MS-13 Gang Member From Aspen Hill Sentenced To Prison: DOJ

SILVER SPRING, MD — An MS-13 gang member from Aspen Hill was sentenced to prison on Thursday for conspiring to kidnap and murder a man he believed was a rival gang member, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland.

Daniel Flores-Ventura — also known as "Necio" — faces 30 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release.

"This sentence reaffirms the message that the violence perpetrated by MS-13 members and associates will not be tolerated," said United States Attorney Robert K. Hur. "Our ongoing work with our law enforcement partners to bring MS-13 members to justice demonstrates our unflagging commitment to eliminate MS-13 and its campaign of wanton violence."

Beginning in June or July 2015, prosecutors said Flores-Ventura, 26, and his co-conspirators — Vilas Sail Argueta-Bermudez, Wilians Ernesto Lovos-Ayala, and Michael Campos-Lemus — planned to murder Guillermo Hernandez Leyva, 19. They believed Leyva was a member of the rival 18th Street gang.

According to prosecutors, Flores-Ventura drove Leyva from Silver Spring, Maryland to Woodbridge, Virginia, on June 16, 2015, on the pretext that (Leyva) was going to participate in a "disciplinary beating." As soon as they reached a wooded area, Flores-Ventura struck Leyva on the head. Then, Argueta-Bermudez, Lovos-Ayala, Campos-Lemus, and other MS-13 members and associates stabbed him multiple times with machetes and knives.

Prosecutors said Flores-Ventura admitted to murdering Leyva in order to increase the status of MS-13 or the gang members who participated in the crime.

MS-13, a gang composed primarily of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from El Salvador, has branches or "cliques" that work to increase the gang's levels of organization, violence, extortion, and other criminal activity, according to federal prosecutors.

"Gang members and their violent crimes have no room here in Maryland," said John Eisert, Homeland Security Investigations Baltimore special agent in charge. "This significant sentencing pulls one more of these dangerous operatives off of the streets and weakens the larger illicit organization, one member at a time. I commend and thank the agents who routinely put themselves in harm's way and continue our concerted efforts to dismantle these criminal organizations."

Argueta-Bermudez, of Aspen Hill, Wilians Ernesto Lovos-Ayala of Woodbridge, Virginia, and Michael Campos-Lemus, of Aspen Hill, previously pleaded guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced later this year.