OAN’s Roy Francis
10:10 AM – Saturday, June 24, 2023
Federal prosecutors have announced the arrest of nearly two dozen MS-13 gang members, including the purported national leader of the gang, who were allegedly behind the “brutal violence” in New York City which include multiple murders and acts of violence dating back to 2018.
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A 48-count indictment was unsealed this week in a federal court in Brooklynn, New York, and charged 22 individuals whose ages range from 19 to 35.
A statement from the Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York, said that the charges include “racketeering conspiracy and related offenses, including multiple murders and other acts of violence, drug distribution conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy.”
Edenilson Velasquez Larin, who is know as “Agresor,” who is 33 years old and the purported national leader of the gang, was also arrested. Although the charges and violence were centered around New York, alleged members of the gang from New Jersey, North Carolina, and Virginia were also arrested.
“The murders and other crimes of violence allegedly committed by these defendants were brutal, cold-blooded, and utterly senseless,” said United States Attorney Breon Peace. “This Office and our law enforcement partners are working tirelessly to dismantle the MS-13 at all of its levels, and we will not relent until this transnational criminal organization, its leaders, members, and associates are held accountable for the extreme violence and other criminal activity that they have perpetrated in our communities.”
One of the crimes that were cited in the indictment was the murder of 17-year-old Andy Peralta carried out by Leyla Carranza, her boyfriend Juan Amaya-Ramirez, Oscar Flores-Mejia, and one other MS-13 member.
Federal prosecutors alleged that the group had lured Peralta to a park where they killed him after beating, stabbing, and strangling him, and then had proceeded to pose for photos with the body.
“At the time, Amaya- Ramirez was dating defendant Leyla Carranza, who agreed to help her boyfriend and his friends to kill Peralta by luring him to his death in Kissena Park,” court documents said. “In furtherance of the murder plot, Carranza began to communicate with Peralta through social media, and Carranza convinced Peralta to meet for a romantic encounter in Kissena Park.”
On April 23rd, 2018, Peralta had allegedly went to the park to meet Carranza where he was confronted by the group.
“The three men beat, stabbed, and strangled Peralta to death,” court documents said. “After the murder, Amaya-Ramirez took a photograph of Peralta’s body while he and his co-conspirators displayed MS-13 hand signs.”
More charges include the murder of Victor Alvarenga, who was shot and killed near his home in Flushing in 2018, and Abel Mosso in February 2019.
“As alleged,” the attorney’s office said. “In the early afternoon of February 3, 2019, Victor Lopez and Tito Martinez-Alvarenga followed Mosso, who they believed to be a member of the rival 18th Street gang, onto the No. 7-train at the Main Street station in Flushing, trailed by Ramiro Gutierrez. Lopez and Martinez-Alvarenga assaulted Mosso inside the subway car and then dragged him out onto the platform at the 90th Street station in Jackson Heights,”
A superseding indictment which was unsealed on Wednesday alleged that Larin, who is now in custody in Ohio, had ordered murders, drug distribution, and money laundering for MS-13.
As the indictment was unsealed, prosecutors sought the permanent detention orders against the suspects, saying that they pose flight risks and that they would be a danger to the community if they were to be released.
The defendants include Edenilson Larin, the alleged national MS-13 leader, Christian Leon, Carlos Alvarado, Jose Iraheta, Erick Leon, Blanca Garcia, Jose Aguilar, Oscar Baires, Keila May, Yonathan Hernandez, Leyla Carranza, Jose Hernandez, Jose Sanchez, Tylor Salmeron, Erick Hernandez, Juan Amaya-Ramirez, Oscar Flores-Mejia, Ramiro Gutierrez, Victor Lopez, Tito Martinez-Alvarenga, Emerson Martinez-Lara and Ismael Santos-Novoa.
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