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MS-13 Gang Members Indicted In Long Island Murders

Kathy Willens
/
AP
Robert Capers, left, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, speaks during a press conference on Thursday in Central Islip, N.Y., to announce that 13 MS-13 gang members were indicted in the killings last year of three teenagers on Long Island.

After a five-month investigation, more than a dozen MS-13 gang members have been charged with seven murders, including those of three teenagers from Brentwood in Suffolk County. U.S. Attorney Robert Capers announced the charges.

Investigators found a connection to a series of murders in the Brentwood area last year, including those of 16-year-old Kayla Cuevas and 15-year-old Nisa Mickens.

“Kayla Cuevas was marked for death because she had feuded at school and over social media with various members of MS-13, and Ms. Mickens was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Cuevas and Mickens were murdered with a baseball bat and machete as they were walking from Cuevas’ home.

Capers also linked a third murder to the gang. Jose Pena-Hernandez was stabbed to death because the gang thought he was a snitch.

Police across the country are still looking for several of those indicted.

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