BOSTON — A 26-year-old gang member was sentenced to 23 years in prison Thursday for participating in the 2018 murder of a teenage boy in Lynn, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
Marlos Reyes, aka Silencio, a Salvadoran national, is the sixth and final M-13 gang member who participated in this murder — which involved stabbing a teenage boy at least 32 times in a Lynn park — to be sentenced, prosecutors said.
Reyes was also sentenced in federal court to three years of supervised release.
In July 2020, Reyes pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity, also known as RICO conspiracy, on behalf of the MS-13 gang. As part of his racketeering activity, Reyes participated in the murder of a teenager, who prosecutors said was murdered with extreme atrocity and cruelty, and with deliberate premeditation in violation of Massachusetts law.
MS-13, or La Mara Salvatrucha, is a transnational street gang operating in Massachusetts and numerous other states, as well as countries such as El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. MS-13 gang members often commit acts of extreme violence against suspected rivals, those suspected of cooperating with law enforcement, and others who the gang views as a threat, prosecutors said.
Reyes belonged to the “Sykos Locos Salvatrucha” clique of MS-13, which operated in Lynn, Chelsea and other parts of Massachusetts.
In November 2018, Reyes and five other Sykos clique members were indicted following an investigation into the murder of a teenage boy, whose body was found in a Lynn park on Aug. 2, 2018.
Prosecutors said on July 30, 2018, six gang members lured the victim to a playground; at least four of the members were armed with knives. The group pretended to be friendly with the unsuspecting victim, and took him to a wooded area of the park, where they surrounded him and repeatedly stabbed him to death, prosecutors said.
At least four of the six assailants stabbed the victim, while two others assisted at the scene. After killing the teenager, the gang members left his body in the wooded area of the public park. An autopsy revealed that the victim was stabbed at least 32 times, and that he had also suffered blunt-force injuries to his head, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the investigation, which included a recording of one of Reyes’ co-defendants describing the murder in graphic detail, showed that the boy was murdered based on the gang’s mistaken belief that he had been assisting law enforcement.
The six defendants in this case included five participants in the murder, as well as one longstanding member of the Sykos clique. In a related case, the government charged a juvenile co-conspirator, who was the sixth person involved in the murder, prosecutors said.
Reyes is the sixth and final defendant to be sentenced in this case. On Feb. 14, Erick Lopez Flores, aka “Mayimbu,” was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Jonathan Tercero Yanes, aka “Desalmado,” was sentenced to 33 years in prison on Feb. 15. Henri Salvador Gutierrez aka “Perverso” was sentenced to life in prison on Feb. 16. Djavier Duggins, aka “Haze,” was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Feb. 18. And on March 17, Eliseo Vaquerano Canas, aka “Peligroso” was sentenced to 43 years in prison.