3 members of MS-13 street gang plead guilty in 9 killings in New York City suburbs

NEW YORK (AP) — Three high-ranking members of the MS-13 street gang have pleaded guilty to their roles in nine killings involving machetes and guns in the New York City suburbs, federal prosecutors said.

Kevin Torres pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Central Islip to racketeering charges for his role in the killings, which took place during a violent period for the transnational gang in New York from 2016 to 2017.

The 29-year-old Freeport resident was the New York regional leader of the Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside, a Long Island-based clique of MS-13, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York.

David Sosa-Guevara, 33, and Victor Lopez-Morales, 36, both of Roosevelt, entered guilty pleas Thursday in Central Islip court. Prosecutors say Sosa-Guevara was the New York leader of the Hollywood Locos Salvatruchas, another MS-13 clique that operated on Long Island, and Lopez-Morales had been a high-ranking member.

Prosecutors say many of their victims were suspected members of rival gangs who were hacked to death with machetes and other weapons in secluded parks and wooded areas. Many of the bodies were dumped in shallow graves and weren’t discovered until months and years later.

Among them was the 2016 murders on Long Island of Samuel Martinez-Sandoval, Oscar Acosta, Kerin Pineda, Josue Amaya-Leonor, Marcus Bohannon, Javier Castillo and Carlos Ventura-Zelaya. The 2017 murders included the deaths of Angel Soler, also on Long Island, and David Rivera in Maryland.

Prosecutors say the three admitted to committing the killings to boost their status in the gang and to further its mission. MS-13 is also known as Mara Salvatrucha and is believed to have been founded as a neighborhood street gang in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s by people fleeing civil war in El Salvador.

“These defendants carried out vicious and senseless violence to instill fear and assert their dominance,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement with other regional law enforcement officials announcing the pleas Friday. “Today’s guilty pleas bring us one step closer to ridding this dangerous gang activity from Nassau County communities.”

Lawyers for Sosa-Guevara declined to comment Saturday; attorneys for the other two men didn’t immediately respond to emails.

They each face a minimum of 40 years in prison under the terms of their plea agreements, with Sosa-Guevara and Torres facing up to 65 years in prison and Lopez-Morales facing a maximum of 60 years, according to prosecutors.

Earlier this week, Jairo Saenz, a high-ranking member of another MS-13 clique, pleaded guilty to his role in seven murders, including the killings of Acosta and Castillo, as well as the deaths of two high school girls that focused the nation’s attention on the violent gang.

Philip Marcelo, The Associated Press