Overview
- Federal prosecutors said on Wednesday that Keiber Jaen Martinez, Samuel Gonzalez Castro, Eferson Morillo-Gomez and Keineyer Ibarra-Mujica pleaded guilty to two counts of murder through the use of a firearm and related firearm charges and each face up to life in prison.
- Court papers say the four agreed to kill Claretha LaQuesha Daniels and Justin Lawless in May 2024 and that a third person was shot and wounded during the same attack.
- The Justice Department framed the pleas as part of a wider enforcement push that included a May 2026 multi-district takedown and recent guilty pleas by other co-defendants on racketeering and gun charges.
- Federal officials say the four entered the United States illegally and note that Martinez and others had final deportation orders issued in 2024, with Martinez recorded as ordered removed on Sept. 5, 2024.
- Tren de Aragua began as a Venezuelan prison gang and U.S. authorities say it now runs transnational networks for human smuggling, sex trafficking, drug sales and violent crime, a pattern that federal task forces say they are working to disrupt through coordinated prosecutions and seizures.