Several MS-13 gang members have been convicted of a violent death in which a Loudoun County man was beaten, restrained and stabbed 50 times, according to officials.

Federal prosecutors said 18-year-old Carlos Otero-Henriquez of Leesburg was targeted because the MS-13 members believed he was a member of the rival 18th Street gang.

Officials said Dublas Lazo, Lelis Ezequiel Tremino-Tobar, Carlos Pereira, Daniel Flores-Maravilla, Manuel Centeno, Wilmer Viera-Gonzalez and Miguel Zelaya-Gomez lured the victim into a vehicle under the pretense that they were going to a party.

Instead, though, authorities said the group drove Otero-Henriquez to an isolated quarry near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia where they severely beat, restrained, and killed Otero-Henriquez, stabbing him more than 50 times with a knife.

The group dumped the victim's body into a nearby ditch and returned to the home of Shannon Sanchez in Leesburg, who officials said helped them burn their clothes and destroy other evidence of the crime.

Prosecutors said further evidence showed that Juan Carlos Guadron-Rodriguez, Viera-Gonzalez and Zelaya-Gomez extorted money from a victim in Leesburg from January 2016 through April 2016.

According to court documents, Guadron-Rodriguez, Viera-Gonzalez and Zelaya-Gomez threatened to hurt the victim and the victim's family unless regular payments were made to the gang.


The victim contacted authorities who worked with the FBI to have the victim wear a wire to record an extortion payment made to Guadron-Rodriguez and Zelaya-Gomez in March and April 2016.

Thanks to the victim's efforts, the FBI was able to record and photograph Guadron-Rodriguez and Zelaya-Gomez in the act of taking extortion money from the victim, according to officials.

Ten suspects were charged in the cases. Of those, six suspects went to trial and were convicted of all charges and four pleaded guilty before trial, prosecutors stated.

The following were the suspects and the charges they were guilty of, according to officials:

- Juan Carlos Guadron-Rodriguez, 23, of Leesburg -

- Dublas Aristides Lazo, 28, of Leesburg -

- Lelis Ezequiel Tremino-Tobar, 21, of Alexandria -

- Carlos Jose Benitez Pereira, 22, of Alexandria -

- Daniel Oswaldo Flores-Maravilla, 20, of Alexandria -

- Andres Alexander Velasquez-Guevara, 22, of Leesburg -

- Shannon Marie Sanchez, 36, of Leesburg -

- Miguel Zelaya-Gomez, 20, of Leesburg -

- Wilmar Javier Viera-Gonzalez, 24, of Leesburg -

- Manuel Antonio Centeno, 34, of Leesburg -