An MS-13 chief is on trial in Virginia for his position in half a dozen grotesque murders over the previous 5 years, together with one wherein he and his gang shot a younger waitress within the face so many instances that her corpse was unrecognizable.
Federal prosecutors say Elmer Alas Candray, a 27-year-old native of El Salvador, grew to become one among Virginia’s most prolific killers as he rose by the ranks of the savage gang identified for its grotesque violence. according to the Washington Post.
However now he faces the music in federal court docket in Alexandria, the place he’s charged with homicide, racketeering conspiracy and firearms fees stemming from the six killings that left 5 our bodies in upscale Fairfax County, Va., and one other in Massachusetts, mentioned the version.
Prosecutors say the homicide case – which might have despatched Alas Candrei to life in jail if convicted – is the largest they’ve dropped at court docket in a number of years.
Paradoxically, it might be his personal individuals who get him.
Of the eight different gang members charged final yr within the murders, seven have pleaded responsible – and 5 plan to testify towards Alas Candrei, the one individual alleged to have been concerned in all six murders between 2018 and 2022 ., the publication mentioned.
In court docket, Assistant US Legal professional Megan Brown recounted the small print of the case as photographs of the victims’ brutalized our bodies flashed throughout tv screens.
In a single case, Alas Candray’s crew grew to become indignant that individuals have been ingesting, smoking and promoting medication in a small forest behind a shopping mall about 10 minutes east of Dulles Worldwide Airport, which they thought of their territory.
Rogue exercise saved the cops round — so one evening in 2019, they despatched a message by killing the primary individual they noticed in these woods: 24-year-old Jose Guillen Mejia.
The criminals left his bullet-riddled physique mendacity amongst a pile of beer bottles and shell casings, a detective testified.
The next yr, Alas Candrey and three others lured Iris Ponce Garcia, a 19-year-old waitress who had bashed MS-13 in a social media video, into the identical woods and killed her.
“They shot Iris 16 instances, largely within the face, leaving her unrecognizable,” Brown instructed the court docket.
They killed Rene Pineda Sanchez, 27, two years later in the identical spot, just because he was hanging out in these woods, the Washington Put up reported.
The gang members beat the person so badly {that a} medical expert mentioned he regarded just like the sufferer of a automotive accident, along with his inner organs ripped open and his cranium fractured, which that they had pierced with a rock.
And in 2022, they lower one among their very own, beating 42-year-old Francisco Avelar Rivera (often called “Papalito”) to dying with a baseball bat and stabbing him a number of instances at Seneca Regional Park in Nice Falls, Brown added.
The person was often called a heavy drinker who would inflate his rank within the gang, she mentioned.
That was sufficient.
“They lower off his head. His arms have been lower off. His arms have been lower off. They lower his legs off,” Brown mentioned.
“They buried Papalito’s stays within the woods, the place they lay undiscovered for over a yr.”
Particulars observe, given the gang’s popularity for near-unparalleled brutality, with its hundreds of members typically counting on weapons and machetes to hold out their bloody dealings.
Alas Candrey can be accused of involvement within the 2021 gangland killing of Santos rival Antonio Trejo Lemus, in addition to the 2018 slaying of Kevin Abarca-Choto, 18, in New Bedford, Mass., over unpaid money owed, the Washington Put up mentioned .
Nevertheless, Andrew Stewart, defending Alas Candrei, mentioned prosecutors didn’t have the proof they wanted to convict him of the crimes.
“These horrific pictures don’t present that Mr. Alas Candrei is responsible of those crimes,” Stewart mentioned in his opening assertion this week.
He additionally claimed that the 5 defected gang members have been solely attempting to shift blame “to serve their very own curiosity,” the paper added.
In the meantime, prosecutors say they discovered a success record that included Pineda Sanchez’s identify on Alas Candrey’s telephone.
Additionally they took a gun linked to the taking pictures once they raided his Manassas, Va., house — in addition to two revolvers, two machetes, a baseball bat, knives and ammunition, Brown mentioned.
MS-13 has hundreds of members in El Salvador, the place its actions are led by leaders within the nation’s prisons, the publication mentioned.
Though authorities in Northern Virginia have convicted dozens of alleged gangsters for homicide, drug offers and human trafficking, their presence within the Capitol space continues.
The trial towards Alas Candrei is more likely to final a number of weeks.
