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Miguel Angel “Reaper” Corea Diaz, 41, of Long Branch, NJ will have to serve out the sentence because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
The capture of Corea Diaz was “one of the biggest takedowns of a high-ranking MS-13 leader in the United States," a district attorney in Nassau County said after he was indicted on Long Island in December 2018.
Corea Diaz was tried and convicted late last year of major drug trafficking and murder conspiracy in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt after federal authorities in Maryland took the case.
“The brutality of Corea Diaz is almost unfathomable,” U.S. Attorney for Maryland Erek L. Barron said following Friday’s sentencing.
It took a massive investigation involving nearly two dozen law enforcement agencies at all levels in New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Texas and Virginia to get the burly and bearded El Salvador native, along with 16 other alleged members of La Mara Salvatrucha, authorities said.
Nearly $1 million worth of heroin was seized as part of the case, they said.
Corea Diaz and co-defendant Junior Noe “Insolente” Alvarado-Requeno, 24, of Landover led the Sailors Locos Salvatruchos Westside in Maryland, reporting directly to top MS-13 bosses in El Salvador, investigators said.
Members ran a protection scheme in and around the crew's home base in Langley Park, extorting local businesses by charging them “rent” for the privilege of operating in MS-13 “territory,” they said.
The gang also trafficked heroin and cocaine, among other drugs, kicking a huge chunk of the proceeds up to leaders in El Salvador through structured transactions and intermediaries aimed at avoiding the notice of authorities, federal prosecutors said.
Together, Corea Diaz and Alvarado-Requeno ordered members of The Sailors to brutally kill not only rivals but also those within the ranks who broke gang rules, they said.
Among them was a 17-year-old Lynchburg, Virginia high schooler who had a dispute over pot with an MS-13 member. According to a federal complaint, Corea-Diaz and Alvarado-Requeno “organized a squad of MS-13 members to drive down to Lynchburg and murder the minor."
“The gang members kidnapped the student from his front lawn and cut his hand off before killing him,” the Justice Department said. “After the murder, Corea Diaz and Alvarado-Requeno helped to hide and protect the killers from law enforcement."
Indeed, Corea Diaz micro-managed not only which targets should be killed but also how – shot, strangled or stabbed – as well as “how deep to dig a hole” to dig a grave, federal investigators said.
“Reaper” was an appropriate nickname, since “he chose his victims (and) like the Grim Reaper left murder and mayhem in his wake," said former DEA Special Agent-in-Charge James J. Hunt.
Six months' worth of wiretaps were part of a mountain of evidence presented by the Justice Department to federal jurors during a four-week trial.
The jury convicted Corea Diaz on Nov. 23, 2021 of conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering and murder in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana, cocaine, and heroin; and possession with intent to distribute heroin.
His attorney sought a prison term of no more than 21 years, contending that Corea Diaz’s authority was overstated.
The government strongly disagreed.
As an MS-13 boss, Corea Diaz was "a role model for young Hispanic males ... who joined MS-13 and committed heinous violence at his direction and encouragement," federal prosecutors from Maryland and their colleagues in the Justice Department's Organized Crime and Gang Section wrote in a sentencing memo.
Alvarado-Requeno was also convicted at trial and faces a similar penalty when he’s sentenced on April 25.
“The ruthlessness of MS-13 in pursuit of profits shows a clear link between violence and the illicit drug trade,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. “Today’s sentence won’t undo the harm Diaz is responsible for, but it ensures that for the rest of his life he will no longer be a direct threat to the communities he terrorized for so long.”
“Any time we can get a notorious gang member off the streets, it is a victory for both law enforcement and law-abiding citizens,” added HSI Baltimore Special Agent in Charge James R. Mancuso. “In this case, the criminal is particularly violent, and now he will face the consequences of his crimes.”
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