Lynn gang leader sentenced to 25 years for murder plot

SALEM – A Lynn man and Latin Kings gang leader was sentenced to 24 to 25 years in state prison after being convicted of plotting to murder two “renegade” gang members, Attorney General Maura Healey said Wednesday.”The national gang that this defendant belonged to has terrorized our neighborhoods and threatened the safety of our communities across the state,” Healey said in a statement. “Our office remains committed to working with our federal, state, and local partners in order to get violent criminals off our streets.”Frutoso Barros, 32, of Lynn, was convicted Feb. 24 of conspiracy to commit murder, two counts; conspiracy to commit armed home invasion; and conspiracy to commit assault and battery with a dangerous weapon; after a five-day jury trial in Essex Superior Court.In 2012, the FBI referred a North Shore Gang Task Force investigation into the Almighty Latin Kings and Queen Nation (Latin Kings) to the attorney general’s office. Through the investigation, authorities discovered that three leaders of Massachusetts chapters of the Latin Kings organized a meeting with more than 30 Latin King members to discuss killing two members within the gang who were “running renegade,” Healey said.The leaders who organized the meeting were Barros, leader of the Boston chapter of the Latin Kings; Miguel Negron, leader of the gang’s Western Massachusetts chapter, and Miguel Rodriguez, leader of the Chelsea chapter of the violent national street gang.During the meeting, Barros, Negron, and Rodriguez developed a plan to murder two rival gang members who were based in Chicopee and Lynn and who the leaders believed “were creating dissension within the gang and disrespecting the rules of the Latin Kings,” Healey said. Police intercepted 23 Latin Kings on their way to Lynn to commit the armed assault and recovered a handgun from the three-car caravan.Barros, Negron and Rodriguez were indicted by a statewide grand jury in November 2013. Negron pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 8 to 10 years in state prison followed by two years of probation. Rodriguez is in federal custody serving a sentence and has yet to be arraigned, Healey’s office said.Vincent B. Lisi, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston division, described the sentencing of Barros as “a significant disruption to the Latin Kings organization.”