A Santa Barbara County criminal Grand Jury has handed down indictments against 17 people accused of being members of an international criminal gang, with counts ranging from torture to murder.
County prosecutors say the indictments involve members of the infamous MS-13 gang. There are 57 specific felony counts for crimes which occurred between January of 2013, and March of this year. They say most of the crimes occurred in the last year.
The counts include charges for the deaths of 10 people, including multiple murder charges against some of the 17 defendants. The indictments are a result of a joint agency task force investigation in Northern Santa Barbara County called Operation Matador.
