José Jonathan Guevara-Castro, also known as “Suspechoso” (“Guevara-Castro”), an alleged member of the violent transnational criminal organization La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as the “MS-13,” and a fugitive from justice, was arrested on August 13, 2020 in Acajutla, Sonsonate, El Salvador.
Seth D. DuCharme, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; John J. Durham, Director, Joint Task Force Vulcan (JTFV); and William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the arrest.
“Guevara’s arrest more than 2,000 miles away from Long Island where he allegedly participated in the brutal murder of a young man more than four years ago, is a testament to the commitment of this Office and our law enforcement partners to bringing members of the MS-13 gang to justice for their crimes,” stated Acting United States Attorney DuCharme. “There is no place to hide, here or abroad, and neither distance nor the passage of time will offer any safe harbor to criminals from our mission to eradicate violent gangs from the Eastern District of New York.”
Mr. DuCharme expressed his grateful appreciation to the investigators and analysts of El Salvador’s Policía Nacional Civil (PNC) Centro Antipandillas Transnacional (CAT) unit, who are assigned to the Transnational Anti-Gang (TAG) Unit, a task force of Salvadoran police officers receiving financial and technical assistance from the FBI and State Department Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, for their outstanding assistance and collaboration in locating and apprehending this fugitive. Additionally, Mr. DuCharme expressed sincere thanks to the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Nassau County Police Department (NCPD), and the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office (NCDAO), as well as to the members of the FBI Baltimore Field Office/Annapolis Resident Agency, the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs (OIA), for their partnership in this case.
Guevara-Castro is charged in a 24-count indictment, along with seven other MS-13 members, with racketeering offenses, murder and narcotics trafficking. In particular, Guevara-Castro is charged with participating in the murder of 20-year-old Kerin Pineda, who was believed to be a member of the 18th Street gang, one of MS-13’s principal rivals. Pineda’s murder was committed as a joint venture between two different subgroups, or “cliques,” of the MS-13 operating on Long Island: the Hollywood Locos Salvatruchas (“Hollywood”) clique, of which Guevara-Castro was an alleged member; and the Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside (“Sailors”) clique. On May 21, 2016, MS-13 members, armed with machetes, lured Pineda to a secluded wooded area near the Merrick-Freeport border, where he was surrounded and violently attacked. Pineda’s machete-mutilated corpse was then buried in a hole that had been dug the day before. Pineda’s corpse was recovered more than one year later.
The charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendant and his co-defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. If convicted, Guevara-Castro faces up to life in prison.
