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Carlos Argueta - a former leader of the Freeport Locos Salvatruchas clique of La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as the MS-13 - who is also known as “Violento,” “Desorden,” and “Dylan” pleaded guilty in Central Islip federal court to racketeering and firearms charges this week.
Argueta was charged for his participation in the Jan. 15, 2016 attempted murder of a suspected rival gang member outside the Brentwood public library, and the June 3, 2016 murder in Brentwood of Jose Pena, an MS-13 member who was suspected of violating the gang’s rules.
As part of his guilty plea, Argueta admitted to confronting three suspected rival gang members outside the library in Brentwood on the day of the fatal shooting. Argueta took out a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun from his waistband and shot one of the men in the torso. Argueta and his cohorts then fled the scene.
U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue noted that the wounded gang member received medical treatment and survived the gunshot.
Argueta, Pena and a third MS-13 gang member were subsequently arrested by Suffolk County Police officers in connection to the attempted murder and were released on bail.
Following their arrests, Donoghue said that Argueta demanded to see the other two gang members’ arrest paperwork in connection to the shooting. Argueta then informed the gang in Freeport that he suspected that Pena had cooperated with police.
Donoghue noted that members of MS-13 suspected that Pena was homosexual, which “is unacceptable under the rules of MS-13.”
After consulting with other MS-13 leaders in El Salvador, Argueta and the rest of the gang decided to kill Pena, with Argueta assigning tasks to other members, including the procurement of weapons and a vehicle that would later be used in the murder.
On June 3, 2016, Argueta and other MS-13 members lured Pena into the car, and drove to a secluded wooded area in Brentwood. After walking him into the woods, the group attacked Pena, taking turns stabbing him with knives and killing him.
Pena’s body wasn’t found for four months.
Argueta, now 20, who was 16 years old at the time of the crimes, was arrested by the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force on Sept. 20, 2016. The government proceeded to file a motion to transfer Argueta to adult status for prosecution, which was ultimately granted.
According to Donoghue, MS-13’s leadership is based in El Salvador and Honduras, and the gang has thousands of members across the United States, comprised primarily of immigrants from Central America. Since 2003, hundreds of MS-13 members, including dozens of clique leaders, have been convicted on federal felony charges in the Eastern District of New York.
“With today’s guilty plea, Argueta admitted that while free on bail for shooting a gang rival in broad daylight outside a public library less than six months earlier, he planned and carried out the vicious murder of a fellow gang member on behalf of the MS-13,” Donoghue said. “This Office, together with the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force, will continue working tirelessly to eradicate MS-13 and hold its members accountable for their senseless violence.”
William Sweeney, the FBI Director-in-Charge added, ““The twisted code the members and leadership of the MS-13 adhere to doesn't make sense to anyone outside of the gang.
“They brutally take the lives of people because they didn’t follow the rules. There is no world where those thought processes and behaviors are okay. Our FBI Long Island Gang Task Force is doing all it can to root out all the violence this gang has created and bring those responsible to justice.”
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