-A federal jury in New Jersey convicted three El Salvadoran nationals in the international criminal gang MS-13 of murder and racketeering offenses, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday.
Citing court documents, the DOJ said that between September 2014 and October 2015, Juan Pablo Escalante-Melgar, 32, Elmer Cruz-Diaz, 33, and Oscar Sanchez-Aguilar, 25, took part in MS-13 affairs by committing multiple racketeering offenses including murder, extortion, witness-tampering and drug trafficking.
The court documents say MS-13 is a violent criminal gang founded in Los Angeles, California, and now active in El Salvador, Central America, Mexico and numerous states across the United States, including New Jersey.
Earlier this year, the United States filed terrorism charges against 14 leaders of MS-13 as part of an intensified crackdown on the group.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in BengaluruEditing by Mark Heinrich)
