Four members of the transnational MS-13 gang were found guilty Thursday of involvement in two attempted murders in Prince William County, Va.

       Jose Rosales Juarez, 27, of Manassas; Roberto Cruz Moreno, 22, of Woodbridge; Kevin Perez Sandoval, 24, of Warrenton; and Marvin Torres, 21, of Manassas, were all members of the Guanacos Lil Cycos clique, an East Coast offshoot of the criminal organization that originated in Los Angeles but is most closely associated with El Salvador and its neighboring countries.

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       Both attempted murders were motivated by the victims’ apparent association with another gang. The leader of the clique, 32-year-old Andy Tovar of White Post, Va., entered a guilty plea days before trial on his involvement in one of the attempted murders and a 2017 murder in Charlottesville.

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       The first victim was attacked in March 2019. In a wooded area in Bristow, Va., he was shot multiple times and stabbed in the neck. Three months later, the second victim was shot.

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       None of the men convicted Thursday wielded the weapons in those attacks. Torres and Rosales Juarez surveilled the victims, according to the evidence, and they helped the perpetrators evade law enforcement. Cruz Moreno and Perez Sandoval helped obtain weapons, lure out the victims, and drive the attackers to and from the ambushes.

       ‘People here live in fear’: MS-13 menaces a community

       Tovar, Cruz Moreno and Perez Sandoval will each face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life in prison when they are sentenced later this year. Torres and Rosales Juarez face up to 20 years in prison.

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       The defendants argued that they were being blamed for crimes in which they played little or no part, while the major players were given immunity in exchange for their testimony.

       “The people that did the murders are not here,” Thomas Walsh, who represented Cruz Moreno, said in his opening statement.

       Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Murphy countered in closing that all were willing participants who understood completely what they were doing.

       “Joining MS-13, a gang that they know is defined by violence, is a choice,” he said. “The victims … didn’t have a choice when they were brutally attacked.”