Feds: Gang leader pleads guilty to ordering killing of Hempstead teen Joshua Guzman

An 18th Street gang leader from Queens pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy in connection with the 2016 killing of a Hempstead teenager, federal authorities said.

Junior Zelaya Canales, 28, of Jamaica, entered a guilty plea to racketeering conspiracy charges for ordering "two lower-level gang members" to kill Joshua Guzman, 15, of Hempstead, according to an announcement by Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and James E. Dennehy, head of the FBI's New York office.

Zelaya Canales, also known as Terco, gave the order "in part" because the gang perceived Guzman as "disrespectful" toward its members, according to a news release from Peace’s office. On Sept. 11, 2016, Zelaya Canales sent the gang members "to lure Guzman out and murder him as part of a demonstration of their allegiance to 18th Street," the release stated.

Donald DuBoulay, the defense attorney representing Zelaya Canales, declined to comment when reached by telephone Monday evening. Zelaya Canales is scheduled for sentencing July 17, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office.

Newsday previously reported that shortly after 1 a.m. on Sept. 12, 2016, Hempstead and Nassau police found Guzman lying dead in the gutter at the intersection of Linden and Laurel avenues in Hempstead. He had been shot once in the back of his head.

Zelaya Canales is the ninth and final defendant to plead guilty in a seventh superseding indictment on a racketeering conspiracy related to the murder of Guzman, as well as the killings of 20-year-old Jonathan Figueroa in upstate Saugerties in 2017 and 20-year-old Oscar Antonio Blanco Hernandez in Queens in 2018, plus other shootings and gang activity, according to Peace’s office.

Two codefendants, upstate Kingston-based Israel Mendiola Flores and New Jersey-based Jose Jimenez Chacon, were previously sentenced to prison terms of 35 years and 5 months and 22 years and 5 months, respectively. Zelaya Canales and the other six codefendants each face up to life imprisonment, Peace's office said in the news release.

Zelaya Canales' "power and control extended across the New York City metropolitan area," the release stated.

The 18th Street gang is "a well-known and well-established international criminal organization," the release also said, with members and associates throughout New York State and other areas in the country, including Houston, who "regularly engage in murder, attempted murder, assault, extortion, illegal drug and firearms trafficking, false identification document production, witness tampering and money laundering."

Zelaya Canales entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez in federal court in Brooklyn to other charges as well, including those connected to a 2017 shootout in Woodside, with rival gang members over a territory dispute, according to Peace’s office.

"Today’s guilty plea marks the end of a sweeping investigation into the violent and disturbing affairs of the 18th Street gang that removed some of the most influential, powerful and ruthless gang leaders and members from city streets across the country," Peace said in a statement. He added that although "these guilty pleas cannot undo the grave harm this gang has caused, we hope that it will bring a measure of closure to the victims and their families."