Largest MS-13 Take Down in NY, Nets over 100 Gang Members

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: NBCNY/ Long Island News

MS-13 crackdown -- the largest ever in New York -- ensnares nearly 100 members and  associates, dealing a huge blow to the gang's leadership.

New York prosecutors have announced the arrests Friday of nearly 100 members and associates of MS-13 in what officials say is the largest crackdown against the gang in the state’s history.

Officials have announced criminal charges against a total of 66 MS-13 gang members and 30 associates. They say they captured around 230 members and associates of MS-13. This includes the 96 members who were charged in the Riverhead courthouse Friday.

Authorities say they also brought down leaders of nine different cliques, including groups from Huntington, Brentwood and Central Islip.

The developments come following a two-year investigation involving law enforcement from the local to the federal level in Suffolk County, one of the gangs’ longtime hotbeds.

“The goal of this investigation was to deliver a major blow to the gang’s leadership, operations and recruitment in our region… we did exactly that," Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini told reporters Friday.   “This operation helped end the New York program," he added.

Drugs and guns were also confiscated, as well as machetes, which investigators say are the gang's signature weapon. At one point during the press conference, Sini held up a machete that he said was recovered during the arrests.   “This depicts how brutal and savage this gang is," Sini said.

Sini says investigators arrested 96 members and associates of the gang, who have been charged with crimes ranging from conspiracy to commit murder to drug trafficking to weapons sales. The ages of those arrested range from 16 to 59 and include U.S. citizens and illegal immigrants, he added.

Sources told the New York Post that most of the arrests were made Thursday and Friday morning.

Sini said throughout the investigation, authorities recovered drugs in gang members' possession such as cocaine and fentanyl, as well as handguns and more than $200,000 in cash. Investigators' efforts resulted in the arrests of the leaders of nine cliques of the gang operating in Suffolk County -- and foiled seven alleged murder plots, he added.

Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini revealed a sweeping indictment that he said "decimated" the gang's leadership and drug suppliers on Long Island. He described the case as the largest of its kind against MS-13 in New York, where the gang has been blamed for dozens of killings since 2016.

The two-year investigation by state and federal authorities thwarted more than a half-dozen murder plots, Sini said, and also provided authorities insights into the gang's structure and recruiting patterns. The operation was bolstered by an expansive wire tap in which the authorities monitored calls from more than 200 phone numbers.

"MS-13 is a ruthless, savage gang," Sini said at a news conference, pointing to a machete recovered by law enforcement, the gang's signature weapon. "They will attempt to recalibrate and send individuals to take up leadership roles in Suffolk County. That's why we have to stay vigilant."

Authorities said they seized more than 10 kilograms of cocaine, hundreds of fentanyl pills, drug ledgers, long guns and other firearms, and more than $200,000 cash. Those taken into custody included the leaders of nine so-called "cliques" - factions of MS-13.

Investigators have made dozens of arrests of suspected gang members in recent years as part of a crackdown on MS-13. In 2017, police arrested 15 MS-13 members on murder and other charges following a spate of bloodshed that included the massacre of four young men in a Long Island park and the killing of a suspected gang rival inside a deli.

"Their rules are violence, fear and control of their territory," said Ray Donovan, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in New York. "We will continue to push them back."

MS-13 recruits young teenagers from El Salvador and Honduras, though many gang members were born in the U.S. Long Island has a large population of unaccompanied minors from Central America, including many who were fleeing the violence in their home nations. MS-13 is believed to have been founded as a neighborhood street gang in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s by immigrants fleeing a civil war in El Salvador. 

Many gang members were born in the U.S. The gang has been blamed for dozens of killings since January 2016 across a wide swath of New York's Long Island – where Suffolk County is -- the Los Angeles area and the D.C. suburbs.

El Salvador's Supreme Court defined the gang as a terrorist group in 2015, allowing courts there to give tougher sentences to its members.

Sini says the arrests also allowed authorities to thwart plans to commit additional murders.

"As a result of the viable intelligence generated throughout this investigation, law enforcement prevented countless acts of violence over the past 23 months - including seven murder plots right here in Suffolk County," says Sini.

As News 12 has reported, police linked MS-13 to dozens of recent killings on Long Island, including the deaths of Brentwood High School students Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens for which MS13 gang members have been indicted.

Officials say all of the MS-13 cliques on Long Island are still operating. They say the cliques are now trying to reorganize after their leaders were removed.

Investigators also say they uncovered some of the gang's methods and rules, including one that says a member has to commit four murders in order to advance from one rank to another.

Earlier this month, the FBI unveiled a new tip line in the hope of gathering information to combat the violence MS-13 uses to terrorize American communities.

“Our message is simple, law enforcement will do what it takes to protect our communities," Sini said Friday. "And to MS-13, we are coming for you.”