A federal jury convicted Moises Rivera-Luna and Tokiro Rodas-Ramirez of racketeering tied to killings in the Washington area.

A guilty verdict is the jury's finding on the counts it decided. It is not a prison term. The U.S. Attorney's Office said Friday's verdict covers a racketeering conspiracy for both men, and further counts against Rodas-Ramirez that the same release describes in two different ways. CNN reported the case had already produced two mistrials. Jan. 7, 2027, is when a judge sets the sentences.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia announced Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, that a federal jury on Friday found Moises Humberto Rivera-Luna, 56, of El Salvador, and Tokiro Rodas-Ramirez, 44, a dual citizen of Honduras and El Salvador, guilty in Washington. The office said Rivera-Luna was convicted of RICO conspiracy, including murder and drug trafficking. In the same release, Rodas-Ramirez is described once as convicted of that conspiracy and of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, and later as convicted of RICO conspiracy, assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime. 7News described the counts beyond the conspiracy as assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering and a firearms offense. Those are the formulations on the public record. Sentencing for both is Jan. 7, 2027. A jury verdict decides the counts that were submitted. The term is still ahead.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said, "These two MS-13 leaders ran a violent criminal enterprise fueled by murder, violence, and drug trafficking," and that one of them "ordered hits from inside a prison in El Salvador." The office said Rivera-Luna, also known as Viejo Santos, directed the Normandie clique from a prison in El Salvador, and that members collected dues, extorted businesses, and sold narcotics. According to the office's account of the trial evidence, he authorized the killings of two MS-13 members for breaking gang rules: one stabbed to death on Nov. 6, 2008, in Northwest Washington, at least 20 times, and a second found shot to death on March 31, 2010, in a Montgomery County, Maryland, park. The office said Rodas-Ramirez, also known as Perverso, was second-in-command in the Washington area. It said that on April 7, 2008, he stopped a vehicle so another member could shoot a suspected rival, who survived after a Metropolitan Police officer nearby gave aid, and that on July 29, 2008, members shot another suspected rival in Riverdale, Maryland, who died. The office did not name the people killed or wounded. Those are facts as the office said the trial evidence showed them.

CNN reported on Aug. 24, 2026, that two earlier juries could not agree, one in a December 2025 trial and one in an April 2026 trial before Judge Royce Lamberth, and that Rodas-Ramirez was Rivera-Luna's co-defendant in those proceedings. Monday's announcement is the conviction that followed those mistrials. The office said Rodas-Ramirez was arrested March 18, 2022, and extradited from Honduras on Aug. 12, 2022, and that Rivera-Luna was arrested Aug. 28, 2022, while serving a sentence in Guatemala and extradited on March 4, 2025. 7News reported the same extradition dates. Homeland Security Investigations and the Metropolitan Police Department investigated the case, the office said. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.