Carlos Valdez, Murder Conspiracy, New Jersey 2014

A Hudson County man, Carlos Valdez, aka Catracho, 27, admitted to trying to kill a rival gang member, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

On autumn 2013, Valdez was recruited by Joel Antonio Cortez, aka Pee Wee, a high-ranking member of Mara Salvatrucha’s national leadership, to join the national program, a scheme to consolidate the gang’s cliques under a single, nationwide organization devoted to violence, extortion, and drug trafficking.

In November 2013, Valdez and other gang leaders in northern New Jersey hatched a plot to murder two brothers in Hudson County, New Jersey. Before carrying out the plot, Valdez and others sought authorization from high-ranking members in the gang’s national and international leadership, including Cortez and incarcerated members of the gang in El Salvador.

Law enforcement learned of the murder plot during the course of its investigation and arrested certain gang members, including Valdez, before it could be completed.

Both of the charges to which Valdez pleaded guilty, engaging in a racketeering conspiracy and conspiring to possess firearms in furtherance of a crime of violence, carry a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Sentencing is scheduled for March 16, 2015.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford.

The investigation involved multiple FBI Field Offices, with substantial assistance provided by the FBI Field Office in Los Angeles.

Fishman also thanked the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Acting Prosecutor Gaetano T. Gregory, and the Union County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Acting Prosecutor Grace Park, for their work on this case.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys James M. Donnelly and Andrew J. Bruck of the U.S Attorney’s Office Organized Crime/Gangs Unit in Newark.

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