Leader of MS-13 and 22 gang members are indicted for multiple murders
Nearly two dozen members of the notorious street gang MS-13 were arrested Wednesday and charged by the FBI with crimes related to a long-running dispute over Long Island territory.
Among those arrested was Edenilson Velasquez Larin, aka Agresor, 33, of Thornton, Colorado — the alleged national leader of the gang.
Despite the violence centered around New York, alleged members from New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia were arrested this week.
Larin is being held in Ohio immigration custody.
The MS-13 gang has become known for violence in the US and is involved in high-profile crimes in Florida, Texas, New York and a host of other locations.
The group is accused of a particularly horrific act of violence when members killed a 17-year-old boy after stabbing and strangled him, then posed for photographs with his body.
Edenilson Velasquez Larin, aka Agresor, was part of the alleged MS-13 gang members charged by the FBI
MS-13 gang member now faces life in prison after pleading guilty to the murders of three men, including an 18-year-old who was lured to a New York baseball field to smoke marijuana and play with him on a bat to hit and stab
Oscar Solis Jr., who is accused of killing an Uber Eats driver during an April 19 delivery at Solis’ home in Holiday, Florida. He is accused of being a member of the MS-13 gang
In the summer of 2021, the gang found themselves at war with the Latin Kings gang over territory in New York’s Nassau County.
One of the accused, Christian Alas Leon, is charged with leading an attack on a rival gang member with machetes.
In the wake of a retaliatory sting for that attack, members of the MS-13 Long Island faction known as Fulton Locos Salvatruchas held a conference call with Larin from a park in Hicksville, New York.
During the meeting, the gang members hatched a plot to kill a Latin Kings member, authorities allege.
The target of that attack survived, despite being shot by Erick Galdamez Leon aka Truco, 23, prosecutors said.
Another man was targeted by the group after uploading a video to social media showing him in Westbury, Long Island – considered MS-13 territory.
He also survived when he was shot in the face by group members Carlos Alvarado, 19, and Tylor Salmeron, 20, authorities said on Wednesday.
The group also went to war with the Los Angeles-based 18th Street Gang over turf on Long Island in 2019 and 2020. This resulted in several shooting incidents, officials said. The accused leader of that struggle was Jose Espinoza Sanchez.
Between 2018 and 2020, MS-13 members were responsible for four murders in New York City’s Queens section, prosecutors say.
In 2019, the group reportedly shot and killed another man after dragging him off a subway train in Jackson Heights, Queens while he yelled, “We’re MS-13!” We’re going to kill him!’
The murder started as a fight between two groups on the 7 train to Manhattan.
The victim was a member of the Latin King.
He was later credited as Abel Mosso.
Police officers in El Salvador search a young man in the 22 de Abril community in the Soyapango district, which is controlled by the Mara Salvatrucha – MS-13 gang
Graphics showed the three men fighting on the platform at the 90th Street-Elmhurst Avenue subway stop after the train doors opened at approximately 1 p.m.
The victim was punched several times before one of the men, dressed in a gray coat, got up and pulled out a gun.
He shot Mosso in the head and the footage shows him falling to the ground.
Another five gunshots were fired before the two men fled the scene.
Terrified commuters, who had tried to intervene to break up the fight, were filmed screaming as they ran from the gunfire.
According to police, the train and platform were full when the gunfire rang out.
The victim died at the scene after multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the head.
“The murders and other acts of violence allegedly committed by these defendants were brutal, cold-blooded and utterly senseless,” said United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace, when announcing the arrests.
“This office and our law enforcement partners are working tirelessly to dismantle MS-13 at all its levels, and we will not budge until this transnational criminal organization, its leaders, members and associates are held accountable for the extreme violence. … They have committed in our communities,” he added.
In the same press release, FBI Deputy Director Michael Driscoll accused MS-13 of “bringing fear and terror to our communities.”
“Today’s indictments mark another success in our fight against the ongoing threat posed by MS-13. The FBI Long Island Gang Task Force and our law enforcement partners are committed to eradicating the scourge of violence and criminal behavior caused by MS-13,” Driscoll also said.
According to that press release, the Eastern District of New York has successfully prosecuted hundreds of MS-13 members since 2003.
Two others named in the indictment, Jose Mejia Hernandez, 21, and Yonathan Hernandez, 24, are named as major drug traffickers. They are also accused of money laundering.
The Long Island-based alleged members of the gang were arraigned in a court in Brooklyn on Wednesday.
The arrival of detainees from gangs MS-13 and 18 to the new prison ‘Terrorist Confinement Centre’. A riot at a prison in neighboring Honduras this week left 46 dead and was fueled by alleged gang violence
MS-13, also known as La Mara Salvatrucha, recruits young teens from El Salvador and Honduras, though many gang members were born in the US
The announcement of the arrests comes on the same day a riot at a Honduras prison linked to MS-13 activities left at least 40 people dead.
MS-13, also known as La Mara Salvatrucha, recruits young teens from El Salvador and Honduras, though many gang members were born in the US
The gang has been held responsible for dozens of murders across much of Long Island since January 2016.
The gang’s influence and violence on Long Island has declined in recent years due to a federal crackdown.
Former President Donald Trump made eradicating MS-13 a spearhead of his administration, visiting Long Island several times to meet with law enforcement and the families of the gang’s victims.
MS-13 is suspected of forging alliances with Mexican cartels and trafficking narcotics; immigrant smuggling and extortion; kidnappings; and arms trade.
Leniz ‘Little Devil’ Escobar, 22, was convicted in April 2022 of luring four high school students to death by MS-13 gang members in 2017
In April 2022, an MS-13 mobster named Little Devil was convicted of luring four young men to their deaths in a Long Island machete massacre.
Leniz Escobar, 22, was found guilty of each of her six charges after just 16 minutes of jurors’ deliberation.
Escobar seemed to take pleasure in the deaths of Michael Lopez, 20, and three friends — Justin Llivicura, 16, Jorge Tigre, 18, and Jefferson Villalobos, 18.
She had invited the men to a park to smoke marijuana in 2017, leading them into a trap. They were then killed with machetes by the gang members.
Escobar said in a prison visit that she was “very happy” with what she had done.
In April 2021, a 31-year-old Long Island woman was murdered just seven days after obtaining a protection order against her boyfriend, Anander Henriquez, 28, an MS-13 gang member.
Nazareth Tamer-Claure was beaten with a baseball bat and then hacked to death with machetes before police discovered her body wrapped in the trunk of a car during a traffic stop.