Boston feds pin 2 more murders to MS-13 associates in long-running racketeering case
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Boston feds pin 2 more murders to MS-13 associates in long-running racketeering case

Prosecutors in a sweeping federal case against suspected MS-13 members just tacked on yet another murder to the brutal allegation against the international street gang known for its extreme violence.

In new charges that acting US Attorney Joshua Levy said demonstrates “a complete disregard for human life and the rule of law,” three men have been accused of participating in various ways in the murder of two other men: Joaquin Aguilar, of Allston, on Dec. 18, 2010, in Chelsea; and Jose Cortez Cornejo on July 13, 2020, near Horseneck Road in Dartmouth.

US District Court Judge William G. Young on Friday unsealed an indictment charging two suspected MS-13 members with those murder as connected to a racketeering conspiracy — it’s the third such indictment filed in a huge MS-13 case first opened in 2017. On Thursday , US Magistrate Judge Jennifer C. Boal unsealed a separate indictment against a third suspect on related charges.

Charged are William “Humilde” Pineda Portillo, 31, of Everett; Jose “Cholo” Vasquez, who also goes by “Little Crazy,” 31, of Somerville; and, in the other case, Franklin Antonio “Tony” Amaya Paredes, 27, of New Bedford.

MS-13, also known as La Mara Salvatrucha, has deep roots in El Salvador but has transnational operations with cliques pushing its reach throughout the US and other countries like Honduras and Guatemala, according to court filings. Prosecutors say it is known as particularly violent, using “murder, assault, extortion, kidnapping, obstruction of justice and drug trafficking” to further its nefarious business.

Pineda Portillo was also charged in the first superseding indictment in this case, which was connected to the murder of Joaquin Aguilar, of Allston, on Dec. 18, 2010, in Chelsea. Prosecutors have now connected Vasquez to the murder, saying that while both men and others conspired to murder the 28-year-old, Vasquez was one of the men who actually stabbed him, leaving his palm print on the handle of the silver kitchen knife left at the scene.

Vasquez is already serving a 212-month — or 17 years and 8 months — sentence in federal prison on another racketeering conspiracy conviction. Pineda Portillo, likewise, was indicted in that case but was deported just before the indictment was returned. He was arrested in May 2022 crossing the Texas border from Mexico, where he allegedly admitted he was a member of MS-13, and sent back to Massachusetts, where he remains in federal custody pending trial.

Pineda Portillo and Vasquez — who prosecutors have described as the leader of the Trece Loco Salvatrucha (TLS) MS-13 clique in Somerville — were indicted in the 2010 murder of Aguilar.

In that case, Chelsea Police responded to 6th Street a little after 7 that December evening where they found Aguilar still conscious but bleeding from 12 stab wounds to his head and chest. He would be pronounced dead at Massachusetts General Hospital. Police tracked his blood trail to the site of the violence: under the Fifth Street on-ramp to Route 1 southbound in Chelsea.