43°
The 29-count superseding indictment includes acts involving murder, attempted murder, narcotics, and firearms offenses, according to an announcement on Wednesday, Sept. 7, from Breon Peace, United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Two of the defendants, 26-year-old Kevin Torres, of Freeport, and 30-year-old Oseas Gonzalez, of Charlotte, North Carolina, were charged with the Sept. 5, 2016, murder of Marcus Bohannon, of Central Islip, according to the announcement.
Bohannon was shot and killed while he was walking along Lowell Avenue in Central Islip because he was believed to be a member of a rival gang, Peace said.
Racketeering charges and other related charges were also added against Gonzalez and 34-year-old Victor Lopez-Morales, of Roosevelt, in connection with the Oct. 14, 2016 murder of Carlos Ventura-Zelaya, and against 31-year-old David Sosa-Guevara, of Roosevelt, in connection with a May 23, 2020 assault against a rival gang member at the Nassau County Correctional Facility, the US Attorney's Office said.
According to the announcement, Ventura-Zelaya was fatally shot while walking on Hudson Street in Roosevelt because he was also believed to be a member of a rival gang.
The indictment also charged 22-year-old Kevin Cuevas Del Cid, of Freeport, in connection with his role in the May 21, 2016 murder of Kerin Pineda, and the Oct. 10, 2016 murder of Javier Castillo, Peace said.
Pineda, a suspected member of a rival gang, was lured to a secluded wooded area near the Merrick-Freeport border, where he was stabbed, slashed, and hacked to death with machetes by MS-13 members, the US Attorney's Office reported.
After Pineda was killed, the MS-13 members buried him, and Pineda’s remains were recovered more than a year later, according to the report.
Peace said Castillo, who was also suspected of belonging to a rival gang, was lured to Cow Meadow Park in Freeport, where MS-13 members also attacked him with machetes.
Gang members then buried his body, and his remains were not discovered until a year later, Peace reported.
“The superseding indictment demonstrates the resolve of this Office and the Long Island Gang Task Force to bring to justice the MS-13 gang members responsible for each and every one of the appalling and senseless murders they have committed in our communities on Long Island and elsewhere,” Peace said in the announcement. “It is my hope that these latest charges bring some consolation to the families of the victims.”
Click here to follow Daily Voice Massapequa and receive free news updates.
