A federal grand jury in California indicted 16 members of the La Mara Salvatrucha gang, MS-13, for assault and drug trafficking among other offenses on Thursday.
Of the sixteen indicted, fifteen were arrested for drug conspiracy, according to the Department of Justice. The remaining individual was indicted for assault with a dangerous weapon, as were two people who were also indicted on drug conspiracy.
Two of those people were also charged with being an “alien in possession of a firearm.”
Denis Barrera-Palma, 24, Edgar Torres-Amador, 21, and Lorenzo Amador, 20, were all charged with assault stemming from incidents that were committed “in order to gain entrance to, or maintain or increase his status within, MS-13.”
According to the DOJ, “A number of the defendants are also facing charges in Fresno County Superior Court, including Denis Barrera-Palma and Ever Membreno, who are charged with conspiracy to commit murder with a gang enhancement.”
These people were arrested back in August as a result of a months=long multi-agency investigation. (RELATED: More Than 20 MS-13 Gang Members Arrested In California)
Follow Mike on Twitter.