Multiple MS-13 Members Sentenced to Decades in Prison for Brutal Murders

Eight illegal immigrant members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) transnational criminal gang were sentenced to multidecade prison terms for being part of a racketeering conspiracy that involved committing “brutal murders,” including killing victims as young as 14 years old.

“All are El Salvadoran nationals illegally present in the United States. They previously pleaded guilty, admitting to being members of MS-13 and participating in a criminal enterprise responsible for murders, extortion, drug trafficking, robbery, and obstruction of justice in and around the Houston area from 2017 through 2018,” the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in an April 21 statement.

Two MS-13 members, Edgardo Martinez-Rodriguez and Wilman Rivas-Guido, were sentenced on April 21, receiving prison terms of 50 years and 45 years, respectively. The other six members were previously sentenced to jail time ranging from 35 years to 50 years.

According to the DOJ, the MS-13 members carried out murders to elevate their ranks within the gang. After killing the targets, members sent photos of the victims’ bodies to the gang’s leadership in El Salvador. Gang members would sometimes mutilate the bodies of victims before sending images.

Martinez-Rodriguez and Rivas-Guido admitted to being involved in murders ordered by high-ranking MS-13 leaders in El Salvador.

According to a DOJ fact sheet, MS-13 has been functioning in the United States since at least the 1980s. In the United States, the gang originated in Los Angeles, where members engaged in turf wars to gain control over drug distribution locations.

One of the largest gangs in the country, MS-13 recruits members from communities with a large number of immigrants from El Salvador. The gang also recruits juveniles.

In February 2025, the U.S. State Department designated several Mexican drug cartels and transnational criminal gangs, including MS-13, as global terrorist organizations.

MS-13 engages in violent criminal activity across the United States, including California, Texas, Maryland, and Virginia, according to the DOJ.

Commenting on the sentencing of the eight gang members, Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva from the DOJ’s Criminal Division said: “These defendants, acting on behalf of a transnational criminal gang, carried out brutal murders, killing victims with machetes, baseball bats, and their bare hands, and then glorifying their violent acts by sending photos of their carnage to MS-13 leaders in El Salvador.

“The lengthy sentences imposed send an unmistakable message that MS-13 and its accompanying violence are not welcome in the United States.”

The sentencing comes as a Salvadoran court started a collective trial of 486 alleged MS-13 gang members on April 21.

The indictment charges gang members with more than 47,000 crimes, allegedly committed between 2012 and 2022. The charges include homicide, femicide [specific targeting of girls and women], extortion, and arms trafficking.

This is one of the biggest mass trials under President Nayib ‌Bukele’s crackdown on gang violence since he enacted emergency powers to tackle organized criminal groups.

The United States has prosecuted multiple MS-13 members. This past week, the DOJ announced that an MS-13 member pleaded guilty in a Boston court for his role in the murders of three people. The Salvadoran national allegedly took part in beating, shooting, and dismembering the victims.

In December 2025, three members from the gang were sentenced for racketeering and murder, including killing a 16-year-old girl.

The designation of MS-13 as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department in February 2025 followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s signing of an executive order on Jan. 20, 2025. Transnational organizations such as MS-13 have engaged in campaigns of violence and terror in the United States and globally that are “extraordinarily violent, vicious, and similarly threaten the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere,” Trump wrote in the order.

“It is the policy of the United States to ensure the total elimination of these organizations’ presence in the United States and their ability to threaten the territory, safety, and security of the United States,” the order reads.