A MS-13 member was sentenced to a decade in prison yesterday for concocting a failed murder plot that led to his own gang beating him, U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger announced.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Jose Gimenez-Lobos, also known as “Infernal,” and “Terrible,” 33, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi in Newark federal court to his role in a failed May 2015 plot to kill a member of a rival gang.
Cecchi ordered that the sentence imposed today run concurrently to the 40-year sentence Gimenez-Lobos received in the Eastern District of Virginia for his role in a November 2014 murder that he committed on behalf of MS-13.
“This defendant has already amassed a history of death and mayhem on behalf of MS-13, a gang well-known for its appetite for violence. There is no place in our communities for this wanton disregard of life. Gimenez-Lobos will remain behind bars for most of the remainder of his life, which is the punishment he has brought down on his own head,” Sellinger said in a statement.
“Many violent street gangs focus on crimes to make money and use violence as a way to defend their so-called turf. For MS-13, they use their criminal behavior as a means to perpetuate violence simply for the sake of violence. Gimenez-Lobos sent his minions after a rival gang member, but having failed to carry out his plan, he then had them savagely beaten,” added FBI-Newark Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy.
Gimenez-Lobos and others previously pleaded guilty to their involvement in a failed May 2015 plot to kill a member of a rival gang, according to court documents.
He admitted his membership in the violent transnational street gang, MS-13, and admitted his involvement in acts of violence and drug distribution on behalf of the gang.
Gimenez-Lobos and fellow MS-13 gang members conspired to kill a member of the rival 18th Street gang from the Maryland/Virginia area.
The plot involved a female associate of MS-13 who befriended the victim and then lured him to New Jersey so that MS-13 members could execute him.
The victim arrived in Hudson County on May 25th, 2015. A high-ranking MS-13 member ordered three other MS-13 members, including Gimenez-Lobos, to carry out the murder.
When their initial attempts to contact the victim did not go as planned, the MS-13 members decided to secure a room for the victim at a local motel and offered to transport him back to the Maryland/Virginia area the following day.
At their clique leader’s direction, the MS-13 members agreed to stab the victim to death at some point during the trip, and then dispose of the body.
The murder was foiled the following day when the victim – sensing that the MS-13 members planned to harm him – jumped from the vehicle outside a tollbooth on the way to the Maryland/Virginia area.
The MS-13 members later received beatings for failing to kill the rival 18th Street gang member.
