Four MS-13 gang members convicted of 4 murders, including 2 on Long Island, after trial in federal court

A pair of MS-13 leaders, along with two other members of the gang, were convicted Friday in Brooklyn of racketeering and the murder of four men, including two on Long Island, federal officials said.

A federal jury convicted national MS-13 leaders Edenilson Velasquez Larin, 36, of Colorado, and Hugo Diaz Amaya, 37, of Kansas City, along with Fulton clique leader Jose Espinoza Sanchez, 27, of North Carolina, and Fulton member Jose Arevalao Iraheta, 28, of Queens, on 24 charges following a 10-week trial.

The bevy of charges include conspiracy to commit murder, racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana, firearms possession, murder in aid of racketeering and attempted murder in aid of racketeering.

The four gang members each face a mandatory term of life in prison.

"Two of the defendants were national MS-13 leaders who were responsible for authorizing murders on behalf of the gang across the country and each of the defendants participated in heinous murders, including some in which victims were hacked to death and dismembered," said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District Joseph Nocella.

Velasquez Larin and Diaz Amaya, officials said, were among the top leaders responsible for the gang’s operations on the East Coast.

Ilana Haramati, the attorney for Espinoza Sanchez, said in a statement: "There was no physical or forensic evidence implicating Jose Espinoza Sanchez in the charged murders. The only evidence came from government cooperating witnesses who were guilty of murder, and testified for the government to save themselves. Mr. Espinoza Sanchez will continue to fight for his innocence on appeal."

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

MS-13, a violent street gang, is known for its gruesome murders of perceived rivals and is believed to be responsible for dozens of homicides in the Eastern District of New York alone, officials said.

Among the murders, federal prosecutors said, was the 2016 murder in Uniondale of Kenny Reyes, who had recently come to the United States from Honduras. The MS-13 members, officials said, believed that Reyes was associated with the 18th Street gang, MS-13’s primary rival.

On May 23, 2016, Velasquez Larin, Espinoza Sanchez and two Hempstead MS-13 members lured Reyes to a wooded area behind Uniondale High School to smoke marijuana, prosecutors said.

Once they were in the woods, the men struck Reyes with a machete and buried his body, prosecutors said. Reyes’ body was never recovered.

The gang members were also convicted of the Feb. 13, 2022, murder of Oswaldo Gutierrez Medrano in Jericho.

Gutierrez Medrano was a member of the Sailors MS-13 clique in New York, which prosecutors said conducted two unauthorized murders of members of the Sureños gang in a federal prison in Texas the previous month.

To punish the Sailors clique for the unapproved murders, MS-13 leaders ordered the murder of Gutierrez Medrano during a gang initiation ceremony, authorities said.

Gutierrez Medrano was found hacked to death with machetes, his throat slit with a knife, his body dismembered and then buried the parts in a wooded area, officials said.

The men were also convicted of their roles in the 2018 murder of Victor Alvarenga in Flushing and the 2020 murder of Eric Monge in College Point, both in Queens.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.