MS-13 member Kevin Cuevas Del Cid admits to two Freeport killings

An MS-13 gang member admitted in federal court on Wednesday to luring two Long Islanders to secluded locations in Freeport in 2016 and hacking them to death with a machete in order to raise his status in the organization.

Kevin Cuevas Del Cid, now 25, was 16 when he posed as a woman on Facebook to convince Kerin Pineda, 20, to meet up in a secluded area near the Merrick-Freeport border on May 21, 2016, he told U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack as part of a plea deal.

Del Cid, an El Salvador native who entered the country illegally, said that he had joined the gang that year and was part of a subset referred to as "the Sailors clique."

"I committed crimes with other MS-13 members on behalf of the gang so that I could gain more status in the gang," he said through a translator.

Pineda, who was an avid soccer player with hopes of one day becoming a police officer, believed that he was going to meet a date, his mother Lilian Olivia told Newsday.

Five other MS-13 members have previously pleaded guilty to the Freeport man’s death.

"I lured the victim to a secluded area in Freeport where I and other MS-13 members were waiting for him armed with machetes," he said in Spanish. "When the victim arrived, we attacked him and killed him with the machetes. We then buried him in a hole that was dug before the murder."

Del Cid, dressed in a brown prison uniform, sporting a large tattoo on his left forearm that read "Silvia," told the court that he believed Pineda was a member of a rival 18th Street gang.

Pineda’s mother, a Honduran native seeking asylum from the violence in her country, searched for her son for a year.

In November 2017, Nassau County police, working with federal authorities and state police, found the buried remains along with a gold chain and a school ID belonging to Pineda, his mother told Newsday.

Del Cid, who the judge said is looking at a possible life sentence and deportation, also admitted killing Javier Castillo, 15, of Central Islip, on Oct. 10, 2016 also suspected of belonging to the rival 18th Street gang.

Del Cid told Castillo that they were going to go smoke marijuana that day in Cow Meadow Park in Freeport, but then lured him deeper into the marsh area, he said.

"We then attacked Castillo with a machete," he said. "The other MS-13 members and I took turns hitting the victim with the machete until he died. We dug a hole and buried the body before leaving the park."

More than half a dozen gang members have also pleaded guilty to the crime.

Del Cid, who also goes by the nickname "Malcriado" or "ill-mannered" in English, admitted both murders and conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.

"The gang members would return the money made from drug dealing back to the clique and we would use the money to buy more drugs, to buy weapons and ammunition, and to wire money to clique leaders in El Salvador," Del Cid said.

Long Island federal prosecutor Paul Scotti said that under the deal, Del Cid could get a maximum of 45 years in prison. The gang member pleaded guilty to the first count of racketeering conspiracy of an 29-count indictment involving eight other defendants.

"I understood what I was doing at the time, and I knew it was wrong and against the law, and I am very sorry," Del Cid said.

His lawyer Matin Emouna said that his client came to this country as a teenager illegally without family members.

"He’s got no one. He’s completely on his own," he said. "This is a real tragedy. Two innocent people who are no longer with us and a 25-year-old who ... will probably be in prison for the rest of his life."

Del Cid is due back in court for sentencing on Dec. 2.

"I want him to pay for what he did," Pineda’s mother said, tearing up outside the courtroom. "What he did was wrong."