MS-13 Gang Member Pleads Guilty in Killing of Maryland Teen

A member of the MS-13 gang and illegal immigrant who was accused of taking part in the killing of a Frederick High School student in February 2023 will face up to life in prison when he's sentenced in November, after pleading guilty to a racketeering charge in the case Thursday.

Ismael Ivan Rivera Canales, 22, pleaded guilty in federal court in Baltimore on Thursday to one count of conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise, related to the death of Limber Lopez Funez.

U.S. District Court Judge Brendan Abell Hurson scheduled sentencing in the case for Nov. 14.

Lopez Funez, a 15-year-old Frederick High student, went missing on Feb. 24, 2023.

Portions of his remains were found on April 24 of that year in two clandestine graves near Mink Farm Road near Thurmont, according to the plea agreement. Frederick Police in May of that year told The Frederick News-Post that his remains were discovered in the Gambrill State Park area.

Canales is one of seven suspected MS-13 members named in a federal indictment in the death of Lopez Funez, who the men suspected of being connected to a rival gang.

The federal indictment lists six other men — Josue Mauricio Arrue Paniagua, Santos Reyes Depaz Cruz, Jose Eduardo Guardado Mercado, Ismael Lopez Lopez, Jose Roberto Ramos Lopez, and Elmer Bladimir Reyes Reyes — also accused of being connected to Lopez Funez's death.

On Feb. 23, Canales and other MS-13 members lured Lopez Funez — referred to on Thursday only as "Victim 1" — to a wooded area near Aynsley Court in Frederick under the pretense of smoking marijuana, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Clark told Hurson Thursday.

Once in the woods, the men stabbed Lopez Funez with knives and cut him with machetes until he was dead, then they dismembered the body, Clark said.

He said Canales helped clean up the crime scene and dispose of clothing after the killing.

Surveillance footage near the crime scene showed Canales wearing a similar coat and hat to those found by investigators, he said.

The indictment doesn't specify the role of each suspect in Lopez Funez's murder, and Clark did not mention the suspected roles of other defendants when he gave Hurson the facts around Canales's plea Thursday.

But the indictment alleges that Canales, Reyes Reyes, and Depaz Cruz "did unlawfully conspire and agree with each other and others known and unknown to the Grand Jury to feloniously, willfully, and with deliberately premeditated malice, kill and murder" Lopez Funez.

Canales was mostly silent during Thursday's hearing, providing brief answers to questions from Hurson in Spanish through an interpreter, and acknowledging that he had done the things that Clark described.

Hurson questioned him about whether he understood the charges against him and the details of what he was agreeing to under the plea agreement.

While prosecutors and defense attorney Gary Proctor might reach an agreement on what the sentence in the case should be, Hurson asked if Canales understood that the judge would not be bound by that agreement at the sentencing in November.

Like his client, Proctor said little during Thursday's hearing, other than acknowledging to Hurson that the facts Clark presented would have met the legal requirements of the racketeering charge.

If Canales is not a United States citizen — which Clark said he is not — his plea and conviction could lead to his deportation, Hurson said.

He asked if Canales understood that his plea agreement gave up his rights to argue that evidence and statements should be suppressed at a trial, or to appeal the sentence that Hurson ultimately gives. Canales said he understood.

Clark said Canales was a member of an MS-13 "clique," one of the sub-groups into which the gang known as "La Mara Salvatrucha" divides itself.

Many of the group's members have either come from or have family from El Salvador, he said.

MS-13 regularly acquires large amounts of marijuana and distributes it to cliques and their members to sell, Clark said.

The gang represents a criminal enterprise under U.S. law that works to preserve its power and profits through assaults, murder, extortion, and other crimes to facilitate its drug sales, intimidate victims and witnesses, and obstruct law enforcement, he said.

Hurson ordered that a pre-sentencing report for Canales be prepared before November's sentencing hearing.