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MS-13 member admits he helped kill a teenager on Constitution Beach in exchange for a promotion in the gang

Melara

A member of an Everett MS-13 "clique" pleaded guilty Friday to helping to catfish a 15-year-old to Constitution Beach in East Boston so that he and other gang members could beat and stab him to death in 2015 as part of an MS-13 war on a rival gang.

Carlos "Chuchito" Melara, 21, will be sentenced on July 30 for Wilson Martinez's death, the US Attorney's office reports. In a plea deal, he agreed to a sentence of between 30 and 40 years - followed by possible deportation to his native El Salvador. The judge can reject the deal, however.

According to the US Attorney's office:

On Sept. 7, 2015, Melara, Henry Josue Parada Martinez, a/k/a “Street Danger,” and another MS-13 member participated in the murder of a teenage boy on Constitution Beach in East Boston. The defendants targeted the victim in a “catfishing” scheme in which they used a fake Facebook account to trick the victim into thinking he was talking to a girl. In reality, the Facebook account was being controlled by MS-13 members to lure in suspected gang rivals so that the gang could murder them.

On the day of the murder, Melara picked up the victim on a scooter pretending to be a friend of the girl that the victim was planning to meet for a date. Melara drove the victim to Constitution Beach, where the other MS-13 members were waiting to kill him. Melara and the other MS-13 members took turns attacking and stabbing the victim to death. Melara was promoted to “homeboy” or a full member of MS-13, as a reward for his participation in the murder.

Last November, Parada Martinez pleaded guilty to his role in the teen's death. His sentencing is scheduled for July 31 - rescheduled from the original March 1.

Last month, Oscar "Demente" Duran, 27, a leader of MS-13 for the East Coast, admitted he ordered deaths like Martinez's as part of a war on the rival 18th Street Gang at an MS-13 conclave in Richmond, VA. He faces possible life in prison at his June 1 sentencing.

In December, another MS-13 member admitted he helped kill another teenager in exchange for the sort of gang promotion Melara got.

Melara is the 40th of 61 people rounded up in MS-13 raids in 2016 to plead or be found guilty.

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Comments

n/t

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That's a great platitude but there are no guarantees. I'd prefer to focus on a more temporal solution.

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Well, there's a bunch, and I mean a whole pisspot full, like a couple of thousand, of what technically are illegal immigrants in Mexico, because they're not Mexicans, that are headed north.

Here's a 'National security correspondent for immigration at @BuzzFeedNews'
https://twitter.com/aflores/status/980875649589153792

And, a picture of the iron fence used by the Mexican authorities.

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I just can't fathom why all of it's "leaders" are in their 20s. You're either dead or in prison for life by the time your 30? These guys are a complete joke compared to the Russian, Italian, & Asian mafias.

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"These guys are a complete joke compared to the Russian, Italian, & Asian mafias."
Not so sure. The Herald is following the Salemme trial and they have witnesses coming out of the woodwork. Not so much omerta.

It seems to me that the MS are admitting to stuff that they did. I guess the Feds developed significant proof to put them away. I'm not seeing (or I'm missing) where they are testifying against each other. There's lots of MS in prisons. I guess they take care of each other in there.

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More are listed every week for Boston federal court: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr

While Homeland Security has arrested 65 suspected gang members locally (39 convicted so far), they have arrested 475 around New York and Long Island following the higher body count from gangs there: https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/joint-operation-nets-24-transnational-...

This good work is making cities much safer, especially for immigrants victimized by these gangs.

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Not unless he somehow transported himself back in time and made himself president in 2014-2016, when the investigations were done and the arrests made.

Both the investigations and the arrests were done in cooperation with local police in the affected communities (primarily Boston, Everett and Chelsea), which, you might recall, are all basically sanctuary cities, which is important because it meant people at the time felt freer to actually cooperate with law enforcement without fear of being arrested for the simple fact of existing.

But why let the facts get in the way of a good story?

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Somehow a certain Boston daily newspaper has decided that MS13 isn’t too big of a problem, just something that Trump thinks is a problem, and has decided to no longer report on any of this. Surprisingly, back in 2014 they did think that MS13 was a big problem. The question for me is what changed between 2014 and 2018, except the occupant of the White House.

You, on the other hand, have been editorially consistent with your view of this gang. I constantly salute you for reporting on this (though mostly silently.)

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I only attributed the term "bad Hombre" to Trump. That's it.

Ease up on assumptions and jumping to wrong conclusions.

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The Trump administration marks him for deportation and almost certain death, while many of the gang members he id'd to police are free and still in the US.

https://features.propublica.org/ms-13/a-betrayal-ms13-gang-police-fbi-ic...

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"And what happens when a gang member tries to do the right thing?"

From the article you cite:

"If gang members can’t receive protection in exchange for coming forward with information, police will have almost no means to penetrate the insular world of MS-13. School officials who turned Henry over to the authorities were outraged when they learned he had been trapped in a no man’s land between the gang and the law. “They certainly were taking advantage of what he had to offer,” says Robert Feliciano, the head of the Suffolk County school board. “You can’t just do that and then drop him.”

As it turns out...
"Those who work to get kids out of gangs echo that concern. “Anyone in MS-13 who sees what’s going on with this guy, they’re not going to want to talk to the cops,” says Bob DeSena, founder of the Council for Unity, one of the largest gang intervention programs in New York. “The one thing you never do — the last thing the police want to do — is send a message that if you cooperate with the police, you’re not going to get protection and no one is going to come speak up for you. Rivera, if he wasn’t full of shit, should pick up the phone and say, ‘Look, this guy helped us.’”

Emphasis mine.

"In fact, it appears that Henry’s case was mishandled at almost every step along the way. Everyone involved places the blame on someone else. The school says it was required by law to tell the police that Henry was in danger. The police, who told ICE about Henry, blame the feds for trying to deport him. The FBI says that Rivera wasn’t officially a member of the task force, even though he was working out of the bureau’s office. And ICE says that it didn’t know that Henry was an informant. It acknowledges, however, that creating detention memos for kids like Henry puts their lives at risk, and it has decided to end the practice. “That memo was not intended for public consumption,” says Rachael Yong Yow, an ICE spokesperson. “You do these memos, and then something like this happens.”

So, it looks like there's plenty of blame all around. Your 'let's blame Trump and his policies' argument is bullshit, based on the very article you cite.

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