Nassau Gang Member Gets Decades In Jail For Murder, Assaults

An MS-13 gang member from Freeport was sentenced to decades in prison on Tuesday for his involvement with two murder conspiracies, two attempted murders and threatened assaults.

Anibel Rondolpho Rodriguez, 29, was sentenced to 45 years in prison by United States District Judge Joseph F. Bianco for crimes committed in Hempstead in 2012 and 2013. He had pleaded guilty to the charges in March.

"The defendant, and other members of the Hempstead clique of the MS-13, unleashed a wave of violence in Nassau County that included murders and vicious assaults," Acting United States Attorney Bridget Rohde said. "Today’s sentence sends a strong message that this office and our federal, state and local law enforcement partners will work together to ensure that all those who threaten our communities are brought to justice."

On Aug. 9, 2012, Rodriguez, also known as "Peluche," agreed with two co-conspirators to kill Miguel Perez, who was associated with the Zulu Nation gang. The Zulu Nation gang had an ongoing dispute with members of the Hempstead Locos Salvatruchas clique of the MS-13. While Rodriguez was talking to Perez outside the Perez's house in Freeport, a co-conspirator fatally shot Perez three times with a 9 mm handgun.

"It is disturbing and unsettling to investigate a group of people and keep discovering in case after case that they truly have no respect for human life," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney said. "MS-13 gang members actually revel in killing anyone who crosses them. Regardless, our Long Island Gang Task Force continues to work with the community to keep the gang from wreaking havoc on innocent people. We will use every tool we have to decimate MS-13 and keep them from rebuilding their ranks."

More than a year later, on Oct. 6, 2013, in Hempstead, Rodriguez and six co-conspirators confronted Jose Ivan Reyes-Lainez about his suspected membership in a rival gang. Rodriguez and his co-conspirators decided to kill Reyes-Lainez, as well as an unidentified woman, who had accompanied Reyes-Lainez, to prevent her from being a witness to the murder. Reyes-Lainez was fatally stabbed more than two dozen times, and the woman was stabbed 18 times, but survived her injuries.

On Sept. 14, 2013, a group of MS-13 members, including Rodriguez, confronted an unidentified man and another individual who they believed to be members of the rival Bloods street gang in Roosevelt. Rodriguez grabbed a baseball bat from the individual and struck the man. Rodriguez's co-conspirators also struck the man with a wooden board, stabbed him with a screwdriver, and punched and kicked him.

A month later, on Oct. 6, 2013, in Hempstead, Rodriguez and other MS-13 members approached
another unnamed man and asked him whether he was a gang member, questioning him about a tattoo
on his arm. The man denied any gang membership and was walking away from the group when he was stabbed and kicked by the gang members.

The conviction of Rodriguez is the latest in a series of federal prosecutions by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York targeting members of the MS-13, a violent international criminal organization. The MS-13’s leadership is based in El Salvador and Honduras, but the gang has thousands of members across the United States, comprised primarily of immigrants from Central America. With numerous branches, or cliques, MS-13 is the largest and most violent street gang on Long Island.

Since 2003, hundreds of MS-13 members, including dozens of clique leaders, have been convicted on federal felony charges in this district. A majority of those MS-13 members have been convicted on federal racketeering charges for participating in murders, attempted murders and assaults. Since 2010 alone, the attorney's office has obtained indictments charging MS-13 members with carrying out more than 40 murders, and has convicted dozens of MS-13 leaders and members in connection with those murders.

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