MS-13 in South Carolina: the cases on the record

Public records place MS-13, a gang that DOJ says originated in Los Angeles among people of Salvadoran descent, in several South Carolina counties from 2006 onward, mainly through local police statements and arrests of people wanted elsewhere. The main South Carolina federal case is the 2008 West Columbia murder-for-hire, in which two MS-13 members were convicted in 2011 and sentenced to life. The State Department designated MS-13 a Foreign Terrorist Organization in February 2025. [1][2][3][4]

Key South Carolina cases

The main federal MS-13 prosecution in South Carolina is the West Columbia murder-for-hire case. On February 10, 2011, a federal jury in Columbia convicted Martin Teran and Josue Benitez on all seven counts, including murder-for-hire, possession of a firearm by an illegal alien and illegal reentry. Evidence showed that an individual from Honduras hired them, and that they drove from Houston and killed Jorge Ramos in West Columbia on November 2, 2008. The trial showed both men were MS-13 members. [2]

The U.S. Attorney's Office reported that agents intercepted encoded communications from Teran while he awaited trial, and that these communications showed an attempt to tamper with witnesses. The Lexington County Sheriff's Department and the FBI led the investigation, with assistance from SLED, ICE, ATF and the Houston Police Department. The Associated Press reported on August 3, 2011, that both men received life sentences. [2][3]

Other South Carolina cases have been arrests of people wanted elsewhere. On May 23, 2018, a U.S. Marshals-led team arrested Franklin Platero-Rodriguez, 21, in Ladson; Walker County, Texas, wanted him for murder. Erick Salvador Hernandez Bonilla, 23, wanted through Interpol on six murder counts and a terrorist-threat charge that authorities linked to MS13 activity in El Salvador, was arrested on Lady's Island on September 23, 2021. Berkeley County deputies arrested Elmer Neftali Martinez-Escobar, 31, during a traffic stop in Moncks Corner on June 29, 2024. NCIC listed him as an MS-13 member and an El Salvador fugitive wanted for homicide, and he was transferred to ICE custody. [5][6][7]

Inside SCDC

Public reporting on MS-13 inside South Carolina state prisons is thin. After the April 2018 riot at Lee Correctional Institution, a former Lee captain told The Post and Courier that Bloods and Crips were the largest threats and that the Gangster Disciples, Folk Nation and MS-13 also had a presence. No public source opened for this profile gives an MS-13 count or describes an MS-13 incident in SCDC. [8]

Where it stands

Federal releases state that the U.S. State Department designated MS-13 a Foreign Terrorist Organization in February 2025. A federal prosecutor in Texas cited that designation when announcing sentences on April 29, 2025, for MS-13 leaders who planned a January 2022 attack on Mexican Mafia and Surenos associates in federal prison. The attack killed two people and led to a nationwide Federal Bureau of Prisons lockdown. That case did not involve SCDC. [4][9]

Reporting dated August 24, 2026, on state indictments of more than 30 defendants in a Charleston-area cartel drug case quotes HSI as saying that illicit nightclubs attracted members of gangs including Tren de Aragua and MS-13. The sources opened for this profile name no MS-13 defendant in that case. [10]

The full profile, with every source, the county records and a dated timeline, is on the group page.