November 20, 2007
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2007/November/07_crm_934.html
MS-13 Member Sentenced to More Than 19 Years in Prison for Involvement in a Racketeering Conspiracy
WASHINGTON – A member of La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, has been sentenced to 235 months in prison for his participation in a racketeering enterprise, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Edward M. Yarbrough of the Middle District of Tennessee announced today.
Geovanni Pena, a.k.a. Rata, was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge Todd J. Campbell of the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville. Judge Campbell also ordered Pena to serve three years of supervised release.
At his plea hearing on Sept. 6, 2007, Pena admitted that he and others involved in the MS-13 gang conspired to participate in a pattern of racketeering activity in the Nashville metropolitan area, which included murder and attempted murder. In addition, Pena admitted that on September 3, 2006, as part of his membership in MS-13, he fired a handgun into a crowd of people outside Club Coco Loco in metropolitan Nashville and shot and wounded two men. Pena had believed that people in the crowd were members of the rival street gang Brown Pride. Pena also admitted that on Sept. 4, 2006, at Percy Priest Lake in Nashville, he shot a man several times in the back because he believed the man to be a member of the rival street gang 18th Street.
Pena is the first defendant to be sentenced on the RICO indictment returned by a federal grand jury on Jan. 10, 2007. That indictment charges 14 members of MS-13 with conspiring to participate in the affairs of a racketeering enterprise and related charges including murder, attempted murder, assault, weapons charges, and obstruction of justice. Of the 14 defendants originally charged in the indictment, seven have pleaded guilty to racketeering offenses. Trial for the remaining seven defendants is currently scheduled for April 8, 2008.
The MS-13 street gang is a violent international criminal organization composed primarily of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from El Salvador. The purpose of the racketeering enterprise was to preserve and protect the power, territory, and profits of the MS-13 enterprise through violent assault, murder, threats of violence, and intimidation.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jimmie Lynn Ramsaur of the Middle District of Tennessee and Department of Justice Trial Attorneys David Jaffe and John Han from the Criminal Division’s Gang Squad.
This case was investigated by the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department’s Gang Suppression Unit, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Department of Homeland Security, the Davidson County District Attorney General’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Tennessee, and the Gang Squad at the Department of Justice.
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07-934
I missed this one.
UPDATE:
http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/248
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http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/06/america/NA-GEN-US-Terror-Sting.php
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November 6, 2007
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/pam/press_releases/Reynolds_11_06_07.htm
MAN CONVICTED OF ATTEMPTING TO
PROVIDE MATERIAL SUPPORT TO AL-QAEDA SENTENCED TO 30 YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT
Martin C. Carlson, Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and J P Weis, Special Agent in Charge, Philadelphia Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced today that Michael Curtis Reynolds, age 49, formerly of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Edwin M. Kosik to a 30-year term of imprisonment for attempting to provide material support to Al-Qaeda and related charges. On July 13, 2007, a federal jury returned the guilty verdicts on the charges after about an hour of deliberation.
According to Acting U.S. Attorney Carlson, the evidence at trial established that starting in October 2005, Michael Curtis Reynolds began an attempt to aid a foreign terrorist organization—Al-Qaeda. Reynolds’ plan was to help Al-Qaeda units that he believed existed in Canada and this country to make an attempt to destroy fuel pipelines servicing the United States. He was motivated to solicit and assist in this proposed attack because he disagreed with war in Iraq, was angered by the revocation of his passport while he was in Thailand, and by his own personal greed.
Fortunately Reynolds’ plan was reported to the FBI just as it was beginning. From that point, a cooperating witness and later an FBI Special Agent posing as an Al-Qaeda terrorist communicated with Reynolds over the Internet about his scheme. Posing as that terrorist, for approximately a month they discussed with Reynolds his targets and other details of his plan. This communication over the Internet involved more than 50 messages and lasted until December 5, 2005, when FBI Special Agents arrested Reynolds at a desolate rest stop near Pocatello, Idaho, commonly known in the area as Hell’s Half Acre. Reynolds was arrested when he arrived to pick up what he believed would be $40,000, which was partial payment for his services and future services to the Al-Qaeda terrorists. The evidence at trial also established that Reynolds possessed an unregistered grenade within his storage locker in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Reynolds was convicted of attempting to provide material support to Al-Qaeda, a terrorist organization; attempting to provide material support and resources to be used in maliciously damaging or destroying property by means of force or explosive; soliciting others to engage in a felony using physical force against property; distributing over the Internet information to be used in furtherance of a crime of violence; and possession of an unregistered grenade. The jury acquitted him of another unregistered-grenade charge.
Mr. Carlson stated, “Since September 11, 2001, the first priority of all law enforcement agencies has been to prevent future acts of terror in our homeland. Today’s sentencing constitutes a triumph of the rule of law over those who would use terror against this nation. Because of the astute work of the FBI, and the hard work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Gurganus, a plot by a would-be Al-Qaeda sympathizer was uncovered, and successfully prosecuted. Today’s sentence sends a clear message: Individuals such as Reynolds, who operate outside the law to impose terror represent a threat to our safety. Such would-be terrorists will be dealt with severely under our system of laws. I commend the FBI and everyone involved in the prosecution of this case for bringing him to justice.”
Reynolds is presently imprisoned at the Lackawanna County Jail in Scranton, Pennsylvania, pending his designation to a federal correctional facility by the United States Bureau of Prisons.
This case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John C. Gurganus.
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