Prosecutors say MS-13 defendants are gang leaders

Prosecutors say they are high-ranking members of MS-13, or La Mara Salvatrucha, a gang that has expanded its influence through fear, intimidation and violence, largely in Latino communities. They are allegedly linked to beatings, robberies and a gang rape in Prince George's County.

"It's about turf. It's about reputation and power," Trusty said. "This is not just some sort of loose-knit social club."

The three defendants are the second group of alleged members charged under a 2005 racketeering indictment to come to trial. They are said to be higher on the organizational chart than Edgar Alberto Ayala and Oscar Ramos Velasquez, the defendants who were found guilty of racketeering by a federal jury in November.

Trusty said Zelaya, aka "Homeboy," was the founder of the Maryland TLS clique, a division of the larger gang. He said Vasquez was so powerful he even traveled to El Salvador to negotiate with MS-13 members in prison.

Each defendant is accused of racketeering conspiracy. Under the charge, Zelaya is accused of executing rival gang member Noel Gudiel after beating him with other members in Langley Park in April 2003. He is the first member accused of committing a murder to come to trial.

Diaz and Vasquez are charged with conspiring to murder Fairfax resident Anthony Campos, who was killed outside his northern Virginia apartment in 2005.

Defense attorneys argued Tuesday that the co-defendants must be judged separately, and not tried for the actions of the gang.

"MS-13 is not a defendant in this case," said Diaz's attorney Manuel Retureta.

Retureta and Vasquez's attorney Joseph Gigliotti said there will be no evidence to prove their clients were at the scene of the Campos killing.

"All of this [evidence] is like a tornado that's going to surround this courtroom," Gigliotti said.

The trial will likely involve many of the same witnesses and alleged crimes that were reviewed during last year's trial. Trusty said the prosecution will call some of the same cooperating gang members who testified last year to testify again.

This trial will also detail for jurors an alleged gang rape that occurred in 2003 in Hyattsville, which prosecutors accuse Zelaya of presiding over. The victims of that crime took the stand last year, providing startling and graphic testimony of the incident.

And prosecutors expect to use this case, like the last trial, to expose the gang's routine activities, which they say include paying dues at regular meetings, wearing the blue and white gang colors, "jumping in" new members by beating them for 13 seconds, and beating and killing rival gang members.

Trusty also mentioned the 2003 murders of Eluith Madrigal in Silver Spring and of MS-13 member Randy Calderon, but did not clarify what role the defendants in this case may have played in those slayings.

Twenty-two total gang members were indicted in this case between August 2005 and April 2006. Seven of them have pleaded guilty.

The gang is known to have about 10,000 members operating in at least 10 states, the District, Mexico and Central America, according to the original indictment.

E-mail Judson Berger at jberger@gazette.net.