2 MS-13 Members Indicted In Brentwood Teen’s 2016 Killing: Feds

CENTRAL ISLIP, NY — Two MS-13 members have been indicted on federal racketeering and murder charges stemming from the killings of a 15-year-old boy in Brentwood in 2016 and a Huntington man whose remains were recovered in Maryland nearly two years after his death, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Edwin Chavez-Garay, 25, of Brentwood, also known as “Spooky” and “Cruger,” and Jairo Diaz-Gamez, 27, of Bay Shore, also known as “Cameleon” and “Anonimo,” were arraigned Tuesday in federal court in Central Islip on a 20-count second superseding indictment involving eight MS-13 members, prosecutors said.

According to prosecutors, both men are members of the Vegas Locos Salvatruchas, or Vegas, clique of MS-13.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Anne Y. Shields ordered them detained pending trial. The indictment was returned by a federal grand jury on July 30.

The two men are each named in 11 counts, including racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, conspiracy to commit murder, firearms offenses, obstruction of justice conspiracy and conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana.

The murder charges involve the Feb. 19, 2016, killing of Miguel Garcia-Moran in Brentwood and the Aug. 19, 2023, killing of Carlos Lemus Interiano in Fort Washington, Maryland.

Teen Lured Into Brentwood Woods

Prosecutors said Chavez-Garay and Diaz-Gamez mistakenly believed Garcia-Moran was a member of a rival gang.

Prosecutors said the men lured the 15-year-old to a wooded area behind 80 Emjay Boulevard in Brentwood and beat him to death with metal rods on Feb. 19, 2016.

Prosecutors contend the killing was committed to allow the men to gain entry into MS-13 or maintain and increase their positions within the gang.

Both men were juveniles at the time, according to a detention filing submitted by federal prosecutors. The government says that they remained active in MS-13 as adults and continued to rise within the Vegas clique.

Garcia-Moran’s remains were not found until Sept. 21, 2016, approximately seven months after his death.

FBI agents and Suffolk County police officers discovered the skeletal remains while searching the same wooded area for evidence connected to the April 29, 2016, murder of Oscar Acosta, whose body had recently been recovered there, prosecutors wrote. The remains were later identified as Garcia-Moran’s.

Chavez-Garay and Diaz-Gamez are charged with conspiring to murder Garcia-Moran and committing murder in aid of racketeering.

Huntington Man Taken To Maryland, Feds Say

Years later, prosecutors say the men participated in the killing of Lemus Interiano, a Huntington resident and purported member of the same MS-13 clique.

Prosecutors said Lemus Interiano, also known as “Extrano,” had fallen out of favor with the gang and was marked for death by members of the Vegas clique. Gervin Vinicio Barrera-Perez, an alleged member of MS-13’s Huntington clique, is also charged with participating in the murder conspiracy.

On Aug. 19, 2023, Chavez-Garay and Diaz-Gamez drove Lemus Interiano from Long Island to Maryland, where he was shot and killed in a wooded area, prosecutors said.

The indictment charges the two men with conspiracy to commit murder, murder in aid of racketeering, brandishing and discharging a firearm during a violent crime, and causing a death through the use of a firearm.

They are also accused of conspiring to destroy or conceal Lemus Interiano’s cellphone and wallet to prevent the items from being used as evidence in a federal grand jury investigation.

Business records obtained by investigators show that Diaz-Gamez’s vehicle traveled to Maryland on Aug. 19, 2023, and returned to New York on Aug. 21, prosecutors wrote in their detention request.

Lemus Interiano’s whereabouts remained unknown until February 2025, when Maryland authorities searching for another person’s body discovered an arm bone at Piscataway Stream Valley Park in Fort Washington.

A subsequent excavation uncovered additional human remains, clothing and a bullet, according to prosecutors. The remains were identified as belonging to Lemus Interiano.

Blue Point Murder Conspiracy

Chavez-Garay and Diaz-Gamez are additionally charged with conspiring to murder Carlos Lopez-Lopez, a former MS-13 member who was killed in Blue Point on March 3, 2025.

Prosecutors said Lopez-Lopez was targeted because gang members believed he was cooperating with law enforcement.

Between late 2023 and March 2025, prosecutors said Chavez-Garay and Diaz-Gamez participated in efforts to kill Lopez-Lopez. The detention filing states that the defendants helped dig a grave in a wooded area of Suffolk County and later drove to Lopez-Lopez’s home while armed, intending to lure him outside so he could be shot.

Prosecutors say that attempt was unsuccessful. Lopez-Lopez was later attacked on a Blue Point beach, stabbed and drowned, prosecutors said. Three other defendants are charged with committing the murder, while Chavez-Garay and Diaz-Gamez are charged with participating in the conspiracy.

Drug Sales Financed Gang Operations

The indictment also accuses Chavez-Garay and Diaz-Gamez of conspiring to distribute cocaine and marijuana on Long Island from approximately January 2016 through July 2026.

Federal prosecutors contend that MS-13 cliques used proceeds from street-level narcotics sales to finance criminal operations, purchase firearms, ammunition and other weapons, and send money to MS-13 leaders in the United States and Central America.

Diaz-Gamez attained the rank of “second word” in the Vegas clique, placing him in a supervisory role over members operating in New York and Maryland, prosecutors wrote.

The government said its evidence includes eyewitness accounts, testimony from cooperating former MS-13 members, social media records, cellphone communications and photographs, vehicle travel records, crime-scene evidence and autopsy records. Those assertions have not yet been tested at trial.

Indictment Names 8 Defendants

The second superseding indictment names Chavez-Garay, Diaz-Gamez and six previously charged defendants:

David Orellana-Aleman, Noel Portillo-Romero, Cruz Eduardo Sanchez-Gutierrez, Gervin Vinicio Barrera-Perez, Randy Cardenas and Henrry Josue Villatoro-Santos.

The indictment alleges 12 racketeering acts involving four killings, several murder conspiracies, alleged efforts to destroy evidence and separate narcotics conspiracies linked to MS-13’s Vegas, Carlington, Hollywood and Huntington cliques.

In addition to the Garcia-Moran and Lemus Interiano cases, the indictment includes allegations connected to the Oct. 28, 2023, murder of Yoneli Ramos-Moreno and the March 3, 2025, murder of Lopez-Lopez. It also accuses the two defendants of conspiring to murder an unnamed woman between November 2024 and March 2025.

Defendants Ordered Held

Chavez-Garay had been detained since July 10, when he was charged in a federal complaint with conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, prosecutors said.

Diaz-Gamez had been in custody since his May 12 arrest on an illegal reentry charge. A federal grand jury indicted him on that charge on June 9.

In requesting continued detention, prosecutors argued that the seriousness of the charges, the alleged strength of the evidence and the defendants’ purported gang connections made them dangers to the community and flight risks. Shields subsequently ordered both held pending trial.

A murder-in-aid-of-racketeering conviction carries mandatory life imprisonment or the possibility of the death penalty, prosecutors said. The racketeering charges also carry potential sentences of up to life in prison.

“The charges in the Superseding Indictment demonstrate the commitment by our Office and our law enforcement partners” to pursuing MS-13 cases regardless of how much time has passed, U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said.