A Mineola MS-13 gang member was one of two men to plead guilty Friday to the machete murder of 22-year-old Carlos Rivas-Majanos in 2017.
Luis Alejandro Varela, a 24-year-old otherwise known as “Felon” of Mineola, and William Reyes-Fuentes, 27, of Uniondale, both pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy, police said.
The two were due back in court Aug. 9 when both were expected to be sentenced to at least 20 years to life in prison.
“For more than a year, Carlos Rivas-Majano’s family was left to speculate about what had happened to him, until his body was recovered in a shallow grave by the Meadowbrook Parkway,” said Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly. “The defendants – Luis Alejandro Varela and William Reyes-Fuentes – were part of an MS-13 crew that lured the victim into that wooded area, beat him and killed him. We will continue to work with every law enforcement partner to rid our communities of this dangerous gang.”
Donnelly said that on Aug. 11, 2017, the victim told a family member he was on his way home from a deli in Uniondale before never returning home. Rivas-Majano was perceived as an enemy of the gang and lured to the woods near the Meadowbrook Parkway and Glen Curtiss Boulevard in Uniondale before being “hacked and stabbed to death with machetes,” police said.
Rivas-Majano’s body was recovered on Aug. 29, 2018. Police said the assailants are members of the Downtown Criminals clique of MS-13.
Co-defendants Carlos Benitze-Hernandez, Jose Quintanilla-Crus and Nerlin Chacon-Ruano each have pending cases against them.
Edar Ventura, another co-defendant, was sentenced to 32 years to life in 2019 after pleading guilty to two counts of murder and other charges for the deaths of Rivas-Majano and Alexon Moya, police said. The Moya death was unrelated to murder of Rivas-Majano.
On Dec. 13, 2016, Ventura killed Moya while shooting at a perceived target of MS-13. Police said Ventura and another man, David Maldonado, were riding bikes in Uniondale before finding their intended target and ordering him out of the car.
After displaying gang signs, police said Ventura fired several rounds and hit Moya, an unintended victim, in the head.
The guilty plea is the latest in a series of prosecutions in the Eastern District of New York targeting the gang. The U.S. Department of Justice has described the gang as “the most violent criminal organization on Long Island.”
The gang’s leadership is based in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico with several branches in the United States.
Since 2010, the Justice Department has obtained indictments charging MS-13 members with carrying out over 60 murders in the Eastern District of New York, which covers Nassau, Suffolk and three New York City counties of Queens, Kings and Richmond.