In Charlotte this week, a long-time member of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang turned evidence against his former friends in federal court, saying he knew he risked being killed but did it because of his mother and brothers.

According to the story in the Charlotte Observer, the 21-year-old said he had joined the gang as a young teen and took part in as many as 40 robberies, but no murders.

The young gang member decided to help police bring down his MS-13 gang in Charlotte after his mother found out what he was up to – and his brothers began to follow in his footsteps.

“I was tired of seeing my mother cry,” he told jurors on Friday.

From the witness stand at the federal courthouse in Charlotte, the 21-year-old described how he worked with police to gather details about the gang’s activities. He secretly videotaped gang meetings and drug buys. And he worried constantly, he said, that word of his cooperation would get back to the gang.

“If they knew I had spoken to police,” he said, “they would take me and my family out in a second.”

He and his family have been enrolled in the witness protection program and relocated to prevent retribution by the gang.