MS-13 Member Pleads Guilty to Taking Part
In Racketeering Conspiracy That Led to Murders, Other Violence
-Defendant Admits Role in Two Killings in Washington, D.C. Region-

     WASHINGTON –Dennis L. Gil-Bernardez, an MS-13 member who also is known as Pando, pled guilty today to taking part in a federal racketeering conspiracy that was responsible for numerous crimes, including two murders, in the Washington D.C. region.

     The guilty plea was announced by U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. of the District of Columbia, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton, and Cathy L. Lanier, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

     Gil-Bernardez, 36, pled guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Judge Rosemary M. Collyer sentenced him to 76 years in prison. The sentence will run concurrently with an 80-year prison term that Gil-Bernardez already is serving in another gang-related case in Virginia.

     The defendant was among a group of MS-13 members indicted in November 2011. As part of his plea, he admitted that he was in MS-13’s Normandie clique, and that, after consulting with an incarcerated member of MS-13 in El Salvador, he ordered the murder of Louis Membreno-Zelaya, which was committed by other MS-13 members.  Mr. Membreno-Zelaya, 27, was found, stabbed to death, on Nov. 6, 2008 near 11th Street and Otis Place in Northwest Washington.

      In his plea, Gil-Bernardez admitted that MS-13 is a transnational criminal street gang with a presence in at least 20 states and the District of Columbia, as well as many Central American countries, including El Salvador and Honduras, which is Gil-Bernardez’s country of origin.  According to court documents, members of MS-13 use violence and intimidation to protect the gang and enhance its reputation.  The gang is involved in murder, attempted murder, robbery, extortion, and obstructing justice through the intimidation and threatening of witnesses. 

     As Gil-Bernardez admitted in his plea, MS-13’s creed is exemplified by one of its mottos, “Mata, roba, viola, controlla,” which translates in sum and substance to, “Kill, steal, rape, control.”  Some MS-13 leaders are incarcerated in El Salvador but remain in communication with cliques, or subsets, throughout the United States through the use of cell phones.

     In addition to ordering the murder of Mr. Membreno-Zelaya, Gil-Bernardez also admitted today to shooting a person whom he believed to be a rival gang member in April 2008.  The victim was shot five times and hospitalized for a week after undergoing life-saving surgery. 

     Finally, Gil-Bernardez admitted to murdering Luis Chavez-Ponce, 22, on July 29, 2008, in Riverdale Park, Md.  According to the facts to which Gil-Bernardez admitted during his plea, he believed Mr. Chavez-Ponce to be a rival gang member. Gil-Bernardez stopped one of the other MS-13 members from chasing after Mr. Chavez-Ponce, who was on a bicycle.  Gil-Bernardez chased Mr. Chavez-Ponce around the corner of a building and fired several shots, killing him.

     The gun which Gil-Bernardez used in the murder of Mr. Chavez-Ponce was determined to be the same weapon used in the shooting of three persons in Reston, Va. in October 2008, to which Gil-Bernardez also admitted. His 80-year sentence in Virginia is a result of those crimes, which were prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

     This latest plea is one of several by MS-13 members in recent months in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. 

      The prosecution grew out of the efforts of the federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, a multi-agency team that conducts comprehensive, multi-level attacks on major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations. The principal mission of the nationwide program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking and money laundering organizations and those primarily responsible for the nation’s drug supply.

      This case was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Metropolitan Police Department, Prince George’s County Police Department, Montgomery County Police Department, Fairfax County Police Department.  It is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Laura Gwinn, of the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime and Gang Section, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nihar R. Mohanty, and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill O’Malley.