18th Street Gang Member Sentenced to 23 Years In Jail

A federal judge today sentenced 36-year-old Omar Rafael Villegas-Martinez, aka “Lunar,” to 23 years in prison for for conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise in connection with his membership in the 18th Street gang, including a murder.

Villegas-Martinez, of Gaithersburg, was pled guilty, along with co-defendant Hector Antonio Amaya Flores, aka “Nené,” age 35, of Upper Marlboro.

Flores, also an 18th Street Gang member, was sentenced to 9 years in prison for the racketeering conspiracy and for being an illegal alien in possession of firearm and ammunition.

A press release by the U.S. Attorney's office in Greenbelt provided these details:

According to their plea agreements, on the evening of May 5, 2007, Martinez and other 18th Street gang members and associates, including Mario Molina-Valladares, were gathered at a member’s residence in Hyattsville, Maryland. Late that night, Martinez and Molina-Valladares got into a car driven by fellow gang member Jose Edy Molina Marquez, along with other 18th Street gang members and Jose Felix Carcamo, who was at the residence as well. There was a struggle in the vehicle between Carcamo and the gang members, including Martinez and Molina-Valladares. During the struggle, Carcamo disabled the automobile by kicking the gear shifter located between the two front seats. The struggle continued and either Martinez, Molina-Valladares, or other occupants of the vehicle shot Carcamo twice in the head, causing his death. Martinez and Molina-Valladares either personally killed Carcamo, or they aided and abetted the commission of this crime.

After Carcamo was killed, Martinez and Molina-Valladares have admitted that they and the other gang members ran back to the Hyattsville residence where they had been before, leaving the automobile and Carcamo’s body on a nearby overpass. Martinez and other gang members devised a plan to mislead police by telling them that Carcamo was killed as part of a carjacking. Martinez and Molina-Valladares directed Marquez and another person to go back to the scene of the murder and lie to police about the murder of Jose Carcamo. Shortly thereafter, in order to protect the gang members responsible for the shooting, Marquez approached law enforcement officers at the scene of the shooting and provided false information, orally and in writing, that individuals other than gang members were responsible for the shooting. Martinez also lied to homicide detectives about the murder in a written statement, made with the intention of deceiving the investigators and impeding the investigation of the murder of Jose Carcamo.

Flores, who is in the United States illegally, admitted that he was an organizer and leader within the 18th Street gang in the Maryland/DC metropolitan area in 2007, and conducted gang affairs at residences he owned in Riverdale Park and Upper Marlboro, Maryland. On October 15, 2007, Prince George’s County Police officers executed a search warrant at Flores’ home and recovered a 7.62 x 38mm caliber Russian Nagant revolver and a box containing sixteen .32 caliber cartridges in a plastic bag beneath the bathroom sink. Four of these cartridge cases, which were found on top of a drawing relating to the 18th Street gang, had been fired from the Russian Nagant revolver.

Mario Molina-Valladares, a/k/a “Tiger,” age 33, of Hyattsville, Maryland, pleaded guilty to the racketeering conspiracy and is awaiting sentencing. Jose Edy Molina Marquez, age 33, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, was previously sentenced to 94 months in prison for conspiracy to obstruct a criminal investigation and proceeding, in connection with the investigation of Carcamo’s murder.