Alleged MS-13 Gang Members Face Murder, Assault Charges: Feds

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA — Three men face conspiracy to commit murder and other charges in connection with a 2017 killing of a man in Charlottesville and two 2019 assaults in Prince William County, according to prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The three men, alleged MS-13 gang members, each face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum penalty of life in prison if found guilty.

According to an indictment unsealed Tuesday, Andy Tovar, 31, of White Post was the leader of the Guanacos Lil Cycos Salvatruchas clique of MS-13, while Roberto Cruz Moreno, 20, of Woodbridge was a soldier in the GLCS clique and Kevin Perez Sandoval, 22, of Warrenton was an associate in the GLCS clique.

In July 2017, Tovar allegedly authorized members and associates of the GLCS clique to travel from Prince William County to Charlottesville to kill a man that they believed to be a member of a rival gang. At Tovar’s direction, on or about July 3, 2017, four members of the GLCS clique stabbed a man more than 140 times using knives and a machete before they dumped his dead body in a river, burned his car, and fled back to Prince William County, according to the indictment.

In March 2019, Cruz Moreno allegedly picked up three other members of GLCS, along with another man, and drove them to an isolated wooded area in Bristow, where one member of GLCS shot the man multiple times while another GLCS member stabbed him because members of GLCS believed the man "was disrespecting MS-13," according to the indictment.

Following the attempted murder, Cruz Moreno fled the scene with the three other GLCS participants and drove them to his residence, the federal attorney's office said.

In April 2019, Fairfax County police allegedly found Cruz Moreno in possession of the same firearm used to shoot the victim in Bristow.

In August 2019, members of GLCS identified another man as a rival gang member "living in GLCS controlled territory," the federal attorney's office said. Tovar allegedly authorized members of GLCS to kill the man. On Aug. 12, 2019, Perez Sandoval and two members of GLCS saw the man at a laundromat in Manassas and sought Tovar’s permission to kill him, the indictment said.

After Tovar allegedly granted permission to conduct the killing at the laundromat, Perez Sandoval drove the two members of MS-13 to get a gun and back to the laundromat area where the man was shot.

The victims in Bristow and Manassas survived their injuries.