Confidential Informant Whacked by MS-13 in South L.A. While on Phone with FBI Handler
Three members of the Mara Salvatrucha-13 transnational street gang – one of them an illegal alien from El Salvador – have been hit with federal charges for carrying out a "greenlight," or murder contract on one of their own who flipped and was working for the FBI, a cold-blooded assassination that was heard live by the informant's handler.
Dennis Anaya Urias, 26, of South Los Angeles, and Grevil Zelaya Santiago, 25, of South Los Angeles, are charged via federal complaint with murder in aid of racketeering, a felony that carries a mandatory sentence of life in federal prison and a possible death sentence. Roberto Carlos Aguilar, 30, of South Los Angeles, is charged in a separate federal criminal complaint with murder in aid of racketeering, prosecutors say.
The murder of Herlyn Barrientos, 47, who had been caught up in massive federal sweep targeting MS-13 meth dealers in 2023 and then began cooperating with the government, took place on February 18. When Barrientos was released from prison he began informing on members of his clique, which meant his "status as a government cooperator was well known by MS-13," prosecutors say.
The notoriously savage gang reserves its most brutal bloodletting for informants, which is why Barrientos was terrified when he ran into his former criminal compatriots, Urias and Santiago, at a South Los Angeles grocery store.
Barrientos was being hunted by the gang, another MS-13 member who agreed to cooperate with the FBI, and that the "greenlight" had been issued against Barrientos upon his release from prison, a clear indicator that he had struck a deal. Orders had been given to that MS-13 member to: "clean out my garbage, you understand?”
“That work you cannot say no to,” the gang member added, according to the FBI affidavit. MS-13 would get a chance to carry out that hit around 7 p.m. on Feb. 18 when Barrientos pulled into Superior Grocers at Figueroa and 91st Streets in South L.A. and went inside.
Soon, three men confronted Barrientos, who was wearing a court-ordered ankle bracelet, in the produce section. Words were exchanged, the men walked off, according to the affidavit, and a panicked Barrientos first called 911 saying he had been confronted, telling the dispatcher: the man who had the pistol was about 20 years old, dressed in all black, with a handkerchief covering his face; and a second Latino man with long hair was also armed.
Then he called his FBI handler, who heard the rat-a-tat of gunfire while his informant was on the phone. The other end went silent and the FBI agent stayed on the line calling Barrientos name until he heard the distant tone of police sirens.
"I heard through the telephone several gunshots and H.B. stopped responding to me. Soon after, I heard what sounded like police and emergency medical services arriving at H.B.’s location," the agent wrote.
The death of an informant desperately calling for help strikes at the heart of law enforcement, especially one providing information on the deadly transnational gang MS-13. "During the evening of February 18, the victim made two telephone calls to authorities and said he was at a grocery store in South Los Angeles where MS-13 members had just tried to kill him," prosecutors concede. "He said he had been talking with MS-13 members when a man whose face was covered approached and tried to shoot him, but the gun did not fire."
"At one point during the second telephone call, several gunshots were heard," by the FBI agent, prosecutors say.
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