Five members of the transnational street gang MS-13 were convicted by a federal jury in Los Angeles for their roles in six "horrific" and "barbaric" gang-motivated murders.

Walter Chavez-Larin, 26; Roberto Alejandro Corado Ortiz, 30; and Edwin Martinez, 28, were found guilty Monday of one count each of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the Department of Justice said in a news release.

Chavez-Larin and Corado Ortiz were also found guilty of two counts of violent crimes in aid of racketeering (VICAR) murder. Martinez was convicted of three additional counts of murder for the purpose of aiding racketeering.

Brothers Bryan Alexander Rosales Arias, 28, and Erick Eduardo Rosales Arias, 27, were also found guilty of one count each of murder in aid of racketeering.

The victims were believed to be members of the 18th Street gang, a rival of MS-13, or to have violated MS-13's rules.

The victims, according to the DOJ, were targeted specifically and killed in "horrific" and "barbaric" fashion to elevate the perpetrators' status within the gang.

Several of the killings took place in remote areas in and around the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County and were carried out with weapons that included baseball bats, knives, and machetes.

Crime scenes included remote areas near Malibu and the Santa Clarita Valley, as well as locations in the San Fernando Valley, the DOJ said.

"The horrific violence in this case underscores the urgency of destroying MS-13 and putting its depraved members behind bars," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement in the release.

"Under President [Donald] Trump, MS-13 can no longer unleash terror on the American people with impunity: We will eradicate this foreign terrorist organization and secure justice for its victims."

In June 2017, one victim — who allegedly had a leadership role in MS-13 — was taken to the Angeles National Forest and stabbed and hacked to death by his killers, which included Chavez-Larin, the DOJ said. Several of the assailants unsuccessfully tried to decapitate him and then left his body behind.

In October 2017, another victim suspected of being an 18th Street gang member was lured to his death by two teenage girls. He was kidnapped, strangled, beaten with a baseball bat, and fatally stabbed with a large hunting-style knife, the DOJ said, before his body was thrown off a cliff in the Angeles National Forest.

The perpetrators included Corado Ortiz and Bryan Rosales Arias.

Martinez killed three victims.

One was shot to death in December 2018 after returning from the gym and was mistaken for an 18th Street gang member. Another was an MS-13 associate addicted to methamphetamine (a violation of MS-13 rules) who was shot to death in January 2019.

The third was a homeless man who was fatally shot in January 2019 for having a tattoo believed to be related to the 18th Street gang.

Chavez-Larin participated in the murder of the methamphetamine addict.

"Cases such as this one serve as a reminder that MS-13 has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization," Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said in the release.

"The defendants in this case carried out barbaric attacks on their victims to simply enhance their ranking within the gang."

Sentencing hearings before U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II, a George W. Bush appointee, are scheduled for July 2026, at which time each of the defendants will face a mandatory sentence of life in prison, the DOJ said.

Prosecutors said they have secured 25 convictions in this case. Several other MS-13 members and associates are scheduled to go to trial in April 2026 in connection with racketeering conspiracy and gang murders.