BALTIMORE — A trio of murderous MS-13 gang members will spend the rest of their life in federal prison.
Back in May 2020 the body of missing 16-year-old Gabriela Ardon was discovered along the Merryman Trail at Loch Raven Reservoir.
A couple months later five people were arrested and charged, including Wilson Arturo Constanza-Galdomez, 26 of El Salvador, Edis Omar Valenzuela-Rodriguez, 24 of Honduras, and Jonathan Pesquera-Puerto, 24.
Prosecutors say the men believed Ardon was associated with a rival gang, and therefore lured her to the trail where they stabbed her to death with a machete.
That was just one of many violent crimes the group would commit within a three-month span.
About a week after Ardon's killing, Constanza-Galdomez and Valenzuela-Rodriguez lured another girl to the CSX Bayview Train Yard in Baltimore, where they stabbed her 143 times, leaving her dead along the train tracks.
The next day Constanza-Galdomez and Pesquera-Puerto captured the girl's sister and stabbed her 70 times at the very same location. She, fortunately, survived, as did her boyfriend who was also attacked.
“These defendants committed brutal violence — including murdering and stabbing young women and girls — to fuel their respective climbs up the MS-13 organization,” said Acting DOJ Assistant Attorney General, Matthew R. Galeotti. “These acts, often carried out with machetes, spread fear and terror throughout the community."
