MS-13 members plead guilty to murder of 19-year-old man on Long Island

NEW YORK — Two additional members of the MS-13 street gang have pleaded guilty to the murder of a man in Long Island, New York.  The guilty pleas follow a joint investigation by U.S. Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigation (HSI), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, New York Field Division (ATF) and New York City Police Department (NYPD).

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY), the defendants are members of the Jamaica, Queens and/or Brentwood, Long Island chapters of the violent street gang La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13.  In recent court proceedings, defendants Milton Contreras and Jose Osmin Rubio pleaded guilty to murder of the 19-year-old victim, fellow gang member Sidney Valverde.  In the past month, two additional defendants, Byron Lopez and Oscar Welman Espinoza-Merino, had also pled guilty and admitted their participation in the murder.

As detailed in the indictment, on Feb. 25, 2014, Lopez, Espinoza-Merino, Contreras and Rubio directed the victim to travel to Long Island under the false pretense that they needed him to assist in gang business.  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 defendants face up to life imprisonment, restitution and a fine. The government’s case is being prosecuted by the EDNY Organized Crime and Gang Section.