He and two other gang members killed a man in Frederick nearly five years ago.
Baltimore, Md (KM). A stiff sentence was handed down on Monday in US District Court to a Silver Spring man for his association with the MS 13 gang. Raul Ernesto Landaverde-Giron, 28, received two consecutive life sentences for conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise in connection with his gang activity in MS 13. He was also sentenced for his other violent crimes, including murder in the aid of racketeering, conspiracy to commit murder in the aid of racketeering, using, carrying and discharging a firearm in a crime of violence, and murder resulting from the use, carrying and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, according the US Attorney’s Office for Maryland.
A federal jury convicted Landaverde–Giron of those offense on March 14th, 2018, after a three-week trial.
US Attorney for Maryland, Robert Hur, says Landaverde–Giron and two other members of the Normandie Clique of MS 13, killed another man in Frederick on November 30th, 2013. He says the victim had fled El Salvador after a green light was imposed on him by MS 13 members. A green light is the go-ahead from the gang to kill another person. The victim was spotted in Maryland by MS 13 members, who contacted their counterparts in El Salvador and were told the green light for his murder is still in effect; and were told to kill that individual .
“So that Mr. Landaverde–Giron and two other gang members, they lured him out to a wooded area in Frederick, and the victim was shot in the head,”: says Hur. “This particular defendant, Mr. Landaverde–Giron, and other co-conspirators, they stabbed the victim in the face and the neck.”
Hur says Landaverde–Giron was taken down by a federal program called Project Safe Communities. “At its core is cooperation between all sorts of law enforcement authorities at the federal, state and local level,” he says. “Each district around the country has its own specific violent crime problems. No two districts are the same, and no two violent crime programs are going to be same. But really at its root is this cooperation between state, federal and local authorities.”
MS 13, which is composed primarily of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from El Salvador, is one of the largest street gangs in the country, says Hur. “In Montgomery County and Prince George’s County, that’s really where MS 13 has had its strongest presence. But in recent years, we have seen them actually spreading northward. Obviously, we’ve got this particular murder that happened in Frederick. But there are, unfortunately, other counties, including Anne Arundel County in the state, that have seen increased MS 13 presence and activity,” he says.
By Kevin McManus