LOS ANGELES — Using machetes, knives and baseball bats, members of the criminal MS-13 gang killed their victims, dismembered their bodies and threw their remains into a canyon in the Angeles National Forest, according to a sweeping indictment unsealed Tuesday by federal authorities in Los Angeles. In one instance, they said, members of the gang ripped out a victim’s heart.

The indictment against the 22 members of the “Fulton Clique,” a unit of MS-13 operating in Los Angeles, lists crimes ranging from vandalism and drug trafficking to racketeering to murder, some dating back to 2017. All 22 defendants are in custody.

The charges are the culmination of a yearlong investigation by local and federal law enforcement agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“We have now taken off the streets nearly two dozen people associated with the most violent arm of MS-13 in Los Angeles, where the gang is believed to have killed 24 people over the past two years,” Nick Hanna, the United States attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement. The charges issued by the grand jury cover seven of those killings.