8 Alleged MS-13 Gang Members Indicted For 6 Murders, Other Crimes On Long Island: 'Victims Were Hacked With Machetes'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police seized machetes, guns and ammunition while arresting two suspected members of the MS-13 gang in North Carolina.
Eight men have been indicted for six murders and other crimes on Long Island.
According to authorities, Carlos Alfaro, Jose Moises Blanco, Oseas Gonzalez, Jose Jonathan Guevara-Castro, Victor Lopez-Morales, Ever Morales-Lopez, David Sosa-Guevara and Kevin Torres are members of one of two "cliques" of MS-13 operating on Long Island: the Hollywood Locos Salvatruchas clique and the Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside clique.
Sosa-Guevara and Torres allegedly were the New York leaders of the Hollywood and Sailors cliques, respectively, and were in direct communication with high-ranking MS-13 leaders in El Salvador, authorities said.
Web Extra: Read the indictment (.pdf)
U.S. Attorney General William Barr said he will seek terror charges and the death penalty against accused MS-13 gang leader Alexi Saenz.
He's accused of killing Brentwood High School teens Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens in 2016.
READ: Alfaro et al. MS-13 Indictment
"As alleged, the defendants committed multiple murders and other violent and wanton crimes on Long Island to further MS-13's vicious code," stated Acting United States Attorney Seth DuCharme. "Victims were hacked with machetes, one shot numerous times and another decapitated. This office, working tirelessly with our local and federal law enforcement partners, will not rest until violent gangs are eradicated from the communities they have terrorized."
"Putting these men in a federal prison for the rest of their lives, or facing possible death sentences, may not mean much to them as members of MS-13 because it fits their macho bravado," stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney. "But it means a tremendous amount of relief to the communities on Long Island they've terrorized by using machetes to murder teenagers."