Teen gang members plead guilty to acting as hired hitmen for Sinaloa cartel
LOS ANGELES– Two 15-year-old Los Angeles-area gang members pleaded guilty Thursday to murder and attempted murder, admitting they acted as hitmen for Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, officials said.
During two attempts to kill the cartel target, they injured two people and killed one, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Each gang member expected to receive about $50,000, prosecutors said.
According to their plea agreements, both teens are members of the Mexican Mafia-affiliated Westside Wilmas gang from the greater Los Angeles area.
On March 27, 2024, they drove from their home in Wilmington to find their target at a Chili’s restaurant in Chula Vista, a San Diego suburb. As the target left the restaurant with his family, they shot him in the parking lot and hit his legs, prosecutors said. They also attempted, unsuccessfully, to ram him with their car when their firearm jammed and they fled the scene.
Later that night, the two teenagers showed up at the intended victim’s home, joined by an older accomplice. After the two men fired indiscriminately at people in the apartment, hitting one of them in the hand, arm and face, one of the people shot and killed the teens’ accomplice in self-defense, prosecutors said.
The two teens pleaded guilty in federal court to two charges of attempted murder and the killing of their accomplice, which prosecutors called “provocation murder,” meaning their actions were responsible for their accomplice’s death.
They were charged with attempted murder in aid of racketeering and murder in aid of racketeering — punishable by life in prison or the death penalty — because their actions were intended to promote the Westside Wilmas gang, which also engages in drug trafficking, weapons distribution and more, prosecutors said.
They admitted they were solicited to kill the target because they were under 16 at the time, making them ineligible to be prosecuted as adults in California under a law passed in 2018.
“The shameful tactics of cartels, street gangs and the Mexican Mafia using minor children to commit murderous acts to evade enhanced sanctions will not be tolerated,” said Mark Dargis, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI San Diego Field Office.
