By John Binder

Twenty-two members of the violent El Salvadorian MS-13 Gang in Los Angeles, California have been charged with a string of gruesome murders, often involving members allegedly hacking their victims to death with machetes.

On Tuesday, 22 MS-13 Gang members in the Los Angeles area were charged with murdering seven individuals over the last two years, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced. The murders, prosecutors say, usually involved MS-13 Gang members brutally murdering their victims using machetes and other “medieval-style” tactics.

For example, the indictment states that in one murder, six of the MS-13 Gang members charged kidnapped, choked, and attacked a rival gang member with a machete. The victim had his body parts dismembered and thrown into a canyon. One MS-13 Gang member used his machete to cut the victims’ heart out of his chest.

The investigation primarily focused on the Fulton clique, operating in the San Fernando Valley, of the Los Angeles-based MS-13 Gang. Thanks to growing levels of illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, prosecutors say the clique was gifted with a steady stream of vulnerable, young Central American boys who were eager to become members of the gang. Their initiation to join MS-13 is to murder an individual who is “perceived to be adverse” to the gang.

In other alleged murders detailed in the 78-page indictment, a group of MS-13 Gang members hacked a victim to death with knives and a machete on June 4, 2017. A few months prior, another group of MS-13 Gang members allegedly hacked a victim to death with a machete in the Angeles National Forest.

“Taking violent offenders off the street should send a message to MS-13 members and their associates that medieval-style violence and senseless murder will not be tolerated in Los Angeles,” Paul Delacourt of the FBI Los Angeles office said in a statement. “Working with our local partners, we expect to impact MS-13’s influence in gang-occupied communities.”

The MS-13 Gang, originally from El Salvador, is primarily made up of illegal aliens, Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs), and newly arrived immigrants living in the U.S. Today, the gang operates largely in Los Angeles, New York, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., but conducts gang activities and drug distribution across at least 40 states, and has at least 10,000 members in the country.

Investigations by the Justice Department have revealed that MS-13 Gang leaders in El Salvador have sent recruits and members to the U.S. illegally, often posing as UACs, to help strengthen ranks within the gang.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter