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MS-13 gang member sentenced for group beating of man with baseball bats

Prosecutors said Del-Cid and his associates believed the victim was cooperating with law enforcement and pretending to be a member of MS-13.

WASHINGTON — Another MS-13 gang member is headed to prison.

A judge sentenced Jose Ochoa Del-Cid, of Falls Church, to five years behind bars. Del-Cid, 21, and several others beat a man with baseball bats last October.

Federal prosecutors said Del-Cid lured the victim to James Lee Park in Fairfax County. They said Del-Cid and his associates believed the victim was cooperating with law enforcement and pretending to be a member of MS-13.

RELATED: Police search for naked murder suspect in Prince George's County

About a dozen people beat the victim with bats, their fists and feet for about three minutes, prosecutors said, and the victim broke multiple limbs and spent several days in the hospital.

FBI agents arrested Del-Cid a few days later.

"The hallmark of MS-13 is extreme violence,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in a release Friday. “The sole purpose of this brutal and senseless assault was to instill fear in communities here in Northern Virginia and dissuade cooperation with law enforcement. Our investigation and prosecution of this case should send a clear message that the violent acts of MS-13 in our community will be prosecuted at every opportunity."

In the last year, there have been several brutal MS-13 murders of young people that made headlines in the DMV. A 16-year-old from Fairfax was found dead in Stafford County, stabbed 100+ times and set on fire. A 14-year-old, Ariana Funes-Diaz reported missing from Anne Arundel County was found dead in a creek of Prince George's county. Funes-Diaz was brought to a remote tunnel and beaten and stabbed. Another teen living in Frederick, 16-year-old Eberson Guerra-Sanchez, was found dead - with his hand cut off - beneath the Chain Bridge in April

RELATED: Police officer shot, another man dead after incident in Baltimore Co.

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