Lorenzo Amador, Assault with a Deadly Weapon and Marijuana Trafficking, California 2021

FRESNO, Calif. — In a major blow to the notorious MS-13 gang, Lorenzo Amador, 23, of Mendota, was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for assault with a deadly weapon in aid of racketeering and conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute marijuana.

According to court documents, Amador was a member of La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), a violent criminal street gang that engages in racketeering activity, including murder, kidnapping, extortion, and drug trafficking.

On August 12, 2018, Amador and fellow MS-13 members kicked, hit, and stabbed a member of a rival gang in the back with a knife, slicing his diaphragm and sending him to the emergency room where he had to have life-saving surgery.

After the attack, Amador logged on to his Facebook account and used coded language to send word of the attack to his fellow MS-13 members. His message was intercepted pursuant to lawful wiretap on the Facebook account of one of his fellow MS-13 members. In the days following the stabbing, Amador’s fellow MS-13 members called each other in frantic efforts to warn Amador that police might be closing in on him and to try to help him flee Mendota, which he did. Police eventually caught him two months later.

Amador also joined a drug conspiracy, which he participated in by driving to Los Angeles to help the gang pick up drugs, returning to Mendota with the drugs, and selling them for the gang.

The investigation was conducted by the California Department of Justice and California Highway Patrol Special Operations Unit, the Multi-Agency Gang Enforcement Consortium (MAGEC), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Special Services Unit (SSU).

Lorenzo Amador, 23, of Mendota, was sentenced on December 17, 2021, by United States District Judge Dale A. Drozd to five years and three months in prison.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/ms-13-member-sentenced-assault-deadly-weapon-and-drug-trafficking-conspiracy