Prosecutors said the offenses range from plotting to murder a fellow gang member to drug dealing
NEWARK -- Six members of the MS-13 street gang have been sentenced to federal prison terms ranging from six to nine years for their roles in what prosecutors have described as a violent push to consolidate the gang's nationwide activities.
The Martin Luther King U.S. Courthouse in Newark, where six members of the MS-13 street gang were sentenced this week to federal prison terms of varying length. Prosecutors have described all of the defendants as members of Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, which grew out of the Salvadoran immigrant community in Southern California.
The six MS-13 members sentenced Monday and Tuesday in Newark had been implicated in crimes ranging from extortion to drug dealing, and some were involved in a 2013 plot to murder a fellow gang member and his brother, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Those sentenced include:
- Marvin Garcia-Cruz, 33, of West New York; nine years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering and conspiring to possess firearms in furtherance of a crime of violence.
- Amilcar Romero, 47, of Los Angeles; five years in prison for racketeering conspiracy.
- German Lisandro Benites-Moreno, 23, of Houston; five years in prison for racketeering conspiracy and conspiring to ship firearms while an illegal alien.
- Hector Carranza-Soliz, 32, of West New York; five years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering.
- Luis Lopez-Guzman, 26, of Union City; five years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering
- Rudy Gutierrez, 24, of Union City; five years in prison for racketeering conspiracy.
The defendants were among a dozen alleged gang members indicted in 2014 on racketeering and conspiracy charges. The U.S. Attorney's Office said those charges stemmed from criminal activities led by Jose Juan Rodriguez-Juarez, an MS-13 leader who court papers describe as also being a senior leader in the Mexican Mafia.
Prosecutors say Rodriguez-Juarez and his deputies, Romero and Joel Antonio Cortez, were involved in attempts to organize the gang's various local subsets, or cliques, under a single national leadership structure.
Lopez-Guzman, Carranza-Solis and Gutierrez were members of the Hudson Locotes Salvatruchas clique, while Garcia-Cruz led the Pinos Locos Salvatruchas Clique, also based in Hudson County.
All four admitted involvement in the 2013 murder plot, the statement says.
The six remaining defendants from the 2014 indictment, including Rodriguez-Juarez and Antonio Cortez, also have pleaded guilty to various charges and are scheduled to be sentenced later this year, court records show.
Romero will begin serving his sentence on the federal racketeering conspiracy charge only after he completes a 44-year state prison sentence for murder in California, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook.