The United Stated Department of Justice announced on Monday that Junior Noe Alvarado-Requeno, 24, of Landover, was sentenced to life in federal prison for conspiring to participate in La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), and for three counts each of “murder in aid of racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, as well as for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana and cocaine.”  Alvarado-Requeno was convicted of those charges on November 23, 2021.  According to a press release, the evidence showed that in June 2016, Alvarado-Requeno ordered members of the Sailors Clique to murder a suspected rival in the woods at Malcolm King Park in Gaithersburg.  Luring him with the promise of sex with a female MS-13 associate, the gang members ambushed the teenaged victim and stabbed him 153 times. It was later determined that the victim did not belong to any gang. You can view the original MCPD news release here.

According to the evidence presented at the four-week trial, between 2015 and 2018, Alvarado-Requeno and his co-defendant, Miguel Angel Corea Diaz, a/k/a “Reaper,” age 41, of Long Branch, New Jersey, controlled and operated the Sailors Locos Salvatruchos Westside (S.L.S.W. or “Sailors”) Clique through a pattern of racketeering activity, which included murder, extortion, drug trafficking, money laundering, and witness tampering.  Evidence showed that the gang ran a protection scheme in and around its home base in Langley Park, Maryland, and extorted local businesses by charging them “rent” for the privilege of operating in MS-13 “territory.”  The gang also trafficked in illegal drugs, including marijuana, heroin, and cocaine.  A large share of the proceeds of the gang’s illegal activities were sent to gang leadership in El Salvador to further promote the goals of the gang, using structured transactions and intermediaries to avoid law enforcement scrutiny.