El Salvador’s Attorney General’s Office announced on Sunday that 248 members of the MS-13 gang have been sentenced to prison terms totaling up to 1,335 years for a range of serious crimes, Breitbart reports. Together, the group faced around 240 criminal charges related to offenses committed between 2014 and 2022. The announcement, shared through the prosecutor’s social media channels, also detailed several of the most severe cases, including the December 2021 disappearance and murder of siblings Karen and Eduardo Guerrero Toledo, the October 2021 kidnapping and killing of football player Jimena Granados, and the abduction and deaths of two students in 2019 and 2020.
Among those sentenced, Marvin Abel Hernández Palacios received the longest sentence—1,335 years—for crimes including aggravated homicide, aggravated femicide, enforced disappearance, extortion, drug trafficking, and criminal association. Ten other gang members received sentences ranging from 463 to 957 years for similar offenses.
According to Breitbart, “the office detailed that the 248 men were convicted of 43 counts of aggravated homicide, 42 count of disappearance of persons, 3 counts of aggravated femicide, 86 counts of extortion, 29 count of solicitation and conspiracy to commit murder, 32 counts of preparatory acts for illicit trafficking, 5 counts of illegal use or occupation of real estate, among other crimes committed by these criminals.”
All the men belonged to distinct MS-13 cliques—local neighborhood cells of the violent gang. Investigations found that the criminals set up bases in various sectors of La Libertad’s southwestern department, using them to coordinate criminal activities within their jurisdictions, including extorting business owners by demanding hefty sums in exchange for protection from harm.
The office shared that some businesses were forced to close down out of fear of the gang’s threat.
While the office did not clarify whether all 248 defendants were prosecuted in a single mass trial, it released images showing the inmates handcuffed across several detention centers, including the CECOT “mega-prison.” The photos depicted the convicts wearing plain white clothing and face coverings.
In 2023, El Salvador’s Congress passed reforms enabling courts to hold large-scale trials for thousands of gang suspects detained under President Nayib Bukele’s ongoing “State of Exception.” Since then, several collective trials have taken place. In July 2024, for instance, 45 MS-13 members were sentenced, including Ángel Geovany “Diabolical” Guzmán González, who received 1,420 years behind bars for crimes committed from 2018 to 2019.
Local newspaper La Prensa Gráfica reported that 11 MS-13 members were each sentenced to 75 years for the murder of soccer player Jimena Granados. She disappeared on October 24, 2021, in Quezaltepeque, La Libertad, after leaving a soccer field; her body was later found in a clandestine grave, identified with help from her family.
Also found in that same grave were the Guerrero Toledo siblings, who had been kidnapped and murdered in December 2021. According to Breitbart, Prosecutors later revealed in 2024 that they believe MS-13 buried more than 200 victims in multiple pits at that same location.