Lawyer for alleged high-ranking MS-13 leader challenges client's extradition from Mexico at federal arraignment
Exterior view of the Alphonse D'Amato Federal Court building in Central Islip. Credit: Joseph D. Sullivan
An attorney for a man federal prosecutors called one of the “highest-ranking MS-13 leaders in the world” questioned if his client was extradited to the United States illegally at an arraignment in Central Islip Wednesday.
Attorney Steve Zissou, of Bayside, Queens, said Walter Yovani Hernandez-Rivera was living “openly and notoriously” in Mexico when authorities there placed a hood over his head and brought him on a plane to Texas last month, sidestepping a judicial extradition process that exists between the two countries.
“It appears that this extradition proceeding was illegal,” Zissou told Magistrate Judge James Wicks at an arraignment for Hernandez-Rivera and two co-defendants.
John Durham, director of the task force prosecuting the case in the Eastern District of New York, told Wicks Mexican immigration officials determined Hernandez-Rivera was living illegally in their country and he was brought to Houston to face the charges he was arraigned on Wednesday. Zissou contends his client is a resident of Mexico.
Prosecutors said Hernandez-Rivera, Vladimir Antonio Arevalo-Chavez and Marlon Antonio Menjivar-Portillo are all residents of El Salvador who are indicted on racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to provide or conceal material support to terrorists and narco-terrorism conspiracy charges. Menjivar-Portillo is also charged with alien smuggling. They all pleaded not guilty Wednesday and were remanded to federal detention centers.
Hernandez-Rivera, Arevalo-Chavez and Menjivar-Portillo made initial court appearances in the Southern District of Texas after the indictment against them was unsealed Feb. 23. Six more defendants in the conspiracy are believed to be in custody in El Salvador and four others remain at large, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the defendants are part of the MS-13 “command and control structure,” consisting of Ranfla Nacional, Ranfla en Las Calles, and Ranfla en Los Penales, councils that have directed violence in the United States and El Salvador.
The groups have also helped to expand the gang’s influence in Mexico, where they have forged alliances with cartels and engaged in narcotics trafficking, immigrant smuggling and extortion, kidnappings and weapons trafficking, prosecutors said.
If convicted the 13 council members could be sentenced to life in prison, with Menjivar-Portillo and three others accused of alien smuggling facing the death penalty since the acts involved death, prosecutors said.
Speaking outside of the courtroom following the arraignment, Zissou said he believes Menjivar-Portillo also should not have been brought to the United States since Mexico does not allow extraditions involving the death penalty. Attorney Glenn Obedin, of Central Islip, who represents Menjivar-Portillo, said he agreed with Zissou.
Zissou said he intends to seek a hearing on the extradition matter at a later date.
Sabrina Shroff of Federal Defenders of New York, who represented Arevalo-Chavez at the arraignment, declined to comment.
In a related case, 14 members of Ranfla Nacional were indicted in 2021 and they also await trial in Central Islip.
On Long Island, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said MS-13 is responsible for more than 65 murders since 2009. Among the crimes prosecutors have said the gang is responsible for locally include the 2016 killings of two teenage girls who were students at Brentwood High School and the 2017 killings of four young men in a Central Islip park.
An alleged member of the gang was indicted in state court in Nassau County Tuesday in connection with a pair of killings of rival gang members last year, including a teenager shot in broad daylight outside a popular Hempstead McDonald's and another man killed at a Uniondale park.
An attorney for a man federal prosecutors called one of the “highest-ranking MS-13 leaders in the world” questioned if his client was extradited to the United States illegally at an arraignment in Central Islip Wednesday.
Attorney Steve Zissou, of Bayside, Queens, said Walter Yovani Hernandez-Rivera was living “openly and notoriously” in Mexico when authorities there placed a hood over his head and brought him on a plane to Texas last month, sidestepping a judicial extradition process that exists between the two countries.
“It appears that this extradition proceeding was illegal,” Zissou told Magistrate Judge James Wicks at an arraignment for Hernandez-Rivera and two co-defendants.
John Durham, director of the task force prosecuting the case in the Eastern District of New York, told Wicks Mexican immigration officials determined Hernandez-Rivera was living illegally in their country and he was brought to Houston to face the charges he was arraigned on Wednesday. Zissou contends his client is a resident of Mexico.
Prosecutors said Hernandez-Rivera, Vladimir Antonio Arevalo-Chavez and Marlon Antonio Menjivar-Portillo are all residents of El Salvador who are indicted on racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to provide or conceal material support to terrorists and narco-terrorism conspiracy charges. Menjivar-Portillo is also charged with alien smuggling. They all pleaded not guilty Wednesday and were remanded to federal detention centers.
Hernandez-Rivera, Arevalo-Chavez and Menjivar-Portillo made initial court appearances in the Southern District of Texas after the indictment against them was unsealed Feb. 23. Six more defendants in the conspiracy are believed to be in custody in El Salvador and four others remain at large, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the defendants are part of the MS-13 “command and control structure,” consisting of Ranfla Nacional, Ranfla en Las Calles, and Ranfla en Los Penales, councils that have directed violence in the United States and El Salvador.
The groups have also helped to expand the gang’s influence in Mexico, where they have forged alliances with cartels and engaged in narcotics trafficking, immigrant smuggling and extortion, kidnappings and weapons trafficking, prosecutors said.
If convicted the 13 council members could be sentenced to life in prison, with Menjivar-Portillo and three others accused of alien smuggling facing the death penalty since the acts involved death, prosecutors said.
Speaking outside of the courtroom following the arraignment, Zissou said he believes Menjivar-Portillo also should not have been brought to the United States since Mexico does not allow extraditions involving the death penalty. Attorney Glenn Obedin, of Central Islip, who represents Menjivar-Portillo, said he agreed with Zissou.
Zissou said he intends to seek a hearing on the extradition matter at a later date.
Sabrina Shroff of Federal Defenders of New York, who represented Arevalo-Chavez at the arraignment, declined to comment.
In a related case, 14 members of Ranfla Nacional were indicted in 2021 and they also await trial in Central Islip.
On Long Island, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said MS-13 is responsible for more than 65 murders since 2009. Among the crimes prosecutors have said the gang is responsible for locally include the 2016 killings of two teenage girls who were students at Brentwood High School and the 2017 killings of four young men in a Central Islip park.
An alleged member of the gang was indicted in state court in Nassau County Tuesday in connection with a pair of killings of rival gang members last year, including a teenager shot in broad daylight outside a popular Hempstead McDonald's and another man killed at a Uniondale park.
Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.
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