Suspects Lured Victim from Queens to Long Island and Then Shot Him, Believing Victim Was Cooperating with Law Enforcement
Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, defendants Milton Contreras, Oscar Welman Espinoza-Merino and Jose Osmin Rubio were each sentenced following their convictions for the murder of a 19-year-old victim on Long Island in 2014. Contreras was sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment, while Espinoza-Merino and Osmin Rubio were each sentenced to more than 24 years’ imprisonment. After serving their sentences, all three defendants will face deportation from the United States.
As detailed in the superseding indictment, the three defendants—along with a fourth defendant convicted of the murder, Byron Lopez, who has not yet been sentenced—are members of the Jamaica, Queens and/or Brentwood, Long Island chapters of the violent street gang La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as “MS-13.” On February 25, 2014, Lopez, Espinoza-Merino, Contreras and Rubio directed the victim, fellow gang member Sidney Valverde, to travel to Long Island under the false pretense that they needed him to assist in gang business there. In fact, the co-conspirators planned to kill Valverde because they believed that he was providing information about the gang’s activities to law enforcement. After Valverde arrived in Long Island, the co-conspirators shot him in the back of the head and left his body on Miller Place Beach in Suffolk County where it was discovered by a beachcomber approximately two weeks later.
This case 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. With numerous branches, or “cliques,” the 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, this Office has obtained indictments charging MS-13 members with carrying out more than 40 murders in the Eastern District of New York and has convicted dozens of MS-13 leaders and members in connection with those murders.
The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime and Gangs Section. Assistant United States Attorney Alixandra Smith is in charge of the prosecution.
Defendants Sentenced Today:
OSCAR WELMAN ESPINOZA-MERINO (aka “Speedy” and “Petey”)
Age: 35
Brentwood, New York
MILTON CONTRERAS (aka “Diabolico”)
Age: 22
Brentwood, New York
JOSE OSMIN RUBIO (aka “Slow”)
Age: 30
Brentwood, New York
Defendant Awaiting Sentencing:
BYRON LOPEZ
Age: 26
Queens, New York
