CALIFORNIA—On Friday, June 5, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced a conviction for four men who were members of Mara Salvatrucha, known as MS-13, an international criminal group, and who were accused of committing three murders in the Angeles National Forest in Southern California between March and June 2017, by a federal jury.
Jose Jonathan Castillo, 34, from Koreatown; Angel Amadeo Guzman, 31, of Panorama City; Edgard Velasquez, 41, of Reseda; and Fernando Garcia Parada, 28, of Panorama City were found guilty of conspiracy to commit racketeering and of murder that aids racketeering. The defendants belong to MS-13 Los Angeles, which is organized into smaller cliques, including the Francis Clique, which operates around MacArthur Park, and the Fulton Clique, which is based in the San Fernando Valley.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California indicated that the Homeland Security Task Force, which Executive Order 14159 created to protect the American people against invasion, handled the case. The task force is a partnership between federal and local law enforcement and aims to investigate and prosecute international gangs, cartels, and criminal organizations. The Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department were involved in the investigation into the murders.
In March 2017, Velasquez authorized the murder of a man the defendants believed created a painting depicting a rival gang’s graffiti. This victim was captured and subjected to strangulation and was driven to the Angeles National Forest, where the victim was attacked with machetes. His body was broken apart, and the remains were tossed into a canyon, and the heart was carved out.
In April 2017, Guzman, along with Velasquez, Castillo, and Parada, targeted their second victim, who fled El Salvador after angering MS-13 by agreeing to cooperate with authorities. A teenage girl’s Facebook account was used to manipulate the victim and entice the person to come to the Forest where the murder occurred. In June 2017, the victim was an associate of the defendants in MS-13 who was believed to have exaggerated his rank in the organization, and after being taken to Angeles National Forest, he was killed through by a combination of being stabbed and being dismembered.
Authorities have not released the victims’ names to the public. The defendants remain in federal custody. U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. scheduled sentencing hearings for October 20, and each face at least one mandatory life sentence in federal prison.
There have been more than 30 federal convictions of MS-13 members. Five other members were convicted in November 2025 of committing six murders in the Los Angeles area, so they could advance within the ranks of the organization, and their sentencing hearings will take place over the next few months.
