Ms-13 Gang Member Admits Plans To Kill Rival Gang Members And Witnesses

NEWARK, N.J. – An MS-13 gang member from Union County, New Jersey, today admitted that after being arrested on charges of plotting to kill rival gang members, he and others planned to murder suspected government witnesses from prison, New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman and Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division announced.

Julio Adalberto Orellana-Carranza, a/k/a “Player,” 27, of Plainfield, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler to Count One of an indictment charging him with conspiring to engage in a racketeering enterprise known as La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.

According to the documents filed and statements made in court:

MS-13 is a national and international gang composed primarily of immigrants or descendants from El Salvador.  Branches, or “cliques,” of MS-13 operate throughout the United States, including Plainfield. MS-13 members are required to commit acts of violence to maintain membership and discipline within the gang.

According to statements made by Orellana-Carranza in court, he was a member of the Plainfield Locos Salvatrucha (PLS) clique of MS-13 from at least August 2011. Orellana-Carranza admitted that he conspired with other members of MS-13 to engage in racketeering activity including murder, robbery, extortion and drug trafficking.

Orellana-Carranza stated that in June 2011, he and other members of the PLS clique plotted to kill members of rival gangs on the streets of Plainfield. Orellana-Carranza further admitted that after being arrested on those charges, he and other jailed MS-13 members hatched a plan to intimidate and/or kill individuals they believed were cooperating with law enforcement in the prosecution of MS-13 members.

Orellana-Carranza faces a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Orellana-Carranza will remain detained pending sentencing, which is currently scheduled for May 4, 2016.

Eleven additional members and associates of the PLS clique of MS-13 are scheduled for trial in front of Judge Chesler on Feb. 9, 2016.  The charges include several counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, robbery, extortion, witness retaliation and sexual assault.

U.S. Attorney Fishman and Assistant Attorney General Caldwell credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Richard M. Frankel in Newark, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Newark Division, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Kevin Kelly, and ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), under Newark Field Office Director John Tsoukaris, with the investigation leading to today’s plea. They also thanked the Union County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Acting Prosecutor Grace H. Park, and the Plainfield Police Department, for their work on the case.

The government is represented by Assistant United States Attorneys James Donnelly and

Jamari Buxton of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark as well as Trial

Attorney Kevin L. Rosenberg with the Justice Department Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section.

Defense counsel:  Bruce Rosen Esq., Roseland, New Jersey