Had Them Killed In Ridgewood
A street gang boss who orchestrated the robbery and murder of two rivals in Ridgewood a decade ago was ordered on Tuesday, Nov. 18, to serve 37 years in federal prison, prosecutors announced.
Jason Cabral, 37, of Riverview, Fla. and his brother- Alvaro Cabral, 28, of Apollo Beach, Fla.-pled guilty in February to ordering the murder of Anthony Marcano and Fabian Mestres, both 17, in August 2004 at a warehouse in the vicinity of Seneca and Flushing avenues.
Federal agents picked up the Cabral brothers-both of whom are part of the Ñetas gang-in May 2012 following an extensive investigation.
“For eight years, [Jason] Cabral thought he had outsmarted law enforcement and gotten away with murder,” Attorney Generaldesignate
Loretta E. Lynch, currently the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement on Tuesday. “From one slender lead, and with the tenacity of the FBI and NYPD, these horrific murders were solved and the killers brought to justice. We hope today’s proceedings bring some measure of relief to the victims’ families.”
According to federal law enforcement sources, the events leading up to the Aug. 10, 2004 homicide began in Brentwood, L.I., where Marcano and Mestres-both members of the Latin Kings-were lured to a residence by Cabral and several unidentified associates.
Upon entering the house, authorities said, Cabral’s cohorts bound the teenagers with duct tape, then removed their property, which included drugs, cash and jewelry.
Reportedly, Marcano and Mestres were then stuffed inside the trunk of a car, then driven to the Ridgewood warehouse where they would meet their fate .
After the teenagers were brought inside the warehouse, authorities noted, Cabral’s associate-Luis Benitez- fatally shot both Marcano and Mestres in the head. Their bodies were dumped behind the warehouse and discovered by police the next morning.
Benitez was arrested along with the Cabral brothers in May 2012 by agents working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, based in Tampa, and the FBI’s Tampa Division. The shooter pled guilty to the double homicide on Nov. 7, 2013.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicole Boeckmann and Christopher C. Caffarone prosecuted the case against Jason Cabral.
