Men arrested with Molotov cocktails in Brentwood car planned to firebomb another vehicle, prosecutors say

Three men arrested early Tuesday during a traffic stop in Brentwood and found to be in possession of two Molotov cocktails planned on "firebombing" another automobile, Suffolk County prosecutors said Wednesday.

The vehicle in question was owned by an individual with whom they'd had a previous dispute, prosecutors said.

Lorenzo Alvarado-Navarrete, 18, of Bay Shore, and Elvis Romero-Martinez, 20, and Albert Yanes-Moran, 20, both of Brentwood, were charged with third-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Romero-Martinez, who had been driving, was also issued multiple traffic summonses, police said.

The three defendants, all Salvadoran nationals, were released following their arraignment Wednesday in Suffolk County District Court as the charges are not bail eligible, prosecutors said.

Evan Sugar, Yanes-Moran's Hauppauge-based defense attorney, said his client "is a young man with no criminal history who was simply a passenger in the vehicle. He had nothing to do with anything found in the car, and we are confident the facts will ultimately make that clear."

Attorneys for the other men did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Patrol officers from the Suffolk County Police Department's Third Precinct stopped a 2008 Honda Accord operating "erratically" on Lexington Avenue near Calebs Path at 1:38 a.m., prosecutors said. Police had earlier said the stop occurred in Central Islip.

The officer noticed the two Molotov cocktails in glass beer bottles in the pocket of the rear driver’s side door, along with a canister of gasoline in the trunk of the vehicle, prosecutors said.

Suffolk police earlier described the glass bottles as "filled with gasoline, with gasoline-soaked rags protruding" from their tops.

Police said the subsequent investigation by Third Squad Arson and Criminal Intelligence detectives determined the devices were "non-terrorism related."

Investigators believe the trio planned to use the devices to firebomb a vehicle owned by the individual with whom they'd had a dispute, at the direction of a fourth individual, who has not yet been charged.

The cocktail mixes were diffused by responding Emergency Services officers, police said.