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A Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York investigation, conducted in coordination with several law enforcement partners, resulted in a 17-count superseding indictment charging seven members of the violent transnational criminal organization La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as the MS-13, with multiple racketeering offenses including two murders, one attempted murder, murder conspiracies, a narcotics trafficking conspiracy and related firearms offenses.
Two of those defendants, William Lainez-Duran, 24, of Uniondale, and Elvin Eulises Vasquez-Lopez, 23, of Hempstead, were arrested in Hempstead.
Another defendant, Jose Omar Yanes-Romero, 24, of Culpeper, Virginia, was arrested in Culpeper and arraigned at the Charlottesville federal courthouse in the Western District of Virginia.
Two of the remaining three defendants are in custody on criminal charges, and the third is in immigration custody and will be arraigned at a later date.
Defendants Henry Aquino-Hernandez, 20, of Bowling Green, Virginia, an associate of the Herndon City clique, Yanes-Romero, a member of the Coronados clique and Lainez-Duran, a member of the Hempstead clique, have been charged with participating in the July 19, 2022, murder of Walter Ochoa.
Defendant Gerson Hernandez, 23, of East Meadow, New York, a member of the Hempstead clique, was previously charged with participating in the murder.
Henry Canales, 24, of Auburn, New York, a member of the Coronados clique who is currently in New York state custody, has been charged with a related murder conspiracy, as well as with being an accessory after the fact.
Additionally, Jairo Cornejo-Crespin, 24, of Brooklyn, New York, a member of the Hempstead clique, has been charged with a Dec. 15, 2023, attempted murder, which occurred adjacent to Hempstead High School.
Separately, Canales and Vasquez-Lopez, a member of the Coronados clique, are charged with a May and June 2022 conspiracy to murder rival gang members.
HSI New York Special Agent in Charge William S. Walker announced the charges Oct. 3 alongside U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace, FBI New York Assistant Director in Charge James E. Dennehy, Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly and Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick J. Ryder.
As set forth in the superseding indictment and a detention memorandum filed Oct. 3, six defendants are charged with participating in the July 19, 2022, murder of Ochoa in Uniondale Park in Uniondale. Ochoa was targeted by the MS-13 because he was suspected of being a member of a rival street gang.
Hernandez, Aquino-Hernandez, Canales, Lainez-Duran, Vasquez-Lopez, Yanes-Romero and other MS-13 members also allegedly plotted the murder in retaliation for the killing of an MS-13 member 11 days earlier, which the MS-13 blamed on the 18th Street gang. On the evening of July 19, Ochoa was with another individual in Uniondale Park when they were approached by Hernandez, Yanes-Romero and a third MS-13 member who were armed with a .45-caliber handgun and at least one knife. The three gang members shot Ochoa to death and stabbed him in the neck, then fled the park.
The superseding indictment also charges Cornejo-Crespin, who was previously charged in Nassau County and is currently incarcerated, with an attempted murder in Hempstead. Specifically, on Dec. 15, 2023, near Hempstead High School, Cornejo-Crespin used a 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol bearing no make, model or serial number (also known as a “ghost gun”) to shoot an 18-year-old male that he believed to be a rival gang member. The victim was shot five times but survived. The shooting took place at approximately 3:22 p.m., shortly after school dismissal, when numerous students were walking around the neighboring area.
Finally, the superseding indictment charges six of the defendants with conspiring to distribute cocaine and marijuana. These charges stem from the MS-13 cliques’ street-level sales of cocaine and marijuana on Long Island, the proceeds of which were used to help finance the MS-13’s criminal operations including purchasing firearms, ammunition and other weapons and sending money to MS-13 leadership in Central America.
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