Suspected members of the Long Island-based MS-13 gang will be charged with murder in 2022, court records show

Federal authorities arrested three suspected MS-13 gang members on Thursday in connection with the shooting and stabbing of a suspected rival gang member in a Uniondale park in July 2022, court records show.

William Lainez-Duran, 24, of Uniondale, Elvin Eulises Vasquez-Lopez, 23, of Hempstead, and Jose Omar Yanes-Romero, 24, formerly of Hempstead, were among seven alleged violent street gang members charged in a 17th count According to court records, he is replacing the indictment with multiple racketeering offenses, including two murders, one attempted murder, murder conspiracy, a drug trafficking conspiracy and related firearms offenses. Four other men charged in the indictment were already in federal custody, according to prosecutors.

“The racketeering offenses alleged in the superseding indictment, including murder, murder conspiracy, drug trafficking and a brazen shooting outside Hempstead High School at the time of the dismissal, demonstrate the brutality and utter disregard for human life by members of the MS-13 gang,” the attorney said of the United States for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace said in a statement.

Officials said Lainez-Duran and Vasquez-Lopez were taken into custody in Hempstead. They pleaded not guilty at their arraignments Thursday and will remain in federal custody.

Matthew Brissenden of Garden City, Lainez-Duran's attorney, declined to comment. Attorney Anthony La Pinta of Hauppauge, who represented Vasquez-Lopez, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Yanes-Romero was arrested in Culpeper, Virginia, where he lives. Charge details were not immediately available.

Prosecutors said the three men conspired with Henry Aquino-Hernandez, 20, formerly of Uniondale, Henry Canales, 24, formerly of Hempstead, and others to kill rival gang members in retaliation for the July 8, 2022, killing of a suspected MS colleague to kill. 13 members. Eleven days later, on July 19, 2022, Lainez-Duran is accused of driving Yanes-Romero and Gerson Hernandez, 23, formerly of Hempstead, to Uniondale Avenue Park, where they allegedly shot and killed 21-year-old Walter Ochoa Jr should have stabbed. , 21, of Uniondale, whom they suspected of being a member of the rival 18th Street Gang. Canales then helped the men flee the scene, court records show.

Hernandez, who was first charged in October 2023, was also accused of a September 2022 murder outside a McDonald's in Hempstead.

The new indictment also charges Jairo Cornejo-Crespin, 24, formerly of Freeport, with attempted murder for shooting an 18-year-old man five times outside Hempstead High School in December 2023.

Aquino-Hernandez, Canales, Lainez-Duran, Vasquez-Lopez and Yanes-Romero are also charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine and marijuana on Long Island, prosecutors said.

Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement that the accused men “were involved in multiple violent crimes in Hempstead and in reckless gang violence that has taken the lives of so many people.”

Hernandez, Aquino-Hernandez, Lainez-Duran and Yanes-Romero all face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted of these charges. Cornejo-Crespin faces a maximum of life in prison, Canales faces a maximum of 55 years in prison and Vasquez-Lopez could be sentenced to 50 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said.