Weapons seized from gangs, burglary ring foiled, Nassau police say

The Nassau County police department has confiscated nearly two dozen illegal firearms from 23 alleged gang members since the coronavirus pandemic began in March, law enforcement officials said Monday.

The seized weapons included a "Street Sweeper" — capable of holding more than 100 rounds of ammunition — that was taken from two Bloods street gang members this past weekend, Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said.

"Multiple lives could be taken in one little drive-by shooting with this type of weapon," Ryder said at a news conference in Mineola where he separately announced the New Jersey arrest of a man who allegedly ran a burglary ring targeting high-end Nassau homes.

In the weekend gun seizure, the Bloods members, whom Ryder declined to identify because their arrests are part of an ongoing investigation, face felony charges of criminal possession of a firearm and criminal possession of a weapon.

Since March, 22 firearms have been seized by the police department's Gun Suppression Team. Investigators have recovered guns from the Bloods as well as from 18th Street, Rollin Crips, Latin Pride, Salvadoran With Pride and Folk Nation gang members.

The bulk of the weapons, Ryder said, were seized in Roosevelt and Hempstead.

"Every single gun here, in my mind, represents lives saved," said Nassau County Executive Laura Curran at the news conference

The guns have been traced to Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. One firearm — known as a ghost gun — had its serial number removed and is untraceable, Ryder said.

Authorities plan to check if the firearms were used in any unsolved shootings.

"Our investigators will now work backward to that point of sale to see if they were stolen," Ryder said of the guns, "to see if they were bought legally and then sold to someone on the street, to bring up here and claim they were stolen in that state."

Ryder also announced the arrest by New Jersey authorities of Bryan Leandro Herrera Maldonado — the alleged leader of a Chilean burglary ring that in late 2019 and early 2020 targeted dozens of high-end homes in Hewlett Harbor, Great Neck Estates, Saddle Rock, and Sands Point, netting more than $1 million in cash, jewels and electronics.

Three alleged members of the crew, which police said also targeted homes in Suffolk, Queens, Manhattan and New Jersey, were taken into custody in January in College Point, Queens. Herrera-Maldonado, 24, fled from police at the time and had been at large ever since, police said.

He was arrested Friday at a hotel in Bergen, New Jersey, following a violent altercation with police, Ryder said. Herrera-Maldonado will be brought to Long Island to face state burglary charges and potentially, federal counts, Nassau officials said.

He was being held at the Bergen County jail and is scheduled for a detention hearing Wednesday, according to the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.

Authorities said the crew were sent to Long Island by an organized crime syndicate and would scope out an area, looking for unoccupied homes. They would then go to the rear of the homes, kick down the door and burglarize the property, officials said.

"They'd leave with small items — jewelry and cash which amounted to millions of dollars in some of these homes," Ryder said.

The crew is part of a cell that sent Chilean nationals to New York, Miami and California on 90-day tourist visas to commit the burglaries, with the proceeds sent to the group's ringleader in Chile, officials said. Nassau police have busted several similar cells in recent months.

When members of the cell got arrested, they would generally return to Chile — released without bail — and be replaced by other members, authorities said.

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.