An MS-13 gang leader has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in orchestrating, directing and participating in several killings in Maryland and Virginia.
Junior Noe Alvarado-Requeno, 24, of El Salvador, helped lead a local MS-13 clique based in Langley Park, Maryland. In a news release announcing the sentencing, the Justice Department said the group also trafficked drugs and shook down local businesses for so-called “rent” — the price of operating in gang territory.
Alvarado-Requeno was sentenced for his role in five deaths.
They include the ambush-killing of a suspected rival gang member in June 2016. The victim was lured to the woods at Malcolm King Park in Gaithersburg, after the promise of a sexual liaison with a female MS-13 associate. But when he arrived, he was attacked and stabbed 153 times. The victim turned out not to be a member of any gang.
Six months later, Alvarado-Requeno oversaw and took part in the death of a 14-year-old MS-13 member who was suspected of talking to police, which is a prohibited action for any member. The boy’s remains were discovered a year and a half later outside of Germantown, Maryland.
Alvarado-Requeno was also convicted and sentenced for ordering a squad to kill a Lynchburg, Virginia teenager in March 2017.
The high school student had a dispute over marijuana with members of Alvarado-Requeno’s clique, who were in Lynchburg hiding from law enforcement. Alvarado-Requeno ordered a squad to travel down to Lynchburg and kill the teen.
The Justice Department said they kidnapped the boy from his front lawn, cut off his hand and killed him.
Alvarado-Requeno and fellow clique leader, co-defendant Miguel Angel Corea Diaz, 41, of New Jersey, helped the members of the clique get away from police.
The jury also found that Alvarado-Requeno killed two other people.
Both Corea Diaz and Alvarado-Requeno were convicted in November 2021. Corea Diaz was sentenced to life in prison on April 1, 2022.
Alvarado-Requeno received his life sentence Monday.
Trial evidence showed the two controlled an MS-13 clique known as the “Sailors” between 2015 and 2018. In addition to murder and extortion, the group was also involved in the illegal trafficking of marijuana, heroin and cocaine.
“The brutal and tragic violence perpetrated by Alvarado-Requeno and his fellow MS-13 gang members is totally unacceptable,” U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron said in a statement.
“Today’s sentence sends the message that the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland and our local and state partners are working together to remove these violent international gang members to keep our communities safe from the threat of MS-13,” Barron said.
MS-13 is a transnational gang, and one of the largest street gangs in the United States. In Maryland, they’re active in Frederick, Anne Arundel, Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.
