Authorities resume Massapequa Preserve search, source says

Authorities resumed their search Saturday morning for a body believed to be related to possible MS-13 gang activity in the Massapequa Preserve, a law enforcement source said.

Investigators had to bring in extra equipment to search in the rain, the source said. Nassau County police said officers were on scene and that there is an "active investigation."

The searches included Nassau police, a State Police K-9 unit cross-trained in narcotics and cadaver detection, and investigators from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security Investigations.

Officials have in the past combed the area — which was the site of a 2017 homicide — unsuccessfully, based on other tips, but a law enforcement source said Friday that authorities have a “more credible source" and “a better witness that the body’s there."

The 432-acre preserve is where officials said they recovered  the body of a man police believe was the victim of a 2017 MS-13 street gang killing. Julio Cesar Gonzales-Espantzay, 19, was stabbed and shot multiple times, police said.

With John Asbury