Teen gang members plead guilty to acting as hired hitmen for Sinaloa cartel

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two Los Angeles-area 15-year-old gang members pleaded guilty Thursday to murder and attempted murder charges, admitting they were acting as hired hitmen for Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, officials said.

During two attempts to kill the cartel's target, they wounded two people and killed one, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Each gang member expected to be paid approximately $50,000, prosecutors said.

According to their plea agreements, the two teenagers are members of the Mexican Mafia-affiliated Westside Wilmas gang from the greater Los Angeles area.

On March 27, 2024, they drove from their homes in Wilmington to find their target at a Chili's restaurant in Chula Vista, a suburb of San Diego. When the target was leaving the restaurant with his family, they shot at him in the parking lot and struck his legs, prosecutors said. They also attempted unsuccessfully to hit him with their car when their firearm jammed and they fled the scene.

Later that night, the two teenagers showed up at the intended victim’s home joined by an older accomplice. After the two shot indiscriminately at the people in the apartment, hitting one of them in the hand, arm and face, one of the people shot and killed the teenagers' accomplice in self-defense, prosecutors said.

The two teenagers pleaded guilty in federal court to two attempted murder charges and the murder of their accomplice, which prosecutors called a “provocative-act murder," meaning their actions were responsible for their accomplice's death.

They were charged with attempted murder in aid of racketeering and murder in aid of racketeering — which can carry a punishment of life in prison or the death penalty — because their actions were to promote the Westside Wilmas gang, which also engages in drug trafficking, weapons distribution and more, prosecutors said.

They admitted they were tapped to kill the target because they were under the age of 16 at the time, which made them ineligible to be prosecuted as adults in California under a law passed in 2018.

“The disgraceful tactic of cartels, street gangs, and the Mexican Mafia using underage children for murderous acts to evade enhanced punishments will not be tolerated," said Mark Dargis, special agent in charge of the FBI San Diego Field Office.