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MS-13 gang trial in Boston begins despite Trump remarks
Source: Reuters
#U.S. FEBRUARY 1, 2018 / 2:25 PM / UPDATED 19 HOURS AGO
MS-13 gang trial in Boston begins despite Trump remarks
Nate Raymond
3 MIN READ
BOSTON (Reuters) - Four suspected members of the notoriously violent MS-13 gang went on trial on Thursday after a federal judge in Boston denied a request to delay the case to ensure that critical remarks made by President Donald Trump this week did not prejudice jurors.
During his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, Trump referred to the gang as “savage” and said that two teenage girls in New York state whose parents were in attendance were “brutally murdered” by the gang’s members.
Federal prosecutors allege that Herzzon Sandoval and Edwin Guzman were leaders of a Massachusetts-based MS-13 “clique” called Eastside Loco Salvatrucha. They are charged with racketeering conspiracy along with Cesar Martinez and Erick Argueta Larios.
Thursday’s opening statements took place two days after Trump sharply condemned MS-13 in his speech to Congress. The White House blames the gang’s existence mostly on illegal immigration from Central America.
MS-13, which started in Los Angeles in the 1980s, has since grown into a cross-border criminal organization with leadership in El Salvador that has 30,000 members worldwide and 10,000 in the United States, the U.S. Justice Department says.
-snip-
MS-13 gang trial in Boston begins despite Trump remarks
Nate Raymond
3 MIN READ
BOSTON (Reuters) - Four suspected members of the notoriously violent MS-13 gang went on trial on Thursday after a federal judge in Boston denied a request to delay the case to ensure that critical remarks made by President Donald Trump this week did not prejudice jurors.
During his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, Trump referred to the gang as “savage” and said that two teenage girls in New York state whose parents were in attendance were “brutally murdered” by the gang’s members.
Federal prosecutors allege that Herzzon Sandoval and Edwin Guzman were leaders of a Massachusetts-based MS-13 “clique” called Eastside Loco Salvatrucha. They are charged with racketeering conspiracy along with Cesar Martinez and Erick Argueta Larios.
Thursday’s opening statements took place two days after Trump sharply condemned MS-13 in his speech to Congress. The White House blames the gang’s existence mostly on illegal immigration from Central America.
MS-13, which started in Los Angeles in the 1980s, has since grown into a cross-border criminal organization with leadership in El Salvador that has 30,000 members worldwide and 10,000 in the United States, the U.S. Justice Department says.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-massachusetts-crime-gang/ms-13-gang-trial-in-boston-begins-despite-trump-remarks-idUSKBN1FL6B2