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Federal authorities have indicted five alleged members of the MS-13 gang for two brutal Long Island murders — including the killing of a man whose body was found on a Blue Point beach in March.
Federal prosecutors said three of the men — Noel Portillo-Romero, Ernesto Torres-Hernandez and Omar Zavala-Ventura — conspired to murder 27-year-old Carlos Lopez-Lopez, a former MS-13 member, out of suspicion he was cooperating with law enforcement.
On March 3, Lopez-Lopez was lured to the beach at the end of Blue Point Avenue, where he was stabbed and drowned.
“The exceedingly violent nature of these murders exemplifies the twisted and homicidal culture of the gang, and the undisputable danger that these defendants pose to the community,” assistant U.S. Attorneys wrote in a detention letter to the court.
Lopez-Lopez was linked to an earlier gang-related killing, federal officials allege. He had participated in the October 28, 2023, murder of Yoneli Ramos-Moreno in Sunken Meadow State Park, federal authorities said.
Ramos-Moreno, a former associate of MS-13, was targeted after gang members accused him of working with a rival gang, the Latin Kings. He was strangled with a rope and beaten to death and his body was later discovered by hikers.
The newly unsealed federal indictment ties both murders to MS-13’s Hollywood Locos and Carlington Locos cliques operating on Long Island. The five men indicted — David Orellana-Aleman and Cruz Eduardo Sanchez-Gutierrez, along with Portillo-Romero, Torres-Hernandez and Zavala-Ventura — are also charged with racketeering and narcotics trafficking conspiracies.
Orellana-Aleman, described as a leader in the gang, remains in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Texas. Zavala-Ventura was already in federal custody. The others were arrested Tuesday in West Islip and Locust Valley, and arraigned Wednesday in federal court in Central Islip.
Each faces life in prison, or potentially the death penalty, if convicted.
