These weren’t ordinary, garden variety, gang criminals. Federal prosecutors say the five men from Salinas, California who were just sentenced to a combined 161 years in prison went on “hunts” for “people they believed to be members” of rival gangs. Most of their victims weren’t gangsters at all. On top of that, “some were just shot in the crossfire despite not being an intended target.”
Norteño gang Murder Squad
The five hunters of humans called themselves the “Murder Squad” and were all members of the well established Norteño gang. They’re responsible for 11 murders between 2015 and 2018. They shot 17 others who lived through it.
According to federal prosecutors, “the ‘hunts‘ were coordinated shootings in which the crew tracked and shot people whom they assumed were members of a rival gang.” They weren’t real picky about choosing victims.
These cold-blooded killers would take your life “for reasons as vague as (being) Hispanic, bald or wearing blue.” More often than not, they guessed wrong. “Most of the victims were not members of a rival gang, and some were just shot in the crossfire despite not being an intended target.”
They took their game seriously. “The squad used military-style tactics to shoot the victims by traveling in a convoy of vehicles with a designated shooter car and a security/spotter vehicle.”
The gang members would “roam the streets to find potential targets,” prosecutors relate. “When a target was spotted, the gunmen in the shooter vehicle would drive to the location, exit the car and shoot the victim until their magazines were empty and then flee.”
Meanwhile, the “security/spotter vehicle would act as a distraction while the shooter vehicle escaped.”
Killing for sport
Some of the shootings, the feds relate were carried out as “a way to commemorate the death of a loved one.” Give them an honor guard in Hell, as they say. As argued by Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey, “The ‘Murder Squad’ killed for sport, terrorizing the city of Salinas.”
The gang altered the lives of “so many innocent members of our community.” Thanks to federal and sate law enforcement, “these men will rightfully spend the next few decades of their lives in prison.”
All five of the gang members “were sentenced to a combined 161 years in prison for racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to murder in aid of racketeering.”
They range in ages from 27 to 37. Police identified the convicted criminals as Siaki Tavale, John Magat, Anthony Valdez, Anelu Tavale and Mark Anthony Garcia.
In the liberal paradise of California, gang violence has been out of control for decades. They have the police outnumbered and outgunned.
Unless they do something high profile like hunting down and killing innocent people for looking like they might be in a rival outfit, they’re generally left alone to do as they please. As long as they keep the killings between themselves they can keep dealing fentanyl on the street corner day and night.
