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Family of victim links his death to Salvadoran gang

Relatives of a man who was kidnapped from his North Las Vegas apartment and found shot to death Sunday said they think he was killed by members of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang, also known as MS-13.

Family members identified the victim as 24-year-old Jose Elisel Gaitan Martinez, a Salvadoran who had been living illegally in the United States for about seven years.

Martinez had arrived at his Desert Palms North apartment, 1001 E. Carey Ave. near Las Vegas Boulevard, about 3:30 a.m. Sunday with two other men, said family members who live at the same apartment.

Two more men were waiting outside the apartment in a car, they said.

There were at least eight relatives of Martinez inside the apartment when he came home, including two children ages 4 and 2, the relatives said.

All were asleep in the bedrooms of the apartments except for one of Martinez's cousins who was sleeping on the couch. He was awakened by the visitors and saw the men searching for something in the front rooms of the apartment. Relatives said the cousin said that when Martinez stepped out of the apartment, one of the men pushed him to the ground and then forced him at gunpoint into the waiting vehicle.

About 45 minutes later, Martinez, an unemployed father of two daughters, ages 7 months and 2, was found dead on the sidewalk near H Street and Kaspar Avenue. He had been shot multiple times, police said.

Authorities said they suspect the kidnapping and slaying were drug-related, but Martinez's relatives blamed the MS-13 gang.

Martinez had the letters "MS" tattooed on his chest but was not a member of the gang, his family said.

"He was just trying to fit in," said Jessica Martinez, a 20-year-old cousin who lived with Jose Martinez.

"He just wanted to be cool," said 14-year-old Salvador Martinez, another cousin of the victim.

Jose Martinez had gotten into a dispute with an MS-13 gang member who questioned his ties to the gang at a party on Saturday, family members said.

That same gang member was one of the men who took Jose Martinez away and was overheard saying, "You're going to know what a real Mara Salvatrucha is," Jessica Martinez said.

The gang is known for its violence and has been involved in murders, gun running, drug trafficking and extortion across the United States and in Central America, authorities have said. Federal authorities have said MS-13 is "considered to be one of the most dangerous gangs operating in America."

The membership is mainly composed of Salvadorans and other Central Americans. The gang members usually have one or more tattoos of "MS," "MS-13" or "Mara Salvatrucha."

Salvadorans started the gang in Los Angeles in the 1980s. Gang membership in Central America skyrocketed after U.S. authorities began deporting MS-13 members to their home countries.

The FBI estimates there are 8,000 to 10,000 MS-13 members across the nation, and the gang is confirmed to be in 33 states. In October 2005, Las Vegas police estimated there were about 100 MS-13 members in Las Vegas or unincorporated Clark County. A current estimate was not available from police Sunday.

In January, a Nicaraguan man who authorities said was a MS-13 gang member was ordered deported after his arrest at an entrance to Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs. He had been working as a laborer for a contractor that had been hired to do work at the base 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

In October 2005, Las Vegas police arrested another alleged member of MS-13, Sergio Valencia, for shooting and killing a rival gang member about a year earlier. Valencia, who had "MS" tattooed on his stomach, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter charges and was sentenced to 12 to 30 months by District Judge Sally Loehrer in September.

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