Everett MS-13 leader gets life for role in two murders, drug dealing


A federal judge today sentenced Noe "Crazy" Salvador Perez Vasquez to life in prison for his roles in murders in Chelsea and Lowell and for cocaine and marijuana distribution, the US Attorney's office in Boston reports.

Perez, 27 and a Salvadoran national, was a leader of the Everett Locos Salvatrucha "clique" or branch of MS-13, which the US Attorney's office calls "one of the largest, most active, and most violent MS-13 cliques in Massachusetts."

At his trial earlier this year, prosecutors said Perez provided the gun one of his underlings used to murder rival gang member Javier Ortiz in Chelsea in December, 2014 - and to help arrange for the gunman to flee to New Jersey, although he was stopped and arrested before he could leave the state.

Perez also ordered the fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old in Lowell in 2015 for what the feds said was the mistaken belief the kid was cooperating with law enforcement. Perez then promoted the two MS-13 members who carried out the murder

Perez and the two other MS-13 members accused of Ortiz's murder were convicted in April. The other two face sentencing later this year.

Perez was one of 61 people arrested in raids aimed at MS-13 in 2016 - 49 of whom have since either pleaded or been found guilty.



Free tagging: 




"...was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to life in prison and five years of supervised release. "

OK, this is fed, so life means 'life', right? Or is the judge just hedging his bets in case something happens? I mean two killings, he should be gone for good.

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Well technically

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He should never of been here to begin with, but we should 100% abolish ICE.

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Here's the thing about that

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I read the US Attorney's press release up and down, and I cannot find anything that notes that he, or his codefendants, were in the country illegally. Since the DoJ does seem to have a thing about illegal immigrants committing crimes, you would think that the press release would have noted that. Since we have nothing showing that they were here illegally, ICE would have nothing to do with them.

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is a product of United States prisons.

you could close the borders and Maras would still be here.

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I thought MS-13 was something being "trumped-up" to scare us...

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I thought MS-13 was anecdotal and something being "trumped-up" to scare polite society...but Noe "Crazy" Salvador Perez Vasquez and 60 of his complete scumbag buddies seem to be a pretty real threat after all.

Hmm....nothing to see here, move along.

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Just because you haven't been paying attention ...

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Nobody is denying MS-13 is made up of bad people. I've been covering these arrests and convictions for two years now, and, yes, they're awful people who deserve whatever they get.

That having been said, don't forget all these arrests and convictions came about because of cooperation between the FBI (not ICE), the Justice Department under Obama and police departments in several sanctuary cities (including Boston) and people in immigrant communities in those cities who finally felt they could trust the authorities with information that would lead to arrests.

And that's because the authorities were smart enough to realize that, NO, not all people from Central America are MS-13, any more than all Muslims are to blame for 9/11 (remember when a Republican president said that?), and that ALL people deserve protection from murderers and drug dealers.

That is NOT what our Dotard-in-Chief is saying now and he is only going to make it harder to achieve the sort of cooperation authorities would need to go after these bad guys.

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You might keep up with the concept that MS-13 is bad

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But need I remind you (and others) again that the Boston Globe had a front page, above the fold (and yes, that means something in terms of the importance they give to an article) article basically making the claim that the threat posed by MS-13 is overblown.

And again, I thank you for reporting on this the same way now than you did when these guys were arrested, and of course when they were committing their horrible crimes.

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You're talking about this one

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But it's not "The Globe saying it." It's the Globe reporting what experts said about it. Some snippets:

“I do not see any evidence that the people making these policies are doing anything except taking advantage of people’s misconceptions about gangs to further their anti-immigration agenda,” said David M. Kennedy, the criminologist who developed Boston’s successful “Operation Ceasefire” program in the 1990s.

Trump’s “whole approach has been making America scared again,” said James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminologist. “By scaring people you garner votes . . . and gangs scare people.”

A recent FBI report said violent crime rose about 4 percent in 2016 over the previous year, though there are no numbers to determine how much of this increase is attributable to gang activity.

I don't think that the Globe or any other outlet out there that published a similar story (WaPo had one, among others) is trying to tell you that these are swell folks. But saying that their perceived threat is overblown isn't necessarily untrue.

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That's the one. Thanks

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I used a different database and come up with the same article with a different title.

Still, I think it's clear that Adam has a very low opinion of Trump, but he would agree that MS-13 definitely were causing problems in the greater East Boston area. Earlier Globe reporting (pre-2017, of course) did make it seem that MS-13 was a problem, borne out by community statements, but as the paper noted at the time, that does not mean the Latino community in the area are dangerous overall, but the bad apples are very, very bad.

The best analogy would be with the "code of silence" in Charlestown in the late 80s/early 90s. Yes, Charlestown was a lot safer than Grove Hall was during the period, but tell that to the victims and their next of kin in the Town.

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I didn't mention anything about ICE

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I didn't mention anything about ICE and could clearly see that these scumbags were picked up in 2016. And I definitely applaud you for your continued coverage of this epidemic in Chelsea, East Boston etc.

These "people" are predators who are a scourge on their hardworking immigrant neighbors and the region. My comment is in regard to media and talking heads that attempt to downplay the reality that MS-13 and 18th street gang represent a real threat - rather than unfounded scare tactics from the President - I thought that seems pretty clear.

Keep up the good work Adam.

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