MS-13 Leader Pleads Guilty to Ordering the Slaying of Eastie Teen

The story of Wilson Martinez, whose body was found on Constitution Beach the day before school was to start in September 2015, was so tragic that it stunned the tight-knit Eastie community for weeks. Friends, family and classmates all remembered 15-year-old Martinez as a good kid who was looking forward to going back to East Boston High to begin his sophomore year and attending college after graduation.

However, his murder that year was only the tip of the iceberg, and the beginning of a string of murders of teens in the neighborhood that spanned over a year. Two weeks after Martinez was killed, Irvin Depazm, 15, was fatally stabbed on Trenton Street. Then on Jan. 10, Christofer Perez-De la Cruz became the third teenager to be murdered in Eastie after he was shot and stabbed to death near 144 Falcon St. Perez-De la Cruz was followed by the murder of Blanca Lainez in June 2016 and then Luis Fernando Orellana Ruano who was stabbed to death at East Boston Stadium on Christmas Eve 2016.

This week, the nationwide leader of MS-13’s Molinos Locos Salvatrucha clique pleaded guilty, in federal court in Boston to ordering Martinez’s murder as well as charges of racketeering conspiracy.

Oscar Duran, 27, a Salvadoran national who resided in Eastie pled guilty to conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity under the country’s Racketeering Influence Corruption Organization or RICO statute.

Duran, who goes by the street name ‘Demente’ was the leader of MS-13’s Molinos clique for the entire United States, as well as the local Boston-area leader of the clique. In that capacity, Duran encouraged and authorized MS-13 members to commit murder. MS-13 is organized in Massachusetts and elsewhere in the form of so-called “cliques,” that is, smaller groups acting under the larger mantle of MS-13, with local cliques generally reporting up to national leaders, and ultimately to the leadership of MS-13 based in El Salvador.

As part of his plea, Duran accepted responsibility for authorizing the murder of a Martinez, who was stabbed to death on Constitution Beach on September 7, 2015.

U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV scheduled sentencing for June 8, 2018. The charge of RICO conspiracy involving murder provides for a sentence of up to life in prison, five years of supervised release, and up to a $250,000 fine. Duran will also be subject to deportation upon the completion of his sentence.

Last year Henry Josue Parada Martinez, 22, a Salvadoran national formerly of Eastie, was indicted and pled guilty to being one of four individuals responsible for actually murdering Martinez.

Like Duran, Martinez became known to federal investigators during a far-reaching investigation of MS-13 in Massachusetts and the murders of teens both here and in surrounding communities like Chelsea. Martinez was identified as a member of MS-13’s Molinos clique, which operated in Eastie and other parts of Massachusetts. He admitted that in September 2015 he was one of four individuals who murdered Martinez at Constitution Beach. Federal agents subsequently recorded conversations with Martinez in which he acknowledged being a member of MS-13, admitted that he was one of the men who murdered the victim, and identified other MS-13 members who committed the murder with him.

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