MS-13 Member Indicted for Conspiring to Commit Murder

(Alexandria, Virginia) - Erick Eduardo Turcios-Lazo (a.k.a., “Scorpion”), age 21, of Raleigh, North Carolina, was indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to commit murder in aid of racketeering activity. Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington Field Office, made the announcement. Turcios-Lazo faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison.

According to court documents, Turcios-Lazo is a member and associate of the gang Mara Salvatrucha, which is also known as MS-13. MS-13 has members and an associates spread throughout the United States, and has operated in the Eastern District of Virginia since approximately 1993. From around the summer of 2007 to January 2008, Turcios-Lazo conspired with others to murder another person, who is identified in the indictment as L.Q.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Morris R. Parker, Jr. and Ben Hatch are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

Criminal indictments are only charges and not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.uspci.uscourts.gov.

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