MS-13 migrants slaughtered members of their own gang on Long Island for being ‘disloyal:' federal prosecutors
The migrant gangbangers strangled and beat gang member Yoneli Ramos-Moreno to death in Kings Park in 2023 for buddying up with the rival Latin Kings gang, the US Attorney's Office said in a release.
In a cruel twist, the crew then ganged up on one of Ramos-Moreno's killers, Carlos Lopez-Lopez, who was drowned and stabbed to death in Blue Point in March because the other gang members suspected that he was cooperating with the feds, prosecutors said.
3 Alleged MS-13 gang member David Alejandro Orellana-Aleman, 27, is one of five gangbangers charged by the feds.
ICE.GOV
'The legal terms in the indictment cannot adequately describe the sheer savagery with which the defendants, in service to the MS-13 gang, beat, strangled and murdered Ramos-Moreno and plotted to murder Lopez-Lopes,' Joseph Nocella, US Attorney for New York's Eastern District, said in a statement.
'The charges in the indictment demonstrate my office and our law enforcement partners' resolve to hold vicious transnational organized crime groups like MS-13 accountable for their crimes and continue the mission to eradicate them from Long Island,' Nocello said.
The five alleged gang members — David 'Tenebroso' Orellana-Aleman, 27; Noel 'Discreto' Portillo-Romero, 27; Cruz Eduardo 'Poison' Sanchez-Gutierrez, 29; Ernesto 'Perverso' Torres-Hernandez, 26; and Omar 'Little Ejecutor' Zavala-Ventura, 27 — are all now in federal custody without bail.
3 MS-13 member Yoneli Ramos-Moreno was allegedly killed by the gang for being too chummy with the rival Latin Kings.
NCPD
Prosecutors said Ramos-Moreno was lured to a Hauppauge parking lot on Oct. 28, 2023, then taken to Sunken Meadow Bluff, where he was strangled and beaten to death.
Lopez-Lopez, who was part of the crew suspected of killing Ramos-Moreno, was killed by the other gang members on March 3 of this year because of his suspected cooperation with law enforcement.
The five are also accused of peddling drugs.
The feds said they're members of MS-13 Hollywood and Carlington 'cliques.'
La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, is an international gang based in Central America, with members from El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico infiltrating the US, including on parts of Long Island.
3 The Central American MS-13 gang has been among the most vicious migrant crews in the US, including on Long Island.
ZUMAPRESS.com
The gang is known for vicious mob attacks, often using machetes against their targets.
They're known to turn on associates on mere suspicion of betrayal, according to authorities.
'The indictment of these five individuals connected to the brutal executions of two people — all because they were viewed as disloyal — is a clear demonstration of our commitment to hold these defendants accountable,' Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said in a statement.
Portilla-Romero, Sachez-Gutierrez and Torres-Hernandez were arrested Tuesday and are awaiting arraignment, federal prosecutors said, while Orellana-Aleman, who is in federal immigration custody, and Zavala-Ventura, who is being held by the FBI, will be arraigned at a later date.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
LI fire chief allegedly storms pol's office, dares staff to ‘call ICE' after being accused of helping feds target migrants
The fire chief in Long Island's largest Latino community allegedly stormed into a local lawmaker's office and dared his staff to 'call ICE' — days after the pol accused him of aiding migrant crackdowns. Democratic state Assemblyman Phil Ramos apparently sparked the showdown when he accused Brentwood's fire officials last week of aiding the feds in their local immigration raids, with ICE spotted setting up a makeshift base in the parking lot of one of the department's fire stations. 5 Phil Ramos sparked the showdown when he accused Brentwood's fire officials last week of aiding the feds in their local immigration raids. Assemblyman Phil Ramos/Facebook Advertisement Ramos' public chastising then allegedly led Brentwood Fire Chief Bryant Figueroa to storm the politician's office Thursday night. The pol said Figueroa was 'trespassing' and trying to intimidate him by barging into his private office uninvited and daring staff to call law enforcement and the feds as they tried to stop him. 'Chief Bryant Figueroa stormed into my office unannounced, ignoring repeated instructions from my staff not to go beyond the public space — instead, he trespassed and entered my private office,' Ramos said in a statement. Advertisement 5 Ramos' public chastising then allegedly led Brentwood Fire Chief Bryant Figueroa to storm the politician's office Thursday night. Assemblyman Phil Ramos/Facebook 'When asked to leave and told again that he was not allowed in that part of the office, he responded defiantly with the words: 'Then call the police. Call ICE.' ' Ramos said Figueroa 'forcibly entered' his private office and slammed an envelope on his desk containing the department's revocation of the lawmaker's honorary 'chief' title along with notice that his name will be removed from the walls of the East Brentwood Fire House in Suffolk County. 5 The pol said Figueroa was 'trespassing' and trying to intimidate him by barging into his private office uninvited and daring staff to call law enforcement. East Brentwood Fire Department Advertisement 'Rather than standing with us during a difficult time, your words and actions have fueled public mistrust and endangered the safety and reputation of those who serve selflessly and without political motive,' said the fire chief's letter, which was obtained by The Post. 'We expect our community leaders, especially those we have honored with the title of Honorary Chief, to stand shoulder to shoulder with us in times of crisis and controversy–not to cast blame or sow division. Your recent conduct does not reflect the values we uphold or the brotherhood and sisterhood we share in the fire service.' 5 The press release from the East Brentwood Fire Department addressing accusations of helping federal agents target immigrants. East Brentwood Fire Department Brentwood Fire did not respond to a request for comment on the chief's alleged storming of Ramos' office. Advertisement The department previously denied any knowledge or allowance of ICE's operations to take place in its parking lot. A now-viral video shows masked agents and unmarked cars recently setting up shop at the fire house. Despite the department's and firefighters' denial, Ramos has remained unconvinced and insisted that leaders such as Figueroa gave ICE the green light to operate out of the parking lot. 5 Brentwood Fire did not respond to a request for comment on the chief's alleged storming of Ramos' office. Assemblyman Phil Ramos/Facebook Just days before the chief's alleged office storming, Ramos led a protest outside the fire house that ICE was spotted at. Ramos, a former police officer who once sued his own department for civil-rights violations, said the fire department's leadership is 'out of touch with the diverse community it serves' — and accused Figueroa of crossing the line from professional disagreement into personal retaliation. He's now calling for accountability and warning that the fight is far from over. 'I will not be intimidated, I will not be silenced, nor will our community stand for gestapo-like tactics from a fire department that is in urgent need of volunteers,' Ramos said. 'I'll continue to stand up for my community and shine the light of justice wherever it may lead.'
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
The forgotten man who was California's original king of deportation
He sent federal immigration agents into Southern California communities, farms and workplaces vowing to drive 'illegal aliens' back across the border. His raids regularly netted hundreds of arrests a day and he once boasted about apprehending 70,000 people in a single month in San Diego County alone. When L.A. declared itself a 'sanctuary city' for Central American migrants, he vowed to have Washington cut off the city's federal funding. He took pride in arresting undocumented workers when they showed up to collect their lottery winnings. Time magazine once captured him surveying a crackdown on the border that netted nearly 2,800 arrests in one 24-hour period. 'Isn't this fun!' he said. Before Donald Trump and Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem, there was Harold Ezell. Ezell was a mid-level manager in the federal immigration bureaucracy who nonetheless ran one of it — not the — biggest deportation operation in California history. His title was regional commissioner of the Immigration and Nationalization Service. But with the blessing of Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s, Ezell eagerly emerged as a national figure of both scorn and love, railing against illegal immigration and using his troops to, as he put it, turn back the 'invasion' and return America to 'Americans.' 'The reason why you have control of immigration is that you can assimilate a certain number of people every year into your culture, into the American way, into America, America's lifestyle,' he once explained to Times reporter Laurie Becklund. 'Already, you need to know Spanish to navigate your way around downtown.' Ezell is a largely forgotten name in a largely forgotten immigration war. It was an era before a powerful immigrant rights movement, before the rise of Latino politics in California. Until recently, it seemed to many like a throwback to an outdated, crude form of border enforcement we'd probably never see again. But it's worth considering Ezell's war and its aftermath as we try to make sense of what's happening before our eyes on the streets of Southern California. Federal agents have arrested 2,800 people since the beginning of President Trump's immigration sweeps a month ago. It feels like a stunning number, a quantification that adds to the sense of terror and upheaval spreading across immigrant communities. But compared to the heights of the Ezell raids, these numbers seem small by comparison. Of course, California was a different place in the 1980s – much more white, more Republican (Reagan won big in 1980 and 1984) and, according to polling, much more concerned about illegal immigration. As late as 1993, a Times poll found a whopping 86% of respondents said illegal immigration was a problem. Ezell is easier to understand from the prism of Reagan's 'Morning in America' era. The son of a pastor from Wilmington, Ezell made his name as an executive at the Wienerschnitzel hot dog chain before getting into Republican politics (he once quipped 'It's hamburgers that hire illegals because they have kitchens.'). Even critics who considered his policies cruel and racist – and there were many – admitted that behind the bluster there was the charm of a true believer. There was a scorched-earth quality to his raids. The feds targeted race tracks (forcing Del Mar to temporarily close), public transit and, notably, factories with the hope employers would get the message and hire citizens. This traffic sign — showing a family running across a road —came to symbolize his era. But it did not take long to see a certain futility in the crackdown. Ezell himself admitted in 1986 that all the arrests were not keeping up with the estimated 2,000 new border crossings each day. He insisted it was about sending a message. That same year, Congress passed the landmark Immigration Reform and Control Act, which gave a path to citizenship to more than three million immigrants here illegally. Ezell turned to getting the word out about amnesty, infamously donning a mariachi hat and singing 'Trio Amnestia' at one event. Ezell eventually became a major supporter of Proposition 187, the California measure that prohibited undocumented workers from receiving public assistance. The measure passed, but it began a political backlash to anti-immigration policies. Changing attitudes and demographics made California much more supportive of immigration as a benefit to the economy and the culture. Ezell died in 1998 and did not live to see the remarkable transformation. But as my colleague Gustavo Arellano noted in his excellent podcast on Prop. 187, the extremism of the 1980s and 1990s anti-immigration movement were also the seeds of its destruction. I asked Arellano about all this. 'Stephen Miller should learn well from Ezell, but not in the way he would like to think.' History has not been kind to Ezell, he said, and 'that's how history is already remembering Miller. It's not too late to change that.' William Barnes writes: 'My favorite California beach is the one of my youth, Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, Calif.' Jot McDonald writes: 'Ancillary Beach. It has the whitest sand!' Amy writes: 'Easy. Huntington Beach.' Email us at essentialcalifornia@ and your response might appear in the newsletter this week. A selection of the very best reads from The Times' 143-year archive. Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team Diamy Wang, homepage internIzzy Nunes, audience internKevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@ Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on
4 days ago
Mexico says 'no indication' plane carrying drugs came from El Salvador after diplomatic spat
SAN SALVADOR -- Mexico's government clarified there was 'no indication' that an airplane it intercepted loaded with cocaine had originated from El Salvador, according to a letter posted by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. The letter, posted on the social media platform X by the populist leader, comes after a diplomatic drama broke out between Bukele and Mexican officials when Mexico's security chief said authorities believed that a plane had come from El Salvador. The assertions riled up Bukele, who recalled El Salvador's ambassador to Mexico and demanded a correction from the Mexican government. Bukele has staked much of his popularity on his hard-handed crackdown on crime. He responded to the assertion the word 'FALSE' on a post on X, that went on to detail the plane's alleged flight path. Bukele also pointed out that the three men arrested with the plane were Mexican citizens. Mexico's security chief Omar García Harfuch had backed away from his original statement that the plane originated in El Salvador, to later say that Mexican authorities picked up the plane on radar as it was passing the Salvadoran capital, albeit well out to sea. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday she would not engage in a dispute with her Salvadoran counterpart. On Friday, the letter posted by Bukele - apparently written by Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Relations to the Salvadoran Embassy - clarified that there was no clear evidence the flight had originated from the Central American nation 'nor that anyone in the country was linked to the incident.' The letter, dated July 11, offers to respond to any other questions 'that may arise on the topic' to preserve the relationship between the two countries and said it hopes to 'strengthen the exchange of information to avoid similar situations in the future.' Bukele said he appreciated the clarification. El Salvador's presidential office did not confirm if the country would send its ambassador back to Mexico, noting that 'the president will decide.'
