MS-13 Member Sentenced to More than 1,300 Years Behind Bars For Over 20 Murders And Extortion

Continuing its tough-on-crime policy against violent gangs that have transformed El Salvador over the past few decades, the government of Nayib Bukele sentenced more than 240 members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, also known as MS-13, imposing some of the longest prison terms in the country's history.

Facing hundreds of charges, including 43 counts of aggravated homicide, 42 counts of kidnapping, and dozens more for extortion and drug trafficking, El Salvador's Attorney General's Office announced on social media that the MS-13 members received sentences totaling hundreds of years.

The 248 defendants identified by Salvadoran authorities were primarily members of MS-13 cliques including Teclas Locos Salvatruchos (TLS), Ayagualos Locos Salvatruchos, Areneras Locos Salvatruchos, City Vagos Locos Salvatruchos, and Cangrejeras Locos Salvatruchos. They were linked to crimes committed between 2014 and 2022.

Marvin Abel Hernández Palacios, also known as "Nocturno de Teclas," received the longest sentence, 1,393 years in prison. He was convicted of more than 20 counts of aggravated homicide and aggravated extortion, including the murders of the Guerrero Toledo brothers and Alianza Women soccer player Jimena Granados, according to El Salvador Times.

In the case of the disappearance and subsequent homicide of the Guerrero Toledo brothers in December 2021, the Attorney General's Office said 17 gang members were involved, each receiving 130-year sentences.

Salvadoran authorities linked 10 other MS-13 members to the femicide of Granados, who disappeared in October 2021 in the Santa Tecla region.

According to the court documents, at the time of her disappearance, Granados got separated from her friends as they headed to a nearby store from the soccer field where they were playing. She was then intercepted by members of the Teclas Locos Salvatruchos (TLS) clique and her remains weren't discovered until a month later in a grave on a local farm.

Another convicted member is Kelvin Edgardo Germán Rivas, also known as "Sapa," who was sentenced to 873 years in prison for his involvement in 14 counts of aggravated homicide and 12 kidnappings.

Among those convicted were also 13 Mara Salvatrucha clique leaders, known as "shot callers." Three of them were sentenced to 45 years in prison for their leadership roles, according to officials.

El Salvador's Attorney General's Office did not clarify whether the convicted gang members were captured under the state of exception in place since March 2022 against violent gangs, or if they were already in prison before the measure.

It also did not specify whether the trials were part of mass proceedings, which human rights organizations say have been carried out in El Salvador for people detained under the state of exception approved by Bukele.

Since the start of the measure, which allows arrests without prior judicial orders, more than 90,000 people have been detained and housed in maximum-security prisons, including the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT).