MS-13 gang growing extremely dangerous, FBI says

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/05/30/teen-is-third-arrested-in-brutal-ms-13-machete-murder/

Teen is third arrested in brutal MS-13 machete murder
By Ben Feuerherd and Aaron Feis
May 30, 2018 | 1:40pm | Updated

Josue Figueroa-Velasquez
Nassau County Police Department


A third man linked to the notorious MS-13 gang has been charged in the machete murder of a Long Island teenager, according to officials.

Josue Figueroa-Velasquez, 18, was arrested Tuesday and charged with the slaying of 16-year-old Angel Soler, authorities said.

Soler’s mutilated remains were found in a wooded area in Roosevelt in October 2017, about three months after he was reported missing.

Soler’s was one of three bodies found within a five-mile stretch in Nassau County across nine days last fall — all apparent victims of MS-13 violence.

Two reputed members of the ruthless gang — David Sosa-Guevara and Victor Lopez — have already been charged in the slaying.

Figueroa-Velasquez pleaded not guilty during a brief court appearance Wednesday morning, according to the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.

He was remanded without bail, and is due back in court Friday.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/06/07/8-alleged-ms-13-members-indicted-for-long-island-murders/

8 alleged MS-13 members indicted for Long Island murders
By Priscilla DeGregory
June 7, 2018 | 10:24pm | Updated

Eight alleged violent MS-13 members have been indicted for three savage murders and other crimes, officials announced on Thursday.

Oscar Acosta — a rival of the gang La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13 — was lured to a secluded area in Brentwood, LI, to smoke pot but was instead brutally beaten with a tree branch and thrown unconscious into the trunk of a car.

He was then taken to another secluded area where he was slashed to death with a machete by several of the gang members, according to an indictment unsealed in Central Islip federal court.

The attack happened in April 2016. Acosta’s body was found that September.

Similarly, Javier Castillo and Dewann Stacks were stabbed to death by MS-13 members in separate incidents in October 2016, prosecutors said.

The defendants, who also face racketeering charges, are all illegal immigrants from El Salvador, officials said.

A total of 24 people have been charged in the case since 2016, including suspects in the murder of Brentwood students Nisa Mickens, 15, and Kayla Cuevas, 16.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/06/13/ms-13-gang-member-pleads-guilty-to-attempted-murder/

MS-13 gang member pleads guilty to attempted murder
By Emily Saul
June 13, 2018 | 10:43pm

An MS-13 thug pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of attempted murder in connection with a Queens shooting that left the 16-year-old target paralyzed.

La Mara Salvatrucha member Kevin “Stomper” Paniagua admitted to Judge James Orenstein that he and fellow gang members had laid in wait for the teen, who they believed to belong to the rival 18th Street gang, in October 2016.

When the unnamed victim appeared, the 19-year-old Paniagua pulled a gun and shot him in the face, authorities said.

The wannabe killer then tried to shoot him again, but the gun jammed–leaving the youngster paralyzed.

“MS-13 spreads fear throughout the community by killing suspected rival gang members and others who cross their path,” US Attorney Richard Donoghue said in a statement following the guilty plea. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to eradicate violent gangs and prevent our streets from turning into battlegrounds.”

Paniagua faces up to life in prison when sentenced.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/08/03/alleged-ms-13-members-busted-in-shooting-that-left-teen-paralyzed/

Alleged MS-13 members busted in shooting that left teen paralyzed
By Emily Saul
August 3, 2018 | 1:34pm

Four members of the bloodthirsty MS-13 street gang have been busted for the attempted murder of a 16-year-old in Queens, a shooting that left the teen paralyzed, officials said.

Accused gang members Melvi Amador-Rios, Santos Amador-Rios, Yan Carlos Ramirez and Antonio Salvador were charged by federal authorities in Brooklyn Friday with assault, murder conspiracy and attempted murder in-aid-of racketeering for the failed Oct. 2016 hit.

The men, aged 27 to 31, schemed to slaughter the kid because they believed him to be a member of the rival 18th Street Gang.

The teen, who was shot in the head execution style, survived — but is now a paraplegic, according to court papers.

Melvi Amador-Rios is the head leader of the Centrales Locos Salvatruchas clique of MS-13, which authorites say operates out of Jamaica, Queens.

He’s accused of ordering the murder. The others allegedly carried out the depraved beating before Kevin Paniagua shot the kid in the head. Paniagua has since pleaded guilty.

All four men are awaiting arraignment in Brooklyn federal court.

If convicted, they face life behind bars.

“As alleged, the defendants are members of MS-13, an international gang known for its culture of violence and murder,” United States Attorney Richard Donoghue said in a statement. “They used their positions to direct, instruct and assist lower-level gang members to shoot and kill a suspected rival on the streets of Jamaica, Queens. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to hold accountable those who spread fear in our communities by participating in such acts of violence.”

The Queens District Attorney’s Office also aided in the investigation.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/08/07/alleged-ms-13-kingpin-whines-about-jail-conditions/

Alleged MS-13 kingpin whines about jail conditions
By Ryan Gaydos, Fox News
August 7, 2018 | 9:47am | Updated

Miguel Angel Corea Diaz
AP


An alleged major drug trafficker known as “Reaper” — who’s accused of being a kingpin in the brutal MS-13 gang — told a judge life in lockup is unbearable and complained about a lack of phone access and the “discrimination” he faces at a New York county jail.

Miguel Angel Corea Diaz, 35, begged state Supreme County Justice Patricia Harrington to intervene while he’s locked up in Nassau County, Newsday reported Monday. Corea Diaz claimed he was “suffering.” ity:

“Discrimination. I’m suffering in this county. They call me ‘El Chapo.’ Die, scary guy,” the so-called East Coast leader of the notorious gang told the court on July 31, adding he had received “a lot of death threats” coming from outside the jail.

Corea Diaz was charged with three counts of operating as a major drug trafficker and five counts of second-degree conspiracy. He pleaded not guilty to the crimes in April. The district attorney’s office had told the court that Corea Diaz reported directly to the gang’s leaders in El Salvador.

In front of Harrington on July 31, however, Corea Diaz painted himself as a loving father who misses his children, the paper reported.

“I’m a human being, I have a family. I have children. I’m not able to talk to them,” he said. “It’s about time that I speak to them because when I get deported, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to speak to them again.”

Corea Diaz is locked in his jail cell for 23 hours a day and has limited phone access, his lawyer, Scott Gross, told the judge, adding, “The conditions have been unbearable.”

In response to Corea Diaz’s pleas, Harrington said she had no control over where the jail houses inmates, but would look into getting him more phone access.

Corea Diaz, a Salvadoran national, faces 25 years to life in prison if he’s convicted of the charges against him. Plea negotiations with Corea Diaz are ongoing, district attorney’s office spokeswoman Miriam Sholder told Newsday. The district attorney’s office in June offered Corea Diaz a plea bargain of seven to 21 years in prison, the newspaper reported, citing court records. He would have to waive his right to appeal the conviction.

Corea Diaz was named in a January indictment that officials claimed was a major blow to MS-13’s infrastructure.

MS-13 was started by Central American immigrants, mainly from El Salvador, in Los Angeles in the 1980s and has expanded to include Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans and other Central and South Americans.

President Trump’s Justice and Homeland Security departments have made targeting the gang a top priority. The president himself has used the word “animals” to describe the gang.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/08/16/another-alleged-ms-13-gang-member-charged-in-li-teens-murder/

Another alleged MS-13 gang member charged in LI teen’s murder
By Lorena Mongelli and Emily Saul
August 16, 2018 | 5:24pm

Prosecutors Thursday charged yet another MS-13 goon in connection with the murder of a Long Island 16-year-old.

Ruendy Jhonatan Hernandez-Vasquez is accused of taking part in the Oct. 2016 group slaying of Javier Castillo, who was hacked to death with a machete after being mistaken for a rival gang member.

Hernandez-Vasquez was arraigned alongside alleged fellow gang-members Jhonny “Reaper” Contreras, Reynaldo Lopez-Alvarado, and Jeffrey Amador Thursday in Long Island federal court.

Contreras, Lopez-Alvarado, and Ambor were facing murder charges as well, in connection with the Nov. 2015 killing of Cesar Rivera-Vasquez. Rivera-Vasquez was bludgeoned with a baseball bat and repeatedly stabbed before his throat was slit, according to prosecutors.

All four men pleaded “not guilty” through their attorneys.

The transnational gang has now been fingered in the murders of at least 16 young people across Long Island, authorities said.

It was revealed Thursday that INTERPOL is seeking custody of Herdandez-Vasquez as well, believing him to be behind a murder in El Salvador.

If convicted, all men face life behind bars without the possibility of parole.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/08/20/ms-13-gang-member-pleads-guilty-to-grisly-quadruple-murder/

MS-13 gang member pleads guilty to grisly quadruple murder
By Lorena Mongelli and Ruth Brown
August 20, 2018 | 3:49pm | Updated

Victims of the MS-13 quadruple homicide by Josue Portillo: (from left) Michael Lopez Banega, Jefferson Villalobos, Justin Llivicura and Jorge Tigre


An MS-13 gang member pleaded guilty Monday to the murder of four rival gangbangers on Long Island last year, admitting he was one of the goons who butchered and bludgeoned the victims with blades and tree limbs.

Josue Portillo, 17, pleaded guilty to four counts of racketeering murder and one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering in federal court in Central Islip for the April 2017 slayings of Justin Llivicura, Michael Lopez, Jorge Tigre and Jefferson Villalobos.

“Josue Portillo’s guilty plea today marks a milestone in the investigation of MS-13’s brutal murders of four young men lured to their violent deaths in a park on Long Island,” US Attorney Richard Donoghue said in a statement.

“We hope the victims’ families can find some measure of solace in knowing that the perpetrators of these murders are now being held responsible for their crimes.”

In May, family members of the victims had joined President Trump at a press conference calling for tougher immigration laws. The president asked them to stand and be recognized and shook their hands.

Portillo — an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador also known as “Sparky” and “Curioso” in the gang — was 15 years old when he helped plan and carry out the gruesome quadruple murder, but is being prosecuted as an adult.

Portillo admitted that he and his buddies schemed to have two female MS-13 associates lure five suspected members of the rival 18th Street gang to the woods, where the men ambushed them with machetes, knives, sticks and an ax.

One of their targets managed to escape — and is now a government witness — but the other four were killed in a scene the feds described as a “horrific frenzy of violence.”

Dressed in green and white striped prison garb, an unshaven Portillo showed little emotion but said Monday he was sorry for what he did.

“I apologize to the family of the victims … knowing my apology will not be accepted,” he said as some the victims’ family members wept.

Others have been charged over the incident, but Portillo is the first to plead guilty.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/08/29/body-of-teen-killed-by-ms-13-found-a-year-later/

Body of teen killed by MS-13 found a year later
By Gina Daidone
August 29, 2018 | 3:22pm

The body of a teenage boy murdered last year by MS-13 gang members was found in Long Island Wednesday afternoon, officials said.

The victim’s corpse was discovered buried in a shallow grave, in a heavily wooded area behind Kellenberg Memorial High School on Glenn Curtiss Blvd in East Meadow after an intensive search, police said.

Cops received a tip about the body’s location and the MS-13 connection, officials said in a press conference near the scene.

Five individuals suspected to be involved in the teen’s death are likely already in custody, cops said.

The identity of the victim and cause of death has yet to be determined.

“This body belongs to a person. This was someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s friend”, Nassau District Attorney Madeline Singas said at the press conference.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/08/30/ms-13-gang-member-busted-in-brutal-slaying-of-long-island-teen/

MS-13 gang member busted in brutal slaying of Long Island teen
By Amanda Woods
August 30, 2018 | 7:13pm | Updated

Carlos Benitez-Hernandez


An MS-13 gang member was busted for killing a teenage boy whose remains were discovered this week in a wooded area of Long Island.

Carlos Benitez-Hernandez, 21, of Uniondale, was charged with second-degree murder and ordered held without bail at his Thursday arraignment.

The slaying occurred in August of last year and prosecutors believe Benitez-Hernandez used a machete in the attack.

Hernandez “did intentionally cause the death of the victim by stabbing him numerous times with a sharp cutting instrument believed to be a machete,” according to his criminal complaint.

On Wednesday afternoon, the victim’s corpse was found buried in a shallow grave, in a heavily wooded area behind Kellenberg Memorial High School in East Meadow, police said.

Cops executed an intensive search after receiving a tip about the body’s location and the MS-13 connection, officials said.

Police believe at least five other members of the notorious gang were involved in the teen’s death, Det. Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick said at a Thursday press conference, according to Newsday.

The identity of the victim and cause of death has not yet been released, but “we believe we know who it is,” Fitzpatrick told reporters.

The gang likely targeted the teen because of its “displeasure with his actions,” the commanding officer added, without elaborating.

Benitez-Hernandez, whose rap sheet includes busts for gang assault, weapons charges and victim intimidation — was out on parole at the time of the slaying but in federal custody when he was arrested, Fitzpatrick said.

He pleaded not guilty and was represented by Nassau County’s Legal Aid Society during his arraignment at First District Court in Hempstead. He will reappear in court on Sept. 4.

 

[The Bobster]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-attorney-ms-13-gang-terrorized-california-farm-180611361.html

MS-13 gang used California farm town as a base for crime
SUDHIN THANAWALA, Associated Press
15 hours ago .

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — More than two dozen MS-13 gang members and affiliates were arrested and charged following a monthslong murder and drug trafficking investigation centered on a rural California farm city that the gang turned into a base for its operations, U.S. and state prosecutors said Friday.

MS-13 took advantage of limited resources in the city of Mendota and used it and other areas of Fresno County to "conduct their crimes, to hide out from crimes that they committed in other jurisdictions and to prepare to commit crimes in states as far away as New York," Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp said at a news conference in Fresno with state and federal officials.

Mendota has a population of roughly 11,000 people and lies 35 miles (60 kilometers) west of Fresno in California's agriculturally rich Central Valley. Nearly the entire population is Hispanic, with many immigrants from El Salvador.

MS-13 is linked to more than 12 murders in Mendota and western Fresno County over the past two years, said McGregor Scott, the U.S. attorney in Sacramento. The federal charges announced Friday include allegations that two MS-13 gang members kidnapped and murdered a Fresno County man in December.

Scott said the investigation — dubbed "Blue Inferno" — uncovered evidence tying the gang to at least 30 murders and assaults in Mendota, Los Angles, Las Vegas, New York City and Houston. The evidence has prompted additional prosecutions in other cities, he said.

"This is a good day," he said. "An extremely violent street gang which has terrorized western Fresno County has been completely dismantled and several murders and violent crimes across the nation have been resolved in a resounding way," he said.

MS-13, or La Mara Salvatrucha, was formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s by refugees from El Salvador and is linked to many slayings in certain parts of the U.S. In California, the gang has clashed with rival Nortenos gang members. It also targets its own members for violating gang rules.

Nortenos are a street gang connected to the Nuestra Familia, a prison gang that originally formed in the California state prison system in the 1960s, according to federal prosecutors.

President Donald Trump has singled out the MS-13 gang as a threat to the U.S. and blames weak border enforcement for the group's crimes. But many gang members were born in the U.S.

Other federal charges stemming from the investigation of MS-13 in Fresno County accuse three gang members of stabbing a rival gang member in the back at a Mendota intersection in August. In May, three MS-13 members attacked a man walking near an elementary school in Mendota, beating him with a metal pipe, according to U.S. prosecutors.

The group in Mendota operated in tandem with MS-13 in Los Angeles and viewed the Bulldogs street gang as rivals, according to a U.S. grand jury indictment. The Bulldogs take their name from the mascot and moniker of California State University, Fresno, and wear the school's athletic apparel.

Another 15 people affiliated with MS-13 are facing federal charges of drug trafficking in Fresno and Los Angeles counties, according to U.S. prosecutors.

Smittcamp said separate charges are pending in state court of narcotics sales, assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit murder in Fresno and Los Angeles counties. Eleven defendants are charged in state court, she said.

The investigation also included the California attorney general's office.

"Operation Blue Inferno's message: If you want to commit crimes in California, we will find you, especially if you want to terrorize our families and our communities, we will get you," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said at Friday's news conference.

Scott said in a phone interview on Thursday the crackdown on MS-13 in the Central Valley was not directed by officials in Washington, D.C. Scott said he made the investigation of MS-13 a top priority after receiving a briefing about the gang's brutality upon returning to head the U.S. attorney's office in Sacramento.

Scott became U.S. attorney there for a second time in December. He previously headed that office from 2003 to 2009.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/09/01/perv-...1-year-old-girls-bedroom-then-rapes-her-cops/

Suspected MS-13 member broke into sleeping girl’s bedroom, raped her: cops
By Larry Celona and Amanda Woods
September 1, 2018 | 5:22pm | Updated

A purported member of the MS-13 gang broke into the bedroom of a sleeping 11-year-old Brooklyn girl and raped her in her bed, cops said Saturday as the suspect was taken into custody.

The horrific crime happened at 11:30 p.m. Wednes*day in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, officials said.

The suspect — identified by police sources as El Salvadoran immigrant Julio Cesar Ayala, 18, who lives nearby — had allegedly climbed onto the roof of the girl’s apartment building.

He then somehow shoved aside the girl’s window air conditioner on the second floor and crawled inside through the opening, police sources said.

The fiend raped the girl in her bed, officials said.

But he dashed back out the window as she screamed to alert her mother, who rushed to her aid, sources said.

The mother called 911 but did not catch sight of the attacker, the sources said.

By luck, though, police were able to grab video-surveillance images of the suspect.

On Saturday at 2:35 p.m., some 30 officers from the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit and the 70th Precinct converged on *Ayala at his hideaway in an under-construction three-story building at 930 Flatbush Ave.

They pulled out the scrawny, hunched man, who was seen handcuffed and dressed in filthy black jeans and a red T-shirt.

Ayala — who police sources said carried a federal Permanent Resident Card, also known as a “Green Card,” as his only identification — was led struggling into a police SUV.

A high-level police source told The Post that investigators believe Ayala is a member of the violent MS-13 gang.

and taunts rose from a crowd of dozens of spectators as Ayala was hauled out. Some applauded and took cellphone pictures.

“They got him!” one man yelled.

“He raped somebody, an 11-year-old girl,” another onlooker said.

Ayala was charged Saturday night with sexually motivated burglary and first-degree rape.

He has no previous criminal record, sources said.

The crime shocked residents in the girl’s tidy neighborhood of two- and three-story homes.

“That makes me feel unsafe in my own home,” said Elizabeth Bardourilla, 42, a mental-health counselor.

“That child can’t help herself. For a grown man to do that. Sick. Very sick. This is sad. Just sad.”

“That’s horrible,” added David Cadogan, 40, a paramedic.

“I got a son and nieces. I don’t play with stuff like that. There’s past a point where you tolerate certain behaviors.

“I know people want to wait on the law. But if anything happens to him between now and then, I honestly don’t care. He gets what he deserves.”

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/09/03/alleg...ear-old-with-brother-in-the-room-prosecutors/

Alleged MS-13 member raped 11-year-old with brother in the room: prosecutors
By Khristina Narizhnaya, C.J. Sullivan and Aaron Feis
September 3, 2018 | 1:54am

Julio Cesar Ayala
Paul Martinka


The reputed MS-13 gangbanger charged with raping an 11-year-old Brooklyn girl in her bed carried out his sick attack as the victim’s brother was in the bunk below her, prosecutors revealed Sunday.

Julio Cesar Ayala, 18, pushed aside an air conditioner and slid through the second-floor window of his young victim’s Prospect Lefferts Gardens home late Wednesday, prosecutors charged during his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court.

The creep — who was carrying a phony US immigration green card — first flicked the lights in the room on and off and shuffled things around on top of a dresser before climbing into the top bunk of the bed with the girl, according to officials.

As the victim’s brother lay in the bunk below, Ayala undressed the girl and began to rape her, authorities said.

The preteen let out a terrified scream, sending her parents running into the room and Ayala fleeing the apartment — leaving his Chicago Bulls cap lying on the dresser, authorities said.

Outside the building, Ayala changed his shirt in an apparent bid to throw off the heat, but the swap was caught on surveillance camera footage, officials said.

Cops also found footage from before the attack showing Ayala wearing the Bulls cap, prosecutors said.

Investigators were eventually able to track Ayala going into his apartment building on East 21st Street — less than half a mile from the victim’s building.

When police pounded on Ayala’s door Saturday afternoon, a woman answered, as Ayala peered over her shoulder.

He vaulted out the apartment window and sought refuge in an under-construction building nearby but was quickly found and cuffed by cops.

“Yes,” Ayala told cops in an apparent admission to the vile allegations, according to prosecutors. “I have never done anything like this before.”

Ayala — who has no criminal record in the city but has been identified as a suspected member of the vicious MS-13 gang by police sources — was carrying phony Social Security and immigration cards as his only identification when he was nabbed, prosecutors said.

The El Salvadoran’s actual immigration status was not clear.

Ayala moved to Brooklyn just months ago from Virginia and works full-time at his uncle’s air- conditioning business, his Legal Aid lawyer said in arguing for low bail.

The young victim was unable to pick Ayala out of a police lineup, the lawyer, (((Anna Boksenbaum))), said in arguing that the arrest was a case of mistaken identity.

Ayala, who’s facing a slew of charges including rape, burglary, and possession of a forged instrument, was ultimately held on $500,000 bail.

“We’re shocked,” said Karen Ayala, 17, who was in attendance at her cousin’s arraignment. “We don’t think he’s capable of doing something like this.”

In Prospect Lefferts Gardens, neighbors were hungry for justice — through the courts or otherwise.

“This freak, he needs the neighborhood to take care of him,” said resident Tanyka Williams.

“That’d be justice.”

 

[voiceofreason]

https://www.click2houston.com/news/...harged-in-5-houston-area-homicides-police-say

11 MS-13 gang members charged in 5 Houston-area homicides, police say
Updated: 6:01 PM, September 04, 2018

HOUSTON - Eleven members of the MS-13 gang were arrested in connection with five homicides that happened in the Houston area over the course of three months, police said Tuesday.

The arrests are part of an ongoing effort by city, county, state and federal police to crack down on one of the most violent street gangs in the region.
Related Stories
4 MS-13 gang members arrested after informant found hacked to death, police say
Pregnant teen accused of being getaway driver after deadly La Union shooting
Inside MS-13 gang's mafia-like structure

“Their methods a little bit more unusual than the other gangs and quite frankly they’re more brutal,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said at a Tuesday press conference announcing the arrests.

The first homicide in the recent outbreak happened June 6 when a man was found hacked to death by a machete in Cullinan Park in southwest Houston, police said. Marlon Miranda-Moran, Wilson Ventura-Mejia, Miguel Aguilar-Ochoa and Carlos Henriquez-Torres were charged with murder in connection with the case. Charges are pending against two other people, identified as Walter Mejia and Jimmy Villalobez-Gomez.

RELATED: 4 charged in hacking death of police informant at park

The second homicide happened July 3 in Liberty County, where a man was taken to a wooded area and beaten with a bat and then hacked to death with a machete, after saying he wanted to leave the gang, police said. Walter Mejia and Villalobez-Gomez were charged in connection with this case.

The third homicide investigation began Aug. 1, after the body of a man was found buried in a field at 5300 W. Fuqua St. after he was killed in Galveston, police said.

The fourth homicide happened Aug. 4 at La Union Restaurant at Wilcrest Drive and Bissonnet Street, where a man was gunned down in the parking lot after getting into an argument with several people, police said. Jairo Licona-Cardenas, Elida Medrano and a juvenile were charged in connection with this case. An arrest warrant has been issued for a fourth person in this case, but police would not release any other details.

“It appears that was the result of an argument inside the restaurant that spilled out into the parking lot. Next thing you know this man was gunned down for having an argument,” Acevedo said.

RELATED: Pregnant teen accused of being getaway driver in La Union homicide

The fifth homicide investigation began Aug. 30, after the body of a girl was found at the same Fuqua Street location where the man’s body was found Aug. 1, police said. Investigators said the girl was not a member of the gang and had been reported missing May 4.

“The number one priority of any mayor is to maintain safety and security of people that live in our city,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said Tuesday.

So far, 10 of the charged suspects are in custody, one is still at large, and police say the pressure on MS-13 will continue.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/09/14/mom-of-ms-13-victim-fatally-struck-by-car-at-daughters-memorial-site/

Mom of MS-13 victim fatally struck by car at daughter’s memorial site
By Stephanie Pagones and Joe Tacopino
September 14, 2018 | 7:31pm

Evelyn Rodriguez with President Trump back in May. Victor Alcorn


The mother of a young girl killed by MS-13 gang members on Long Island was fatally struck by a car at her daughter’s memorial site, cops said.

Evelyn Rodriguez — who attended President Trump’s State of the Union to bring light to the brutal slaying of 16-year-old Kayla Cuevas — was struck by a vehicle in Brentwood at around 4 p.m., according to police.

Rodriguez was preparing to attend a candlelight vigil for her daughter when she was killed.

She was rushed to Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, where she died.

“Prayers for Evelyn Rodriguez the mother of MS-13 victim Kayla Cuevas. Evelyn was struck by vehicle this afternoon at her daughter’s memorial,” Long Island Congressman Pete King (R-N.Y.) wrote on Twitter.

King later added: “Evelyn Rodriguez has passed away. Terrible news. RIP”

Kayla Cuevas was found beaten and stabbed in September 2016.

Suffolk County Police said that their homicide squad was investigating the incident.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/09/21/ms-13-gang-member-admits-he-killed-to-increase-status/

MS-13 gang member admits he killed to ‘increase status’
By Nick Fugallo and Emily Saul
September 21, 2018 | 10:08pm

Victims of the MS-13 quadruple homicide by Josue Portillo: (from left) Justin Llivicura, Jefferson Villalobos, Michael Lopez Banega and Jorge Tigre.


An MS-13 thug Friday admitted to taking part in an April 2017 quadruple homicide that shocked Long Island.

Freiry Martinez, 17, told federal Judge Joseph Bianco that he’d been part of a group carrying clubs, machetes and knives that slaughtered Justin Llivicura, Michael Lopez, Jorge Tigre and Jefferson Villalobos in Central Islip.

The gang member, who pleaded guilty to four counts of racketeering murder and one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering, told the judge he killed to “increase my status in the gang.”

Martinez said he had used a machete and focused on killing Llivicura.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/10/20/alleged-ms-13-members-charged-with-murder-in-2-deaths/

Alleged MS-13 members charged with murder in 2 New York deaths
By Associated Press
October 20, 2018 | 3:47am | Updated October 20, 2018 | 4:11am

Kevin Lopez-Morales and Josue Figueroa-Velazquez Nassau County District Attorney


MINEOLA, N.Y. — Two alleged MS-13 gang members have been charged with murder in separate killings of two teenagers who were hacked to death in New York.

Josue Figueroa-Velazquez and Kevin Lopez-Morales were arraigned on a grand jury indictment Friday in the deaths of 15-year-old Angel Soler and 19-year-old Josue Amaya Leonor on Long Island. Both pleaded not guilty.

Soler’s body was found last October and Leonor’s was found May 30. Prosecutors say both victims were killed because they were perceived to be enemies of MS-13.

Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas says the victims were lured to the woods by the defendants and other gang members and “ruthlessly” hacked to death.

An attorney for Lopez-Morales said he had no comment. An attorney for Figueroa-Velazquez did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/10/23/top-dea-agent-ms-13-gang-violence-is-unbridled/

MS-13 gang violence is "unbridled"
By Larry Celona and Bruce Golding
October 23, 2018 | 8:46pm

The bloodthirsty MS-13 gang is even worse than authorities initially suspected — with a command structure akin to the Mafia and members who’ve set a new standard for viciousness, the outgoing head of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency’s New York Division said Tuesday.

“Law enforcement did not realize how sophisticated they were at first,” Special Agent in Charge James Hunt told The Post in an exclusive interview one day before his mandatory retirement.

“Their command is structured and controlled a lot like organized crime.”

About 10,000 MS-13 members are spread across the United States, with more based in Central America — where the gang originated — and even Europe and the Far East, Hunt said.

“They have a leader who is based in El Salvador, and everybody all over the world answers to him,” he said.

The “Godfather”-like figure gets a cut of the profits generated by each MS-13 faction by selling narcotics, and — in another similarity to the Mafia — members can’t kill each other without approval from the gang’s leaders, Hunt said.

That prohibition doesn’t extend beyond MS-13, however, and gang members have distinguished themselves with a level of brutality that Hunt called the worst he’s seen during 36 years in law enforcement.

“Their acts of violence are unbridled,” he said.

“They’re just wild.”

Local examples of the gang’s bloodshed include the Long Island slayings of best friends Kayla Cuevas, 16, and Nisa Mickens, 15, who were beaten with baseball bats and hacked with machetes in 2016 following disputes over social media between Kayla and various MS-13 members and associates.

President Trump began warning about the danger posed by MS-13 during his campaign for the White House, and claimed this week that gang members were hidden in the migrant caravan now heading to the US through Mexico.

“They like cutting people up, slicing them,” Trump said during a rally in Texas on Monday.

In addition to MS-13, Hunt said America faced a major threat from fentanyl, which he called a “game changer” that was responsible for the majority of New York City’s 1,600 fatal overdoses last year.

“It’s much worse than crack cocaine was in the 80s and 90s,” he said.

“Way more people have died because of fentanyl.”

Hunt said the synthetic opioid, which is 100 times more potent than morphine, is typically smuggled into the US from Mexico in kilo-size bricks that are manufactured in China or the Dominican Republic.

Selling the drug is extremely lucrative, with a $5,000 investment able to return $1 million in profits when it’s sold on the streets, he said.

But the potency of fentanyl makes it hard for dealers to avoid killing their customers, because the people who cut and package it “just don’t know how powerful it is,” he said.

Hunt, who turns 60 on Thursday, is a former NYPD cop who followed his namesake father’s footsteps by joining the DEA — and rose to the same agency position held his late dad, James Hunt Sr., who worked on the famed “French Connection” drug case.

Hunt’s DEA career included undercover work investigating heroin trafficking during the 1980s, when he posed as “an Irish kid from The Bronx” who was willing to do dirty work for the mob, leading to the arrest of infamous Bonanno crime-family hitman Thomas “Tommy Karate” Pitera.

Hunt also led a team of agents who found the dismembered remains of Pitera’s victims buried in the William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge on Staten Island.

He later worked in Miami and Virginia before returning to New York in 2005 to head the Drug Enforcement Task Force, and was tapped to lead the DEA’s New York Division — the country’s largest — in 2014.

Hunt, who’s single and lives in New Jersey, is also going out on a high note, with Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman headed for trial in Brooklyn federal court next month after being extradited to the US on his watch.

“One thing I’ll miss is the people,” Hunt said. “The professionalism and camaraderie in New York City law enforcement is unparalleled.”

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/11/30/drive...dly-mowing-down-grieving-mom-of-ms-13-victim/

Driver indicted for allegedly mowing down grieving mom of MS-13 victim
By Stephanie Pagones, Lorena Mongelli and Natalie Musumeci
November 30, 2018 | 4:32pm | Updated November 30, 2018 | 9:40pm

Evelyn Rodriguez


The Long Island woman who fatally mowed down the mother of an MS-13 victim after trying to dismantle a memorial to the slain teen was indicted Friday on criminal charges.

Drago turned herself in to authorities Friday morning and was later arraigned in Suffolk County District Court, where she pleaded not guilty and was released without bail.

In the indictment, prosecutors say Drago wanted to destroy the memorial dedicated to Rodriguez’s 16-year-old daughter, Kayla Cuevas, because the setup was hurting the property value of Drago’s mother’s Brentwood home.

Rodriguez was fatally struck by Drago while preparing a candlelight vigil at the spot and getting into a dispute with her.

Rodriguez’s death occurred two years to the day that her daughter’s body was discovered in a wooded area off the same block.

Local residents have told The Post that the driver who mowed down Rodriguez had been trying for months to sell the vacant home adjacent to the memorial — and she’d been blaming mourners who visited the area for her inability to *unload the property.

Prosecutors confirmed the scenario Friday and revealed that the home actually belonged to Drago’s mother.

Prosecutors said Drago was so upset about the memorial that she tried swiping items from it and *destroying the display before her fatal showdown with *Rodriguez.

Wearing sunglasses, Drago said nothing to reporters after her arraignment.

“She is walking free and will be able to celebrate the holidays with her family. Meanwhile, Evelyn’s family won’t have that,” seethed Liz Cordero, a friend of Rodriguez’s who attended the arraignment.

“Where is her moral compass?” Cordero said. “How can anyone have that cold heart and say, ‘I am going to destroy this memorial.’ Kids were murdered there.”

Cuevas and her best friend, Nisa Mickens, 15, were walking down a tree-lined street in Brentwood when they were murdered by MS-13 gang thugs armed with baseball bats and a machete. Six gang members have been charged with their deaths.

Cuevas had been involved in “a series of disputes” with MS-13 members in the months before her murder, federal prosecutors have said.

The dispute escalated a week before her slaying, when Cuevas and several friends got into an argument with the MS-13 thugs at her school.

“After that incident, the MS-13 members vowed to seek revenge against Cuevas,” a federal complaint states.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/12/12/ms-13-member-who-tried-to-quit-spared-by-nypd-phone-tapping-lawyers/

MS-13 member who tried to quit spared by NYPD phone-tapping: lawyers
By Laura Italiano
December 12, 2018 | 10:55pm

Leaving MS-13 is a lot harder than joining it.

An unnamed member of the notorious gang tried to quit — but in January his former fellow gangsters learned he had inked over his distinctive MS-13 tattoo — and surveilled him in Jamaica, Queens, for months planning a hit, prosecutors said in court papers Wednesday. Luckily, investigators were listening to the plotters’ phones and interceded before the attack.

The phone taps were part of a larger investigation by prosecutors, NYPD and Homeland Security that led to 12 MS-13 members being indicted.

All of the alleged violence — one murder, and several attempted murders — were gang-related with no civilian victims.

 

[The Bobster]

Corpse found in Queens bird sanctuary: NYPD

https://nypost.com/2018/12/16/corpse-found-in-queens-bird-sanctuary-nypd/

Corpse found in Queens bird sanctuary: NYPD
By Sarah Trefethen
December 16, 2018 | 5:28pm

A man’s body turned up in a Queens bird sanctuary Sunday, according to police.

A passer-by discovered the corpse in Bayswater Point State Park in Far Rockaway shortly before noon, cops said.

The unidentified man had suffered trauma to his head and body, officials said. His death is under investigation.