El Salvadoran who snuck in U.S. convicted of racketeering

An El Salvadoran national who snuck across the U.S. border to organize local branches of the violent street gang, MS-13, was convicted of four counts of racketeering yesterday in U.S. District Court in Boston.

Rafael Leoner-Aguirre, 22, faces up to 20 years in prison followed by deportation, when he is sentenced for conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity.

Leoner-Aguirre was the leader of the Enfermos Criminal Salvatrucha clique of La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, federal prosecutors said. The Enfermos clique was one of many MS-13 cliques operating in Massachusetts from 2013 to 2016.

“Once Leoner-Aguirre arrived in Massachusetts, he encouraged members of the clique to attack and kill rival gang members, in addition to committing other racketeering acts such as robberies,” federal prosecutors said in a statement. “Leoner-Aguirre himself committed a number of racketeering acts, including an attempted murder involving a shooting and another attempted murder involving a machete.”

According to the indictment, on April 6, 2014, he attempted to kill two men with a machete. On April 16, 2014, he shot at two other rivals, hitting one of them. In January 2015, he told a fellow MS-13 member that he had identified a suspected informant and attacked them with a machete.

“Even before arriving in Chelsea, Leoner-Aguirre began recruiting and planning MS13 activities,” prosecutors said in a statement. “Among other things, Leoner-Aguirre created recruitment videos for MS-13 and posted them on YouTube. This enabled younger members to view these videos, including one witness who testified that he first saw these videos while at a local high school.”

Leoner-Aguirre is expected to be sentenced on March 2, 2018.