sentencing, we are holding these defendants accountable for the havoc they wreaked. The Criminal Division, along with our federal and local law enforcement partners, is committed to combating violent criminal organizations that victimize our communities.”

In the spring of 2019, Menjivar and Melvin Canales Saldana, STLS’s second-in-command in the United States, ordered members to begin committing murders so that the junior members could rise in rank within MS-13 and amplify STLS’s prestige and control. In June 2019, three MS-13 members, including Cristian Arevalo Arias and Carlos Turcios Villatoro, lured Victim 1 and Victim 2 to a wooded area and murdered them by shooting and stabbing the victims. The MS-13 members believed Victim 1 belonged to a rival gang, and then murdered Victim 2 to avoid leaving any witnesses to Victim 1’s murder.

“MS-13 represents a cycle of death in our society that cannot be tolerated and must be eradicated. MS-13 sells the poisons that destroy communities, families, and lives, and uses the profits to purchase the weapons they use to kill our people in the streets,” said U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia. “This is why federal, state, and local law enforcement employ a coordinated, comprehensive, and strategic approach to systematically dismantle these organizations and end their ability to do harm.”

In August 2019, Canales ordered an MS-13 member to provide Arevalo with a firearm so that Arevalo, Manilester Andrade Rivas, and other MS-13 members could find and and kill any rival gang member. Arevalo, Andrade, and others travelled to the Glen Arbor Apartments in Woodbridge, Virginia, in the hopes of encountering and murdering a rival. They encountered Victim 3 and Arevalo shot him to death.

In September 2019, Jairo Aguilera Sagastizado travelled to Woodbridge from New York and spent hours driving around Northern Virginia and Maryland with two other MS-13 members, looking for a rival gang member to murder at random so that they could rise in rank. Unable to find a rival, the group finally decided to murder Victim 4, whom they observed walking home from a 7-Eleven in Dumfries, Virginia. Aguilera and another MS-13 member shot Victim 4 multiple times, killing him. 

“Today’s sentencing is another example of the FBI’s relentless commitment to bringing an end to violent transnational criminal enterprises like MS-13,” said Executive Assistant Director Timothy Langan of the FBI’s Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. “If you engage in racketeering in the advancement of distributing narcotics, rest assured that we will not stop until you face the consequences of your actions.”

“Members of MS-13 spread fear and violence throughout the country—often through senseless murders—but their control is not limitless,” said Assistant Director in Charge David Sundberg of the FBI Washington Field Office. “As evidenced by this case, the FBI will pursue individuals or groups who traffic in violence. We vow to continue to work with our federal, state, and local partners to disrupt and dismantle transnational gangs that terrorize our neighborhoods.”

Multiple MS-13 members and associates pleaded guilty prior to trial. Below is additional information about the defendants, all of whom are Salvadoran nationals, who were convicted at trial and have been sentenced. 

Name	Age	Residing in	Convictions	Sentence
Marvin Menjivar Gutierrez	32	New York	Racketeering conspiracy; murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; use of firearm in federal violent crime resulting in death	Multiple life sentences
Melvin Canales Saldana	32	New York	Racketeering conspiracy; murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; cocaine distribution	Multiple life sentences
Cristian Arevalo Arias	28	Virginia	Racketeering conspiracy; two counts of murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; two counts of use of firearm in federal violent crime resulting in death; witness tampering by killing; cocaine distribution	Multiple life sentences
Carlos Turcios Villatoro	26	Maryland	Racketeering conspiracy; two counts of murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; two counts of use of firearm in federal violent crime resulting in death; witness tampering by killing	Multiple life sentences
Jairo Aguilera Sagastizado	28	New York	Racketeering conspiracy; murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; use of firearm in federal violent crime resulting in death	Multiple life sentences
Manilester Andrade Rivas	34	Virginia	Racketeering conspiracy; conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; cocaine distribution	14 years in prison

The FBI and Prince William County Police Department investigated the case, with significant assistance from the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, Prince William County Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney, Northern Virginia Violent Gang Safe Streets Task Force, Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE-ERO), Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and U.S. Marshal Service.

Deputy Chief Matthew Hoff of the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney John Blanchard and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Maureen Cain for the Eastern District of Virginia prosecuted the case.

This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation, Operation City of Bridges. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Aaron T. Simmons, 26, of Greenville, South Carolina, was sentenced today to 365 months in prison and a lifetime of supervised release after he pleaded guilty in November 2023 to one count of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and one count of sex trafficking of a minor.

“This significant prison sentence reflects the seriousness of the defendant’s brutal conduct inflicted on victims, including a minor, for many months” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The sexual exploitation of victims in this manner robs them of their freedom, dignity and sense of security, and stands to scar them for life. Such venal, rapacious conduct is unacceptable in our society. The Justice Department will use all the tools at its disposal to prosecute sex traffickers and to seek justice for the survivors of human trafficking.”

“Our office will continue to bring every resource we have to bear to stop human trafficking in South Carolina,” said U.S. Attorney Adair F. Boroughs for the District of South Carolina. “Those who victimize human beings, especially children, in this heinous manner will be held accountable.”

According to court documents, the defendant used physical beatings, threats, intimidation, control and psychological manipulation to coerce three adult victims to engage in repeated commercial sex acts in the Greenville area between August 2019 and August 2020. The defendant also provided a 17-year-old minor victim for commercial sex acts in the Greenville area between August 2019 and November 2019. 

The FBI Columbia Field Office and Greenville Police Department investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie Fisher Sherard for the District of South Carolina and Trial Attorney Francisco Zornosa of the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit prosecuted the case.

Anyone who has information about human trafficking should report that information to the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information about human trafficking please visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org.  Information on the Justice Department’s efforts to combat human trafficking can be found at www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Good afternoon. My name is Kristen Clarke, and I am the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department. I’m joined today by Acting U.S. Attorney Matt Kirsch, FBI Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent in Charge Brent Beavers.

Today, Anderson Lee Aldrich was sentenced to 55 life sentences running concurrently plus 190 years, without the possibility of parole, for the brazen and calculated attack against innocent people at Club Q on Nov. 19, 2022. This was one of the most violent, hate-fueled mass shootings targeting the LGBTQIA+ community in our nation’s history. The defendant’s actions killed five people, seriously injured dozens of others and caused untold anguish to many others. This tragedy runs contrary to our most basic American values, respect for the sanctity of life and the intrinsic worth of every human being.

The attack took place on the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance, when members of the LGBTQIA+ community and their allies gathered at the safe haven of Club Q to celebrate some of the most vulnerable people in our society. It is a sad irony that the attack demonstrates why the event was necessary.

Today, we want to convey our support for the victims of that horrific act, for their loved ones and for the members of the LGBTQIA+ community. The lives needlessly cut short that day, the pain inflicted and the trauma imposed are beyond tragic. This sentence while severe cannot undo the harm inflicted on that day.

The victims and survivors — Club Q patrons, employees and artists – were attacked when and where they least expected it. That was the defendant’s plan. The defendant visited Club Q at least eight times prior to the shooting. The defendant knew the layout of the club and was at Club Q an hour and a half before the shooting and was aware that many patrons and employees were there for Transgender Day of Remembrance. Prior to committing this heinous crime, the defendant created a website to post videos espousing racist ideology and discussing racially motivated mass shootings. The defendant used online platforms to spew anti-gay and anti-transgender views. The defendant made over $9,000 in weapons-related purchases from at least 56 different vendors. And then, armed with an AR-15 style assault weapon, the defendant murdered and harmed innocent people in their safe space. When the bullets stopped, Club Q looked like a war zone. Survivors of the shooting are still living with the pain and physical impacts from the shooting, requiring them to spend hours with doctors and burdening them with medical expenses. Many of those impacted continue to endure trauma as a result of the defendant’s actions.

We know that this sentence can’t bring back loved ones, heal injuries or dissipate the lingering trauma. But today’s sentencing should send a loud message: we will not tolerate hate in our country and that purveyors of bias-motivated violence will be held accountable for their actions. Those who seek to consummate their hate-filled ideas through violence better think twice. We vigorously prosecute hate crimes cases to vindicate the principle that every American, regardless of their sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, has the right to live freely without fearing violence based upon bias and hatred.

That principle is carved in stone, literally, in an inscription on the Justice Department building, where I go to work every day. It says, “Liberty is maintained in security of justice.” That principle is why the prosecution of hate-motivated violence stands as one of our top priorities.

The conclusion of the criminal case arising from that attack comes during Pride month, a celebration of LGBTQIA+ people, who seek to live openly and authentically in our country. Pride month is also a reminder about the work we must do to ensure the promise of dignity and freedom for all. The reminder could not be more stark today, a week after the anniversary of the 2016 attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It should galvanize us to action and heighten our vigilance against the forces of hate.

I want the entire LGBTQIA+ community to know that the Justice Department stands with you. We remain steadfast in our commitment to using the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act to stop these hateful acts, to protect you, and to hold accountable those who dare to threaten, injure or harm you. In America, no one should be subjected to hate or violence because of who they are, what they look like or who they love.

In closing, I want to thank our team of federal, state and local law enforcement partners and federal prosecutors who worked together on this important case. Thank you.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Donavon Parish, 29, of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, pleaded guilty today to one count of cyberstalking and five counts of abuse and harassment using a telecommunications device. Parish also admitted to a special finding that he targeted his victims based on their actual and perceived religion.

According to court documents, during April and May 2022, the defendant used a voiceover internet protocol service to make a series of phone calls to synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

In these calls, the defendant spoke to individuals answering the telephone calls on behalf of their respective institutions, at which time he repeatedly referenced the genocide of approximately six million Jewish people during the Holocaust, stating, among other things, “Heil Hitler,” “all Jews must die,” “we will put you in work camps,” “gas the Jews” and “Hitler should have finished the job.”

Parish is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 24 and faces a statutory maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a $1.5 million fine and a $600 special assessment. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Mathew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Assistant Director Michael Nordwall of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division made the announcement.

The FBI Philadelphia Field Office is investigating the case.

Trial Attorney Justin Sher of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Jeanette Kang for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania are prosecuting the case, with assistance from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi.

Source: United States Department of Justice

The Justice Department announced today its findings that the State of Missouri violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by unnecessarily institutionalizing adults with mental health disabilities in nursing facilities. The investigation also examined the role of guardianships in such institutionalization.