DA: 17 with suspected MS-13 ties indicted in Nassau | Newsday
Description: Among those facing charges ranging from murder to conspiracy to drug trafficking is “highest level” leader of the gang in the Northeast, officials say

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Long Island Crime

# DA: 17 with suspected MS-13 ties indicted in Nassau

Among those facing charges ranging from murder to conspiracy to drug trafficking is “highest level” leader of the gang in the Northeast, officials say

Victor Lopez, the first defendant to be arraigned, is led out of the Nassau County District Attorney's Office on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. Photo Credit: Newsday

By Bridget Murphy and Mark Morales bridget.murphy@newsday.com, mark.morales@newsday.com @ByBridgetMurphy Updated January 11, 2018 3:28 PM
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Seventeen suspected members and associates of MS-13, including the street gang’s Northeast kingpin, have been indicted in Nassau County on felony charges ranging from murder to conspiracy to commit murder to drug trafficking, officials said Thursday.

Two of the defendants were indicted in the slaying of Angel Soler, 16, of Roosevelt, whose mutilated body was found Oct. 19 with “cement poured over his body” in remote woods in Roosevelt, just south of the Southern State Parkway, officials said.

At least three homicides were prevented — including one in the Freeport-Roosevelt area — during the seven-month investigation, which involved surveillance of the notorious gang in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and Texas, even overseas, Nassau District Attorney Madeline Singas said.

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“This massive multi-agency investigation laid bare the global size, complexity, and brutality of MS-13, and these indictments strike a heavy blow to the gang’s operations on Long Island,” Singas said in a statement.

Singas noted that MS-13 has “terrorized vulnerable immigrant communities” and “trafficked deadly heroin into our neighborhoods.”

Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent In Charge James Hunt noted the arrest of the “highest level” MS-13 leader in the region “who reports to MS-13 in El Salvador.” The alleged leader’s identity was not immediately known.

The kingpin “ordered beatings and murders” and directed the gang’s multistate drug operations, Singas said at a news conference in Mineola.

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Officials said the kingpin was in custody in Maryland, where two slayings were solved as a result of the probe. Two other slayings — one in Maryland and the other in New Jersey — were prevented as a result of the investigation, officials said.

“MS-13 gang’s mission is to control our towns through brutal violence, but today we took that control away from them,” Hunt said in a statement.

A coalition of more than 22 agencies nationwide were involved in the investigation, which revealed that MS-13 was distributing about $1 million worth of heroin, officials said.

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The first defendant to be arraigned Thursday, Victor Lopez, 29, pleaded not guilty to charges in connection with the slaying of Soler.

Soler was one of three young men whose remains were found buried in secluded areas of Nassau County in October — with all three believed to have been victims of MS-13.

An attorney for Lopez, who faces murder, conspiracy and weapons charges, declined to comment after the arraignment.

Nassau prosecutors had previously charged David Sosa-Guevara, 26, of Wyandanch, with second-degree murder in Soler’s machete killing. Sosa-Guevara previously pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail. He too was indicted.

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More suspected MS-13 members were to be arraigned Thursday afternoon.

If convicted of the top charges, all of the defendants face up to 25 years to life in prison, Singas said.

The international MS-13 gang has been linked to several brutal murders on Long Island in recent years.

The gang’s leaders in El Salvador are accused of directing the leaders of the “Hollywood” and “Sailors” cliques, subgroups of MS-13 that are based in “Hempstead, Freeport, Roosevelt, Uniondale, Glen Cove, Greenport, Central Islip and elsewhere,” officials said.

Each clique “operates individually under its own rules, yet is still under the greater rules of the entire organization,” officials said in a news release. “MS-13 mandates that cliques respect each other and their territories. Any issues or conflicts between cliques that require resolution or punishment are handled by MS-13 senior leadership.”

Clique leaders report to the leaders in El Salvador “and sent them the proceeds of their criminal activities,” officials said.

MS-13 members allegedly committed “ruthless acts of violence,” including murder, on rivals and punished fellow gang members who fail to follow protocol, prosecutors said.

“Additionally, the indictment charges that members agreed to kill and inflict punishment on disloyal members who cooperated with law enforcement or tried to leave the gang,” officials said.

Nassau prosecutors announced last June that 41 alleged members of MS-13 had been indicted in connection with violent felonies and that most of them were part of a criminal conspiracy.

However, a judge dismissed the conspiracy charges in December against 21 of those defendants, ruling that there was “not one iota of evidence” — aside from their alleged gang membership — that they were part of a conspiracy.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly cited MS-13 activity in arguing for changes in immigration policy.

He came to Brentwood in July and said that Long Island neighborhoods affected by MS-13 violence had become “bloodstained killing fields.”

Authorities have linked 11 killings in Brentwood and Central Islip in the past 16 months to MS-13.

By Bridget Murphy and Mark Morales bridget.murphy@newsday.com, mark.morales@newsday.com @ByBridgetMurphy

Bridget Murphy is a Newsday criminal justice reporter.

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### More on this topic

MS-13 on Long Island: A new and more deadly profileThe recent eruption of gang violence on Long Island -- highlighted by the discovery of the mutilated bodies of four young men in a public park -- fits what experts and sources say is a new and more deadly profile of MS-13.
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