MS-13 gang growing extremely dangerous, FBI says

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/05/23/body-found-by-bird-watcher-was-ms-13-gang-member/

Body found by birdwatcher was MS-13 gang member
By Gina Daidone
May 23, 2017 | 1:57pm | Updated

The body found by a Queens birdwatcher over the weekend has been identified as an MS-13 gang member, officials said Tuesday.

Julio Vasquez, 16, of Queens was discovered in Alley Pond Park near 76th Avenue and Cloverdale Boulevard in Oakland Gardens on Sunday afternoon. His body was lying face-down and had at least 28 stab wounds to the back and chest, cops said. Authorities believe he may have been there for up to a week.

Vasquez had multiple prior arrests for gang assault, graffiti and weapons possession, which allowed police to identify him through fingerprints.

He was found wearing a long-sleeve hoodie, Armani blue jeans and Air Jordan sneakers. There was also a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball hat near his body. Vasquez has a tattoo on his chest of the word “Familia,” cops said.

Cops said they are still investigating whether Vasquez was killed at the scene, but a source said it was “probably a dump job.”

Officials believed MS-13 is responsible for a recent wave of murders in Long Island, where two young girls were fatally beaten with a baseball bat and machete in Brentwood in March, and four men were found beaten to death in Central Islip in April. Another man was stabbed and robbed in Jackson Heights earlier this month by a group of men who shouted “MS-13” while attacking the victim.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/05/24/ms-13-is-turning-long-island-into-a-homicide-hotbed/

MS-13 is turning Long Island into a homicide hotbed
By Marisa Schultz
May 24, 2017 | 2:17pm | Updated

WASHINGTON — The MS-13 gang is linked to a startling 38 percent of all the homicides in normally placid Suffolk County over the last 16 months, its besieged police chief told a startled Senate panel Wednesday.

Since Jan. 1, 2016, 17 of 45 murders in the county have been connected to the brutal gang, testified Police Commissioner Timothy Sini.

He said MS-13 engages in selling drugs, stealing and extortion, but unlike other gangs, the primary motivation isn’t to make money but to terrorize the community.

“MS-13 often engages in violence for the sake of violence,” Sini told the Senate Homeland Security Committee, “to increase notoriety of the gang and to cause communities to fear the gang and its members.”

He said the gang has about 400 members in the county; the average age of those arrested is 18 and the most common crime is assault with its “signature” weapon — the machete.

The commissioner’s testimony alarmed committee chairman Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).

“This is surprising — their main purpose is just to exist, to be an entity and to have people be loyal to them and the loyalty extends to macheteing people to death,” Johnson said.

While overall crime in Suffolk County is down to “historic” lows, there has been a recent uptick in MS-13 gang activity, Sini said.

In all, there have been 27 murders in Suffolk County since 2013 attributed to the gang.

Among the most recent victims were best friends Kayla Cuevas, 16, and Nisa Mickens, 15, who were targeted after having a schoolyard argument with a gang member, Sini said.

President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions have made stamping out MS-13 a priority.

The gang recruits from young immigrants crossing the border illegally as unaccompanied minors who end up in Suffolk County.

Sini said there were 4,624 unaccompanied minors placed in the county since 2013.

He called for better screening of unaccompanied minors and their sponsors, as well as routine monitoring in the community to cut down on gang recruitment.

The commissioner also asked Congress to increase the number of federal prosecutors in the area so gang members could be charged under the federal RICO organized crime statute.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/06/10/this-is-the-most-dangerous-gang-in-the-nation/

This is the most dangerous gang in the nation
By Isabel Vincent
June 10, 2017 | 4:58pm | Updated

An MS-13 gang member in 2012. Their signature includes a graffiti image of an over-sized hand with severed finger joints. AP


MS-13 is has emerged as the country’s most brutal street gang, and its reign of terror is spilling into New York.

In April, the bodies of four men ages 16 to 20 were found in Central Islip, a working-class community of strip malls and faded clapboard houses at the center of Long Island. They had been beaten with baseball bats and hacked with machetes. Their bodies were dumped in a park.

“This was one of the largest and most brutal mass murders committed in Suffolk County’s history,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Timothy Sini said in his testimony last month before a Senate homeland-security panel.

MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, has between 6,000 and 10,000 members in 46 states, according to FBI statistics.

The gang, which takes its name from the Salvadoran peasants who fought in the country’s 1980-1992 civil war, emerged in impoverished Los Angeles neighborhoods among refugees fleeing the conflict. At the time, their main purpose was to protect a nascent Salvadoran community against more established African-American and Mexican gangs, law-enforcement experts say.

Since the late 1980s, the gang has spread to Central American communities across the US. Its members are involved in drugs and sex trafficking. Some are affiliated with Mexican drug cartels.

Pockets of MS-13 operate in Brooklyn and Queens. But the gang is most active among Latino immigrant enclaves in Suffolk County, where more than 400 members are believed to operate.

“MS-13 is unlike any street gang that we have dealt with before,” said Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, who is focusing his group’s anti-crime efforts on down-at-heel communities such as Central Islip, Brentwood and Riverhead. “They are organized and behave like a paramilitary organization. And the violence is incredibly brutal.”

The Central Islip massacre came seven months after the murders of two teen girls in Brentwood. Both were beaten to death in an ambush that involved MS-13 members, Suffolk police say.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/06/10/these-are-the-victims-of-suffolk-countys-brutal-ms-13-massacre/

These are the victims of Suffolk County’s brutal MS-13 massacres
By Isabel Vincent
June 10, 2017 | 4:57pm | Updated

Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas


Nothing was left of 20-year-old Michael Banegas’ face after he was killed by MS-13 members.

His killers had forced him to kneel and tied a plastic bag around his head. Suffocation was the cause of death.

But Banegas’ mutilated body, found with those of three other young men in a Central Islip park in April, told a story of the gang’s savagery.

Hacked with a machete, his face had no nose, no lips, no cheeks; it was just a mass of bloody tissue and broken bones.

It’s unclear if Banegas was butchered before or after he died.

The second victim was his cousin Jefferson Villalobos, who was just shy of 19th birthday.

The killers had left half his face, but his uncle could identify the corpse only from a tattoo on its arm — an image of praying hands clutching a rosary with the phrase, “In God’s hands.”

The face of the youngest of the victims, Justin Llivicura, 16, was also hacked with a machete. His family noticed one of his ears was severed when they saw a video of the bodies sent to them by members of the gang.

The fourth body has been identified as that of another teen, Jorge Tigre, 18.

“I can’t talk about it anymore,” Banegas’ mother, Lourdes, told The Post when asked about the murder of her son and nephew.

Villalobos, of Florida, had been visiting Banegas’ family.

The two grew up together in a town in Honduras and played in soccer leagues there before immigrating to the US in 2014.

“They weren’t part of the gang,” said a woman who identified herself as a cousin of the two men. “They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

In September, the bodies of best friends Nisa Mickens, 15, and Kayla Cuevas, 16, were found a day apart in neighboring Brentwood. Both had been hacked and beaten. Four reputed MS-13 members have been charged in their murders.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/06/10/i-was-an-ms-13-gang-member-and-got-out-alive/

I was an MS-13 gang member — and got out alive
By Isabel Vincent
June 10, 2017 | 5:00pm | Updated

"Speedy," a former M-13 member has completely changed his life from his gang days. J.C. Rice


“Speedy,” now 28, was born in Central Islip, and joined MS-13 when he was 16. He refused to be identified by his real name or even his old underworld moniker. Even though it’s been nearly seven years since he left the group, he still fears reprisals. He tells his story for the first time, to The Post’s Isabel Vincent.

It happened in a park at night. Three gang members kicked and punched me all over my body — my arms, my back, my stomach, my hands, even my groin. Nothing was off-limits to them. They beat me for exactly 13 seconds, while one of the gang members kept time in the background, counting slowly.

I was 16 and had just been initiated into the most powerful gang, MS-13. I gritted my teeth so I didn’t scream out in pain while they beat me. Moments later, I was in so much pain I could barely stand up. But eventually I grew to enjoy beating others.

Hurting others made me feel invincible, like nothing is against you. If you have sadness inside you, it makes you happy.

The gang knows your weak spot. They understand you. They hear you. When they find your weakness, they go all the way in.

I was pretty weak when I first met them. I was also pretty much alone.

My family came from Guatemala, and I lost my mother to cancer when I was six. My father died of cancer when I was 14 going on 15. My younger sisters — they were 10 and 14 at the time — were put in foster homes. I barely saw them. I lived with uncles and aunts. I was back and forth between their houses and after a while, I just really wanted to be alone. That’s when MS-13 said, ‘Come join us.’

I knew who they were. They approached me at school. They knew my parents were dead, and they started to hang out with me and made me feel good. They would hang out with you, smoking, drinking. They would get you girls, anything you wanted.

Before MS-13, I belonged to a clique called Latinos For Life. We started it in middle school and we got so big that the MS-13 guys said we had to join them or be against them.

I actually wanted to join because I felt that I would have more power in MS-13. Nobody could hurt me if I was one of them. We used violence to send a message, to make it known that we were in control, to tell you not to step on our turf.

Stabbing others became something very normal for me. So did shaking people down. At the beginning I felt bad but then I got comfortable with my emotions.

We knew when people who worked in the vineyards or farms would get their paychecks and we went after their cash. They usually got paid on a Friday, and I got really good at sticking a knife in their back or pointing a gun if they were in their car at a stop sign.

If there was a party going on somewhere, we would crash it. We would bring our machetes, sometimes guns and take everyone’s money. It was always about getting the money. But we’d also take their food, their drinks. And if anyone ever looked at us the wrong way, we’d beat them up.

If people owed us money, 20 to 30 guys would go to their house and we would break down their door. I can’t tell you how many times I participated in something like this. We’d go in and whoever was at home would take a beating. If the person in question wasn’t there we would beat up their family. It didn’t matter if they had children. We would beat them too.

The gang has their own detectives, so if you don’t cooperate, they will find and kill your family in El Salvador, or Honduras or any other place. Or they will rape your daughters, girlfriends, sisters.

If a father doesn’t want to cooperate with us, they will do something to his daughter. I never raped anyone, but others did. If a gang member was interested in a girl he saw, he would rape her and claim her as property.

We had a very closely knit group of about 50 guys. We treated each other as men, and we would walk together for protection. We functioned like a tight paramilitary organization. If any one of us ever felt that we were in danger from another gang, such as the Bloods, help was only a phone call away. It was a great feeling to be so protected.

Sometimes when we wanted to find out if people were snitching on us we would summon the devil. The devil for us was a symbol of protection. We used a Ouija board to call him. Once, the devil took over my body. I went into a crazy state. I didn’t know what was happening and it took ten members of the gang to hold me down. In a trance, some gang members would give up names of people to target. It was a loyalty test, and we called it ‘taking a soul.’ If the devil gave you a name, you had to go out and mess that person up. You had to take their soul.

I never killed anyone. I stole drugs. I shook people down for cash. I stabbed people and I shoved a guy through a glass door once. It was self-defense, but I still went to jail at different times for assault, burglary and grand larceny.

The first time I was in, I had just turned 18. In jail, the cops would always tell you who snitched on you. They did it on purpose because they knew that MS-13 would always kill the snitch. That way the gang members just went after each other, and the police wouldn’t get involved. I had the opportunity to take care of those who snitched on me, but I didn’t want to. I never got to the point where I wanted to kill anyone.

After about five years in the gang, I just decided I wanted to leave. I was 21. The leaders said ‘no.’ They said I had too much information. I left anyway, and they shot up my house. Luckily no one was around. That’s when I went to a different place. I had to leave Central Islip to get my life back.

That was seven years ago. I’m 28, and I go to church now. I have a son. I’ve completely changed my life, and I want to be a good father.

I’m back in Central Islip but I’m not scared of running into gang members. I look completely different now. No one recognizes me because I wear different clothes and I have lost a lot of weight. My gang tattoos are always covered under a long-sleeved shirt.

And most of the guys who I hung out with in the gang are either dead or in jail.

Now I really want to get an education. And I want to help kids get out of the gangs. A lot of kids don’t want to be part of gangs, but once they get in it’s hard to get out. I want to help them find a different life.

MS-13 is a virus. And like every virus you have to figure out where it comes from and you have to kill it.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/06/14/trumps-pledge-to-wipe-out-ms-13-gang-paying-off-in-ny/

Trump’s pledge to wipe out MS-13 gang paying off in NY
By Kaja Whitehouse
June 14, 2017 | 1:12pm | Updated

President Trump’s pledge to wipe out the notoriously violent MS-13 gang is gaining traction — at least in the Empire State.

Federal officials have rounded up close to 40 accused members of MS-13 in New York City and Long Island in the 30 days following vows by Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to crack down on the gang, known for terrorizing immigrant communities.

Of the 45 N​ew ​Y​ork​-area gang arrests over the last month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security, 39 were affiliated with MS-13, which has been blamed for a string of recent murders in normally placid Long Island, the feds said.

Those who are not charged with crimes will be processed for deportation, the feds said.

Authorities announced the arrests Wednesday as part of a newly formed task force aimed at MS-13 in New York City and Long Island.

The task force — dubbed “Operation Matador” — was put together in May following a high-profile visit by Sessions to Long Island to address MS-13’s growing presence in the suburbs.

MS-13 members are known for tattooing their bodies in devil horns — a trend that is helping law enforcement properly ID them for arrest and deportation.

Twelve of the reputed MS-13 gang members arrested over the past 30 days crossed the border as unaccompanied minors, the feds said. Now, all are considered illegal immigrants.

Three of those rounded up recently had Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, an immigration classification available to certain undocumented minors who have been abused, neglected or abandoned by their parents, the feds said.

MS-13, known for drug trafficking, kidnapping, human smuggling, murder and sex trafficking, was labeled a “transnational criminal organization” by the Treasury Department in 2012.

But Sessions, who has called MS-13 “one of the most violent gangs in the history of our country,” has suggested it could be labeled a terrorist organization under the Trump administration.

Like the Italian Mafia, MS-13 follows a strict code of conduct, including beating — in increments of 13 seconds — members who break the rules and a “green light” to kill any government cooperators.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/06/15/ms-13-is-targeting-new-york-for-more-bloodshed-authorities/

MS-13 is targeting New York for more bloodshed: authorities
By Kaja Whitehouse
June 15, 2017 | 7:40pm | Updated

The recent spate of murders attributed to the MS-13 gang on Long Island is no accident — but rather the result of a sick directive from higher ups in El Salvador for bloodshed in the Empire State, law enforcement revealed on Thursday.

MS-13 honchos in El Salvador have “implemented the ‘New York Program,’ which mandates an increase of violence and bloodshed in New York,” Nassau DA Madeline Singas revealed on Thursday.

Singas made the chilling remarks at a press conference Thursday to announce the arrests of dozens of reputed MS-13 gang members as part of a 41-person indictment.

The defendants are responsible for 32 violent acts in Nassau, including 8 attempted murders, she said.

MS-13 is suspected of being behind the brutal LI killings of four young men whose bodies were discovered in a wooded area in Central Islip in April. They are also believed to be behind the savage deaths of teenage best friends Nisa Mickens, 15, and Kayla Cuevas, 16, around Brentwood in September.

Multiple incidents alleged in Thurday’s indictment involve handguns and machetes, the latter of which is MS-13’s weapon of choice, Singas.

“MS-13 has terrorized communities, killed innocent people, and stolen the childhoods of the vulnerable young people they recruit to join their ranks.” Singas said. “We will be unrelenting in our efforts to stop MS-13 from recruiting in our schools and spilling blood in our streets.”

MS-13 has also been a pet project of President Donald Trump and US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who have vowed to eradicate the violent group.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/06/20/grieving-mom-of-ms-13-victim-makes-emotional-plea-to-officials/

Grieving mom of MS-13 victim makes emotional plea to officials
By Kevin Sheehan and Bruce Golding
June 20, 2017 | 2:46pm | Updated

Evelyn Rodriguez appears in court on Tuesday. Victoralcorn.com


A grieving Long Island mom ​fought back tears as she called on authorities Tuesday to stem the tide of MS-13 gang members flooding into the US from Latin America — and committing crimes like the savage slaying of her teenage daughter last year.

“I want these criminals coming into our country to be stopped,” Evelyn Rodriguez testified at a congressional subcommittee hearing in Central Islip.

Rodriguez also lashed out at education officials for failing to safeguard her daughter, Kayla Cuevas, 16, who was “bullied ​e​very day in school ​[by gang members] ​for two years” before she and her best friend, Nisa Mickens, 15, were fatally beaten with baseball bats and hacked with a machete on Sept. 13 in Brentwood.

“When our kids are being threatened, they do not contact the police. They are not. I can testify to that,” Rodriguez said.

“They like to keep it under cover. They like to say they are taking care of it, but they cannot.”

Central Islip schools Superintendent Howard Koenig admitted the “terrible impact” that “the very violent activities of MS-13” was making on students, and bemoaned President Trump’s proposed budget, which he said would slash after-school activities and other programs aimed at keeping immigrant kids from being recruited into the gang.

But when confronted about Rodriguez’s accusation by US Rep. Peter King (R-LI), Koenig claimed his district had “a great relationship” with local Suffolk County cops.

“We address every instance, and when it rises above what we can handle, we absolutely contact the police,” he said.

The killings of Kayla and Nisa are among 17 Suffolk murders blamed on MS- 13 since the beginning of 2016, and law enforcement officials testified about the difficulty in cracking down on MS-13 because its members favor brutal, low-tech weapons over the guns wielded by traditional gang members.

“MS-13 operates without firearms, but the level of violence that they carry out with baseball bats, machetes, things they get from hardware stores and sporting goods stores — it’s very impressive the level of violence they carry out,” said Special Agent in Charge Angel Melendez of US Homeland Security Investigations.

“It makes it more challenging, because if you find the​m​ with a firearm, you can charge them with a crime. With MS-13, we find them with a baseball bat.”

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/06/22/ms-13-gang-banger-gets-40-years-for-double-murder/

MS-13 gang banger gets 40 years for double murder
By Emily Saul
June 22, 2017 | 3:25pm | Updated

ICE arresting Melvin Marquez-Sanchez and two other MS-13 members. ICE


An MS-13 gang member was sentenced to 40 years behind bars Thursday for the grisly 2012 slaying of two men on Long Island.

Melvin Marquez-Sanchez, 22, slaughtered fellow MS-13 member Douglas Martinez and suspected rival Jose Vallejo in Brentwood and Hempstead before fleeing to Maryland and conspiring to whack someone else, authorities said.

Martinez was executed in August 2012 after violating rules of the gang by not “putting in the work,” and possibly cooperating with law enforcement, according to officials.

Mere weeks later, Marquez-Sanchez and others lured Vallejo to a park under the premise of buying marijuana — but instead shot him and sliced up his face and throat with a machete.

The Freeport man then hightailed it to Maryland, where he plotted to kill someone he believed to be a member of the competing 18th Street gang.

That unidentified man was later murdered by another MS-13 member.

“This defendant killed two young men here on Long Island, before fleeing to Maryland, where he sought to continue the murderous agenda of the MS-13,” Acting United States Attorney Bridget Rohde said in a statement. “Today’s sentence will ensure that the public is protected from this defendant for decades to come.”

Nassau County DA Madeline Singas revealed last week that a recent uptick in murders attributed to the bloodthirsty Salvadoran gang is actually the result of orders from gang higher-ups to kill more New Yorkers.

MS-13 is believed responsible for the Long Island murders of four young men whose bodies were discovered in a wooded area in Central Islip in April.

They are also suspected of carrying out the savage hacking deaths of best friends Nisa Mickens, 15, and Kayla Cuevas, 16, around Brentwood in September.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/07/12/ms-13-gang-banger-filmed-and-narrated-teens-killing-fbi-agent/

MS-13 gangbanger filmed and narrated teen’s killing: FBI agent
By Fox News
July 12, 2017 | 9:34am | Updated

Damaris Reyes Rivas
Montgomery County Police


MS-13 gang members filmed themselves killing a 15-year-old girl in January in a brutal attack carried out with a knife and a large wooden stake, according to disturbing testimony from an FBI agent.

Jose Cerrato, a 17-year-old member, was barking out orders and narrating as he made the recording with a cellphone to send to MS-13 leaders in El Salvador who sanctioned the killing, FBI agent Fernando Uribe said in testimony Monday in a Virginia court, the Washington Post reported.

The girl, Damaris Reyes Rivas, of Gaithersburg, Md., was killed Jan. 8 in a Virginia park. Authorities found her body buried under railroad ties a month later. She had been stabbed numerous times.

It’s unclear if the video was ever sent to El Salvador, but Uribe testified that Cerrato was promoted in the gang for his role in the murder, the paper reported.

Uribe testified before a judge weighing whether Cerrato should be tried as an adult on murder, abduction and gang participation charges. After the testimony, the judge ruled Cerrato could.

Cerrato is one of 10 MS-13 members — four adults and six teens — charged with Damaris’ death. Of the 10, four were in the country illegally.

Her alleged killers believed she lured another MS-13 member, 21-year-old Christian Sosa Rivas, to his death a week earlier, The Post reported. Eight people have been charged with that killing.

“If someone dies in a clique as a result of a fellow member, the person is killed in retaliation,” Uribe testified, according to the paper.

The paper reported that the two killings highlight an MS-13 resurgence in the DC area — and the gang’s brutality in enforcing internal discipline.

Uribe testified that Cerrato sought to get Damaris to admit on video that she played a role in the murder of Sosa.

He said at one point Damaris was forced to take off her clothes on the frigid day so “she could feel the cold that Christian did,” according to the paper.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/07/17/ms-13-gangsters-arrested-in-connection-to-long-island-slayings/

MS-13 gangsters arrested in connection to Long Island slayings
By Max Jaeger
July 17, 2017 | 5:25pm

The feds had arrested three MS-13 gang members suspected in the brutal killings of four young men on Long Island in April, according to a report.

Investigators believe that the brutal El Salvadorian gang was behind the slayings because the bodies appeared cut by machete — the group’s weapon of choice, Newsday said.

Investigators say gang-bangers Alexis Hernandez, Santis Leonel Ortiz-Flores and Omar Antonio Villata are responsible for the deaths of Justin Llivicura, 16, Jorge Tigre, 18, Jefferson Villalobos, 18, and Michael Lopes Benegas, 20 — whose beaten, lifeless bodies were discovered in Suffolk County park.

The trio was arrested Thursday by the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force. Hernandez and Hernandez pleaded not guilty in federal District Court in Central Islip on Monday, according to Newsday. The disposition of the other two men was not immediately clear.

The gang has about 400 members in Suffolk County. Their average age is 18, and their most common crime is assault with the gang’s “signature” weapon — the machete, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Timothy Sini testified to the Senate Homeland Security Committee in May.

There have been more than 30 murders in Suffolk county attributed to the gang since 2013.

 

[voiceofreason]

http://wjla.com/news/crime/2-men-sa...md-park-after-being-mistaken-for-gang-members

Pack of MS-13 members choke, kick, stomp, beat 2 men with tree limbs at Md. park
Wednesday, July 19th 2017

WHEATON, Md. (WJLA) - Yet another case of unbridled violence at the hands of alleged MS-13 members has made its way into news headlines in Montgomery County.

Around 7 p.m. on June 14, two men were walking in the Wheaton Regional Park, located about two miles northeast of the Westfield Wheaton Mall. As the men approached a public restroom to wash their hands and face, they encountered five Hispanic men giving them sinister stares.

The men did their best to ignore the awkward situation, but the five suspects followed them inside of the otherwise empty bathroom. One victim had his hat knocked off his head. The other victim had his North Face backpack taken.

The five suspects then separated and interrogated the two men, asking if they were affiliated with a certain gang, what country they were born in and what high school they attended.

Without provocation, all 15 MS-13 members began to punch the two men in the head and chest. Upon falling to the ground, the victims were placed in "chokeholds, kicked and stomped on," court documents state. A few members went so far as to grab hold of large tree limbs, using the heavy, coarse wood to beat the victims' defenseless bodies.

One of the men reportedly grabbed hold of a knife and shouted, "Let's just kill them now!" Other members secured weapons of their own when two park patrons happened upon the ongoing assault. Those witnesses inadvertently spooked all 15 MS-13 members, in turn, making them scurry away.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/07/19/feds-reveal-gory-details-of-ms-13s-horrific-frenzy-of-violence/

Feds reveal gory details of MS-13’s ‘horrific frenzy of violence’
By Kaja Whitehouse and Lorena Mongelli
July 19, 2017 | 7:31pm

More than a dozen MS-13 gang members — nearly half of them kids — engaged “in a horrific frenzy of violence’’ that left four young men dead in a Long Island Park, the feds said Wednesday.

The victims, suspected of being members of a rival gang, were lured into the woods behind a municipal park in Central Islip and “brutally bludgeoned, sliced and stabbed to death,’’ authorities said.

The slain men — Justin Llivicura, 16, Michael Lopez Banegas, 20, Jorge Tigre, 18, and Jefferson Villalobos, 18 — were tricked into going to the area by two female MS-13 associates, officials said. The victims were then surrounded and attacked by the gang with “machetes, knives and wooden clubs,” according to Long Island federal prosecutors.

Acting Brooklyn US Attorney Bridget Rohde revealed the gory details of the quadruple slay — which grabbed the attention of US Attorney General Jeff Sessions — while announcing new charges against the violent gang.

“MS-13’s mottos may be ‘kill, rape and control,’ but the Department of Justice’s motto is justice for victims and consequences for criminals,” Sessions vowed in a press release.

Rhode’s office added seven new people to a 17-person indictment unveiled earlier in the week that seeks to hold the violent gang responsible for a slew of violence wracking the area.

Three of the seven people charged — Alexis Hernandez, 20, Santos Leonel Ortiz-Flores, 19, and Omar Antonio “Anticristo” Villata, 19 — were nailed with participating in the quadruple homicide.

Six juveniles were also charged in the April slaying, but through separate documents because of their age, a person familiar with the case told The Post.

The feds also added to the indictment charges against six men accused of killing Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla at a Central Islip deli on Jan. 30, 2017.

Three of those men — Enrique Portillo, 20 and brothers Alexi Saenz, 22, and Jairo Saenz, 20 — had previously been charged in the same indictment with the Sept. 13, 2016, murders of teenage female pals Nisa Mickens and Kyla Cuevas.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/07/28/cops-arrest-two-ms-13-gang-members-for-queens-murder/

Cops arrest two MS-13 gang members for Queens murder
By Sarah Trefethen and Danika Fears
July 28, 2017 | 12:13pm | Updated

Two members of the MS-13 gang have been arrested on Long Island for murdering a man in Queens in May, the NYPD announced Friday, in advance of President Trump’s trip to Suffolk County to speak about the violent group.

Roberto “Splinter” Abrego, 23, and Jose “Smoker” Alvarenga, 27, both of Hempsted, LI, are charged with murdering Fernando Gonzalez-Chavez, 39, in front of the Seven and Seven Deli just after midnight May 31, according to cops.

The murdered man had the number “13” tattooed on his body, leading police to suspect the killing was gang-related, NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told reporters.

Gonzalez-Chavez was leaving a bar when he was set upon by the two gang members and “Smoker” shot him in the chest, Boyce said.

The motive is still under investigation but seems to have stemmed from an internal feud within the Long Island branch of the notorious gang, according to Boyce.

“This is still ongoing right now, we’re still peeling this thing back. There may be more arrests. We do have an MS-13 set in the city, out in South Jamaica, not here. This looks like it’s a Hempsted issue visited upon the city,” he said.

The NYPD is still investigating one other murder from late May as possibly MS-13-related, Boyce said.

The NYPD has successfully eradicated two MS-13 “sets” from the city already, Boyce said. “We’ve had two sets before, and we’ve pushed them out. And by pushed them out, I mean we arrested them.”

“We’re concerned. Scared is not the word, but we’re concerned that this is spreading,” Boyce said.

Officers also recovered four guns during the noontime bust at 60 Princeton St. in Hempsted, Boyce said: three 9-mm guns and one 22-caliber pistol.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/07/28/cops-told-to-ignore-trumps-suggestion-about-treating-prisoners-rough/

Cops told to ignore Trump’s suggestion about treating prisoners ‘rough’
By Ruth Brown
July 28, 2017 | 7:50pm

The Suffollk County Police Department on Friday warned its cops that they aren’t allowed to “rough up” prisoners — after President Trump suggested they do just that.

“The SCPD has strict rules and procedures relating to the handling of prisoners, and violations of those rules are treated extremely seriously. As a Department, we do not and will not tolerate ‘rough[ing]’ prisoners,” agency spokesman Justin Meyers tweeted in a statement.

Trump addressed hundreds of local cops on Long Island Friday afternoon to rail against the ultra-violent MS-13 gang that has been terrorizing the area — and told them they don’t have to be gentle when arresting “thugs.”

“When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddywagon, you just see them thrown in, rough. I said please don’t be too nice,” Trump said as the cops whooped and cheered.

“Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over. Like, ‘don’t hit their head’ and they’ve just killed somebody. Don’t hit their head. I said, ‘you can take the hand away.’ OK?”

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/07/28/trump-rails-about-violent-ms-13-animals/

Trump rails about violent MS-13 ‘animals’
By Bob Fredericks
July 28, 2017 | 2:33pm | Updated

President Trump on Friday came to Long Island to rail about street gangs, singling out the ultra-violent MS-13 organization that has wreaked havoc in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

“We’re going to restore safety to our streets and peace to our communities, and we’re going to destroy the vile criminal cartel MS-13 and many other gangs,” Trump told an audience of law enforcement officers.

“MS-13 is particularly violent. They don’t like shooting people because it’s too quick. It’s too fast,” Trump said.

“I was reading one of these animals was caught and [was] explaining they like to knife them and cut them and let them die slowly because that way it’s more painful. And they enjoy watching that much more. These are animals.”

Trump spoke at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood, close to where MS-13 has committed a string of gruesome murders, including April’s massacre of four young men.

The president blamed lax law enforcement and immigration policies for the rise of the gang — and pledged he would wipe them out.

“For many years, they exploited America’s weak borders and lax immigration enforcement to bring drugs and violence to cities and towns all across America,” Trump said.

“They kidnap. They extort. They rape and they rob. They prey on children. They stomp on their victims. They beat them with clubs. They slash them with machete. They stab them with knives,” he said.

In a meandering, 35-minute speech, the president also boasted about the size of the crowds lining his route to Brentwood, the size of his police motorcycle escort when he visited Chicago and his defense of the Second Amendment.

“Wasn’t looking so good for the Second Amendment, was it, huh? If Trump doesn’t win, your Second Amendment is gone,” he said.

The president also vowed to build a border wall with Mexico, crack down on illegal immigration, deport criminals who are not US citizens and add 10,000 ICE officers.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/07/30/cops-raid-long-island-bars-frequented-by-ms-13-members/

Cops raid Long Island bars frequented by MS-13 members
By Max Jaeger
July 30, 2017 | 10:39pm

://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/still0729_00001.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=664&h=441&crop=1

Cops aren’t just going after MS-13 — they’re targeting the gangbangers’ favorite watering holes.

Police raided four Suffolk County bars early Saturday believed to be havens for members of the violent gang.

It’s the latest salvo in cops’ ongoing war against MS-13 — one day after President Trump traveled to Long Island to demand a crackdown on the “vile criminal cartel.”

Officials raided the establishments — all in Huntington Station — in a coordinated strike at about 1:15 a.m., and found an illegal gambling den in the basement of the Santa Rosa Restaurant at 118 West Hills Road.

Police arrested five men there, identified as Santiago Garcia, 53; José Garcia-Garcia, 25; Nicomades Biloreo, 51; Carlos Velasquez, 39; and José Guevara Canales, 20. All but Garcia-Garcia are known to live in the area.

Officials are charging the men with promoting gambling and possession of a “gambling device” — although police could not immediately describe the devices. Canales also faces weapons-possession charges.

Police slapped bar owner Nelly Garcia, 42, with eight summonses for violating liquor laws and two summonses for fire-code violations, cops said.

Meanwhile, police arrested Celso Lopez Merino, 56, of Huntington for drug possession inside La Perfecta Bar & Restaurant at 137A Broadway. Officials also cited manager Jesus Rivera for liquor and buildings violations.

El Triunfo Taverna Corp., located at 1789 New York Ave., received one fire-code violation.

Agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s investigative arm, Homeland Security Investigations, nabbed Alexander Sanchez, 31, inside the Safiro Bar at 1830 New York Ave., because he has twice re-entered the country after being deported, officials said.

Cops raided the bars “because of MS-13 and other illegal activity,” according to a statement, but officials would not say whether the men arrested are suspected MS-13 members.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/08/18/ms-13-gang-members-hacked-teen-to-death-to-boost-stature-cops/

MS-13 gang members hacked teen to death to boost ‘stature’: cops
By Travis Fedschun
August 18, 2017 | 12:05am | Updated

Carlos Portillo and Kevin Granados-Coreas
AP


Two MS-13 gang members charged in the January killing of a New York teenager lured him with the promise of marijuana and sex before hacking him to death in a nature preserve, authorities said Wednesday.

The two used knives and machetes in the vicious killing to prove themselves to other gang members, police said.

Nassau County Police said Kevin Granados-Coreas, 19, and Carlos Portillo, 22, were charged with second-degree murder and are being held without bail, adding that more arrests are possible.

“This investigation is very much ongoing,” Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said Wednesday, adding her office is working with federal prosecutors.

“I mean, 19-year-olds hacked up and dropped in our preserves is just something that really should be shocking to residents of this county,” Singas said. “It’s shocking to us in law enforcement and we see a lot.”

Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick, commanding officer of the Nassau homicide squad, said Granados-Coreas befriended the victim, Julio Cesar Gonzales-Espantzay, in late 2016. Gonzales-Espantzay was not a gang member, according to police, but was lured into a car and taken to the Massapequa Preserve, where he was killed.

“On Jan. 28, he lured him into a vehicle with others, with the promise of marijuana and sexual favors,” said Fitzpatrick. “They then subsequently took him to the Massapequa Preserve, where they brutally attacked him with large knives and machetes and subsequently killed him there.”

The 19-year-old’s body was found in March by a man walking his dog in the park. Surveillance cameras are now being installed at that park, according to FOX 5 New York.

“Part of the lure or ruse to get them in the car is to promise them marijuana smoking, as well as perhaps an intimate relationship with a female,” Fitzpatrick said.

Police received a tip in July about the killing, and after getting a search warrant for Portillo’s home, found “weapons, cellphones and paperwork in regard to MS-13,” Newsday reported. Police added that Portillo was in the country illegally.

There have been four killings in Nassau County linked to MS-13 since January 2016, officials said Wednesday. The gang killings, however, in neighboring Suffolk County have drawn national headlines, with at least 17 slayings linked to the gang in the last 18 months.

“Commonly they pick victims to move up in stature in MS-13,” Fitzpatrick said. “You have to show your loyalty.”

The high-profile killings drew the attention of President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, leading to a crackdown on the group.

More than a dozen alleged members of MS-13 were arrested during early morning raids Tuesday in Ohio and Indiana.

MS-13, also called Mara Salvatrucha, is believed to have been founded as a neighborhood street gang in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s by immigrants fleeing a civil war in El Salvador. The gang grew after some members were deported to El Salvador, helping turn that country into one of the most violent places in the world.

 

[The Bobster]

Alleged MS-13 Gang Members Arrested in New Jersey: FBI

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/MS-13-New-Jersey-FBI-441074913.html

Alleged MS-13 Gang Members Arrested in New Jersey: FBI
FBI announces fugitives Jose Manuel Romero-Parada & Willians Ernesto Lovos-Ayala were apprehended in Galloway Township
Published at 8:14 AM EDT on Aug 19, 2017 | Updated 6 hours ago

Federal officials say two alleged members of the MS-13 gang have been arrested in New Jersey.

The FBI announced Friday that fugitives Jose Manuel Romero-Parada and Willians Ernesto Lovos-Ayala were apprehended in Galloway Township.

Romero-Parada, formerly of Indianapolis, was one of 15 people recently indicted in Ohio for allegedly conspiring to extort and launder money for MS-13, an El-Salvador-based gang consisting chiefly of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Central America.

Romero-Parada's also wanted in El Salvador on kidnapping related charges. He's being held at the federal detention center in Philadelphia pending extradition to Ohio.

Lovos-Ayala is wanted for first degree murder for a 2015 Virginia slaying. He's being held in the Atlantic City Jail pending extradition to Virginia.

It wasn't known if they are represented by lawyers.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2017/09/04/ms-13-thug-beat-ex-with-stapler-stabbed-her-with-scissors-cops/

MS-13 thug beat ex with stapler, stabbed her with scissors: cops
By Shawn Cohen and Lia Eustachewich
September 4, 2017 | 4:12pm | Updated

Kenny Cruz


An MS-13 gang member tried to kill his baby mama ex-girlfriend on Long Island by repeatedly bashing her over the head with a stapler and stabbing her with scissors, police said Monday.

Kenny Cruz, 30, of Bay Shore allegedly went berserk around 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Hempstead when his 32-year-old ex came to his family’s house to discuss financial assistance for their 14-year-old kid.

The former lovers began arguing, and that’s when Cruz attacked her with the stapler – causing cuts so deep, her skull was exposed – then threw her to the ground and kicked her in the face, police said.

Cruz’s mom tried to intervene — but he also threatened her with the scissors, authorities said.

The thug stabbed the victim three times and grabbed her cell phone so she couldn’t dial 911, police said.

The woman escaped and drove herself home. Her mother took her to the hospital with three stab wounds, a collapsed lung and multiple cuts.

Cruz was charged Sunday with attempted murder, robbery, assault, weapons possession, unlawful imprisonment, menacing and criminal mischief.

Police said Cruz is a member of the violent MS-13 — or Mara Salavtrucha — street gang that has a stronghold in Long Island and is responsible for nearly a dozen murders in the last several months.