King County Gang Used Facebook To Plot Killings: Police

SEATTLE, WA - King County detectives believe they have caught five men responsible for several killings and shootings that occurred in April 2017. The men were arrested over the last week on charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

The men arrested this week belonged to the United Lokotes gang. Last year, they were involved in a war with rival gang Varrio Locos. The war began last April when Lokotes member Artura Marcial Alvarez, 19, was shot to death while getting off a Metro bus in Federal Way.

Hours later, the Lokotes retaliated, killing an apparent Varrio Locos gang member outside an AM/PM store along Ambaum Boulevard in Burien. Shortly after that, United Lokotes members opened fire on a woman sitting in a van parked in the South Park neighborhood in Seattle. That woman had apparently been a getaway driver in the Alvarez killing.

According to King County detectives, the United Lokotes members were linked by a Facebook chat group, which they used to plan killings of Varrio Locos members. In the days after last April's violence, one member of the Facebook chat group, Francisco Montero, allegedly wrote "We just got one of the VL’s last night," in reference to the AM/PM killing.

In addition to Montero, police arrested Fray-Martin Garcia, 19; Sergio Salgado-Vanata, 17; Jesus Terraza-Avalos, 19; and Ismael Martinez, 17. Salgado-Vanata and Martinez will be tried as adults, according to the King County Sheriff's Office.

Related stories:

Seattle Woman Shot In Head In South Park Neighborhood: Police

3 Dead In Separate Shootings In Seattle, Burien, Federal Way

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