MS-13 Member Extradited To US In LI Machete Killing Of Rival: Feds

CENTRAL ISLIP, NY — A member of the violent MS-13 street gang and a fugitive from justice has been extradited from El Salvador to the United States in a 2016 machete killing of a rival gang member on Long Island, federal prosecutors said.

On May 21, 2016, MS-13 members armed with machetes, lured 20-year-old Kerin Pineda to a secluded wooded area near the Merrick-Freeport border, where he was surrounded and violently attacked, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. Pineda’s machete-mutilated corpse was then buried in a hole that was dug a day earlier. His corpse was found more than a year later.

José Jonathan Guevara-Castro, also known as “Suspechoso” (Guevara-Castro), was originally charged with murder in Pineda's death in July 2020. He was extradited to the U.S. this week, Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District said in a news release.

"The extradition of Guevara-Castro demonstrates the resolve of this Office and law enforcement to bring to justice all gang members who commit violent crimes in our district no matter where in the world they may run and try to hide," Peace said in a statement. "I hope the return of the defendant to a federal courtroom on Long Island where he will be held accountable for a vicious murder will bring some measure of closure to the family of the young victim."

Guevara-Castro is charged in a 24-count indictment, along with seven other MS-13 members and associates, with racketeering offenses, murder and narcotics trafficking. Guevara-Castro specifically is charged with participating in Pineda's killing, who was believed to be a member of the 18th Street gang, one of MS-13’s principal rivals, prosecutors said.