ICYMI: Alleged Gang Member Wanted in 3 Killings Arrested in Flowery Branch

Previously posted on Dacula Patch

By SHARON REED (Patch Staff)

Three MS-13 gang members were indicted on racketeering charges on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, including a gang member apprehended in Flowery Branch.

A 29-count superseding indictment was unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Central Islip, N.Y., charging MS-13 members Edwin Acosta-Martinez (“Scarface”), Sergio Cerna (“Taz” and “Lechon”), and Arnolvin Umanzor Velasquez (“Momia” and “Lito”), with racketeering and gun charges related to:

• the November 2, 2011 killing of Brandon Sotomayor in Baywood, N.Y.,
• the December 18, 2011 double-killing of two brothers, Enston and Ricardo Ceron, in Brentwood, N.Y., and
• four attempted murders which took place between May and December 2011.

“The execution-style killings of Brandon Sotomayor and the Ceron brothers, as well as the attempted murders charged in this superseding indictment, demonstrate the callous depravity of the MS-13,” stated Acting United States Attorney Currie.

One of the three defendants, Arnolvin Umanzor Velasquez (“Momia” and “Lito”), was arrested on Tuesday morning in Flowery Branch, by a Federal Bureau of Investigation SWAT team.

Velasquez was arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge E. Clayton Scofield, III, at the federal courthouse in Atlanta, where he was ordered to be removed in custody to the Eastern District of N.Y.

Cerna and Acosta-Martinez are already in federal custody were arraigned Wednesday and next week, respectively, before U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Bianco at the federal courthouse in Central Islip.

The charges were announced by Kelly T. Currie, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of N.Y., and Diego Rodriguez, Assistant Director-in-Charge, FBI, N.Y. field office.