A federal jury in Brooklyn has convicted four members of the MS-13 gang — including two national leaders — for brutal murders in College Point and Flushing and two on Long Island, federal prosecutors announced on Friday, Dec. 19.
The defendants, including a Flushing man, were found guilty following a 10-week trial in Brooklyn federal court on charges related to four murders including the 2018 killing of Victor Alvarenga in Flushing, and the 2020 murder of Eric Monge in College Point.
National MS-13 leaders Edenilson Velasquez Larin, 36, of Thornton, Colorado and Hugo Diaz Amaya, 37, of Kansas City, Kansas, and Fulton Locos Salvatruchas clique leader Jose Espinoza Sanchez, 27, of Carrboro, North Carolina, and Fulton member Jose Arevalo Iraheta, 28, of Flushing, all face mandatory life sentences in federal prison.
“With today’s verdict, four extremely dangerous MS-13 members have been brought to justice for racketeering crimes including murder and now, deservedly, face mandatory life sentences,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella said. “Two of the defendants were national MS-13 leaders who were responsible for authorizing murders on behalf of the gang across the country and each of the defendants participated in heinous murders, including some in which the victims were hacked to death and dismembered.”
Federal prosecutors said Velasquez Larin and Diaz Amaya were among the highest-ranking MS-13 leaders in the nation at the time of their arrest. As proved at trial, MS-13 is a violent transnational gang operating through “cliques” or chapters in Queens, Long Island and communities across the U.S., as well as El Salvador, Honduras, and other countries in the Americas and Europe. The gang primarily makes money through drug trafficking and extortion, and is known for its gruesome murders of perceived gang rivals and gang members and associates who have violated gang rules. MS-13 has been responsible for dozens of murders in the Eastern District of New York alone.
“Today, the bloody reign of four MS-13 members, including two national leaders, has come to an end,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher Raia said. “These defendants orchestrated and facilitated the cold-blooded murders of four perceived rivals to simply increase their own social standing. Their propensity for extreme violence and their depravity of human life threatened the safety of anyone who crossed their path.”
In the murder of Victor Alvarenga in Flushing in 2018, the victim met Fulton members and claimed to be a high-ranking member of the Hollywood Locos Salvatruchas clique of MS-13. Velesquez Larin and Espinoza Sanchez investigated Alvarenga’s claims and determined that he was not who he claimed to be and ordered two underlings, Douglas Melgar-Suriano and Jairo Martinez-Garcia, to kill Alvarenga. They provided guns and waited in the getaway car to oversee the murder. In the early morning of Nov. 4, 2018, Alvarenga was walking to his Flushing home when he was intercepted by Melgar-Suriano who shot him multiple times in the head and body. As Alvarenga writhed on the pavement, Martinez-Garcia also shot him. Both men pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
In the murder of Eric Monge in College Point, in early 2020, Fulton member Oscar Hernandez Baires, of Trenton, NJ, stole a shotgun from Monge, his former roommate. In response, Monge confronted his old roommate and assaulted him. The attack was reported to Fulton leadership, including Velasquez Larin and Espinoza Sanchez, who ordered that Monge be killed. In the early morning of Sept.6, 2020, Fultom members shot and killed Monge while he was seated in his parked car in front of his College Point home. Monge’s wife had just returned to the car after bringing their young children inside their residence.
Arevalo Iraheta, who lived in Flushing at the time of his arrest, was convicted in the murder of Oswaldo Gutierrez Medrano in Jericho, Long Island. He was marked for death in a revenge killing stemming from the murder of two gang members in a Texas prison. Dias Amaya lured the victim to meet with other MS-13 members under false pretenses. On Feb. 1, 2922, Gutierrez Medrano met with those MS-13 members, who hacked him to death with machetes, slit his throat with a knife, dismembered his body and buried the parts in a wooded area in Jericho.
“These verdicts send a clear message: The NYPD will stop at nothing to identify, dismantle, and hold accountable any street gang that terrorizes our neighborhoods with violence,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. “These leaders and members of the notorious MS-13 crew carried out acts of extreme brutality — murdering their victims in cold blood and dismembering their bodies — and they are now facing justice.”
The second murder on Long Island was in 2016 when Velasquez Larin and Espinoza Sanchez plotted with a member of the Hempstead Locos Salvatruchas to kill a teenager from Honduras who they thought was associated with the 8th Street gang, which is MS-13’s primary rival to increase their own position in the gang.
On May 23, 2016, Velasquez Larin, Espinoza Sanchez and two Hempstead members lured Reyes to a wooded area behind Uniondale High School to smoke marijuana. Instead, once in the woods, Espinoza Sanchez struck Reyes with a machete. Velasquez Larin and the Hempstead members also struck Reyes repeatedly with a machete before the men buried Reyes’ body. For years after the murder, Velasquez Larin and Espinoza Sanchez bragged about their roles in the killing to other MS-13 members. Reyes’s body has never been recovered.
