Federal investigators have charged two additional people in a sweeping racketeering indictment that targeted MS-13, a violent Salvadoran street gang operating in Greater Boston that prosecutors say terrorized neighborhoods and carried out violent crimes, including murder.
In a new indictment, prosecutors charged Rigoberto Mejia and Modesto Ramirez in the brutal maiming and killing of 16-year-old Cristofer Perez de la Cruz, a rival gang member, in January in East Boston.
That brings to 58 the number of people who have been charged in a case that sought to dismantle a street gang, which had been spreading in East Boston and communities on the North Shore, that recruited vulnerable immigrant teenagers at area high schools and viciously attacked any rivals.
Four people had already been charged in Perez de la Cruz’s death in a January indictment, but authorities dismissed charges against one of them — Marvin Melgar — after they realized they had confused him for Mejia. They both share the nickname “Ninja.’’ A spokeswoman for the US attorney’s office would not comment Wednesday on the new indictment.
Graphic details of Perez de la Cruz’s death emerged in a detention hearing last month for Jairo Perez, one of the men accused of participating in the killing, who is also charged with burying blood-stained clothes and the machete used in the murder. The details were first reported by Boston.com.
According to a transcript of the March 9 hearing, Chelsea police detective Scott Conley testified that MS-13 members tracked Perez de la Cruz to central Massachusetts, where he and his family had been relocated after a prior attack. The members kidnapped him and chopped off his hand with a machete before shooting him twice in East Boston.
Conley testified that one of the defendants, Edwin Gonzalez, was recorded saying “that chopping the victim was like cutting rocks. It really messed up his machete when he hit him on the head — on the coconut,’’ Conley testified, quoting the transcripts of the recordings.
The killing was apparent retaliation for Perez de la Cruz’s cooperation with authorities in identifying two MS-13 members who’d previously attacked him, Conley said.
Conley testified that he had known Perez de la Cruz, an immigrant from Guatemala who spoke little English, and had worked with social service agencies over 18 months to provide the teenager and his family with resources to help Perez de la Cruz avoid the gang lifestyle, and he also helped the family move away from Chelsea. Perez de la Cruz’s family could not be reached Thursday.
After he was stabbed by MS-13 members in May 2015, Perez de la Cruz identified his attackers in a photo array, Conley said, leading to charges against rival MS-13 gang members Bryan Galicia-Barillas and Domingo Tizol. Their cases are pending; they were later indicted in the federal sweep and are being held without bail.
Other members of MS-13 sought to retaliate against Perez de la Cruz, the only person who could provide testimony against his attackers, and they found him in January, according to court records.
Conley said a cooperating witness, a member of a local branch of MS-13, aided investigators and recorded conversations with other gang members.
On the day of Perez de la Cruz’s murder, Oscar Duran — a member of another branch of MS-13 — was riding in the cooperating witness’s car and identified four people who took part in Perez de la Cruz’s killing by their nicknames, according to Conley’s testimony.
Authorities say that Gonzalez, 20, of East Boston, also got into the witness’s car the day of the murder.
In a conversation recorded January 15, the cooperating witness met with Jose Vasquez, a leader of a local MS-13 crew, and Jairo Perez — the MS-13 member who contested his detention at the March hearing.
The witness drove Vasquez and Perez to an apartment in East Boston where they allegedly retrieved evidence in the murder — knives, a machete, and bloody clothing — and then drove them to Winthrop.
Conley said Perez told the witness to keep quiet about what they were doing. Perez told the witness they “wiped off the fingerprints and cleaned the knives with alcohol, and the machete was full of hair.’’
The witness, Conley said, asked Perez if he would bury the gun, but Perez said no.
“That thing has a lot of work to do still,’’ Perez said, according to Conley’s testimony.
Perez is one of the few defendants — and the only one accused of participating in a murder — to contest his detention pending trial and request a bail hearing. He was ordered held without bail after the hearing.
Milton J. Valencia can be reached at milton.valencia @globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MiltonValencia.
