Byron Lopez, Milton Contreras, Oscar Welman Espinoza-Merino, Jose Osmin Rubio, Murder, New York 2014

Four MS-13 gang members have pled guilty to the murder of a 19-year-old man on Long Island, New York. The guilty pleas were entered before United States Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes, Jr., at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York.

The defendants, Byron Lopez, Milton Contreras, Oscar Welman Espinoza-Merino, and Jose Osmin Rubio, all members of the Jamaica, Queens and/or Brentwood, Long Island chapters of the violent street gang La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as "MS-13," directed the victim, fellow gang member Sidney Valverde, to travel to Long Island under the false pretense that they needed him to assist in gang business there. In fact, the co-conspirators planned to kill Valverde because they believed that he was providing information about the gang's activities to law enforcement.

After Valverde arrived in Long Island, the co-conspirators shot him in the back of the head and left his body on Miller Place Beach in Suffolk County where it was discovered by a beachcomber approximately two weeks later.

The case is the latest in a series of federal prosecutions by the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York targeting members of the MS-13, a violent international criminal organization.

The victims of the MS-13 gang's violent activities include a 19-year-old man who was murdered on Long Island in 2014. The gang's leadership is based in El Salvador and Honduras, but the gang has thousands of members across the United States.

Byron Lopez, Milton Contreras, Oscar Welman Espinoza-Merino, and Jose Osmin Rubio face up to life imprisonment, as well as restitution and a fine, when sentenced. The government's case is being handled by the Office's Organized Crime and Gangs Section. Assistant United States Attorney Alixandra Smith is in charge of the prosecution.

The suspects were announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Angel M. Melendez, Special Agent-in-Charge, New York, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations, (HSI); Delano A. Reid, Special Agent-in-Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, New York Field Division (ATF); and William J. Bratton, Commissioner, New York City Police Department.

In announcing the guilty pleas, U.S. Attorney Capers expressed his grateful appreciation to the Suffolk County Police Department for its assistance with the investigation.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/ms-13-gang-members-pled-guilty-murder-19-year-old-man-long-island