Inmates during a visit by Chile’s President-elect Jose Antonio Kast (out of frame) to the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) mega-prison, where hundreds of MS-13 and 18th Street gang members are being held, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, on Jan. 30, 2026. Oscar Rivera / AFP via Getty Images
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.
