Former MS-13 gang member testifies in federal court in case of deli killing of rival gang member

By Nicole Fullernicole.fuller@newsday.com @NicoleFullerMarch 19, 2019

The two men were once tight, traveling with others who prosecutors say were part of the MS-13 gang to the beach in Ocean City, Maryland, and celebrating a birthday in 2015, when Suffolk cops were on the tail of someone in the crew.

And according to prosecutors, the pair once conspired with other MS-13 members to kill a rival gang member.

But on Tuesday, Kevin Cifuentes, an admitted MS-13 gang member who pleaded guilty to his involvement in multiple gang-related crimes, testified as a cooperating witness against his former friend, alleged associate Jose Suarez, 24, of Central Islip.

Suarez is on trial in federal court in Central Islip, accused of driving the getaway car after the Jan. 30, 2017, MS-13-related killing of Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla at a deli in Central Islip and participating in a gang assault at a restaurant in 2016.

Cifuentes, 25, testifying through a Spanish-language translator and seated mere feet from Suarez, identified Suarez as an associate of MS-13's Sailors clique in Brentwood, and said he had pleaded guilty to his role in the deli killing and committed it with several other gang members, including Suarez, who he referred to by his nickname “Chompiras.”

Cifuentes, who has spent the last two years in jail but previously lived in Brentwood, also described how he had directed Suarez to deliver cocaine that Cifuentes was selling for the Sailors.

Cifuentes, who appeared in surveillance video from the deli killing that was played for the jury on Monday, is scheduled to continue testifying Wednesday. According to a Suffolk police homicide detective who testified about the surveillance video, he was standing just feet away from Alvarado-Bonilla when the victim was shot five times at point-blank range.

The shooter in the deli killing, Mario Aguilar-Lopez, pleaded guilty last year and is awaiting sentencing.

Cifuentes said he was born in Guatemala and came to the United States illegally in 2008, first living with his father for about nine months before moving to Bellport to live with his mother. The following year, he said, he brought a knife to school to defend himself after he had a dispute with Bloods gang members.

Cifuentes testified that he lied and told them he was MS-13, but didn’t join the gang until 2014 when he moved out of his mother’s house and went to live in Brentwood. That same year, he said, he met some MS-13 gang members at a bar and soon began selling cocaine for the gang, eventually sending $300 at a time in drug proceeds to gang leaders in El Salvador via Western Union.

Cifuentes, questioned by Assistant U.S. Attorney Raymond Tierney about the MS-13 hierarchy, said a "paro" was someone who does favors for the gang, and an "observacion" is someone who the gang members observe. To move up to the next level and become a "cheqeo," you must kill someone, Cifuentes said. A "homeboy" is a full-blown member of MS-13 and you become one "by killing a 'chavala' or any enemy of the Mara Salvatrucha," said Cifuentes.

Someone who has "the word" is a leader in the gang, he said.

Asked why gang leaders in El Salvador get more respect than those in the United States, Cifuentes said: "Because they kill people there by the bunches."

Cifuentes, who said he was often tasked with driving gang members around Long Island and beyond because he had a driver’s license, also testified about a trip that he, Suarez and two other gang members took to Ocean City, Maryland, with Tierney displaying a photo of the four posing on the beach in a picture Cifuentes said was taken on May 18, 2015 – his birthday.

They went, Cifuentes said, because a gang member nicknamed “Mendigo” had gotten the attention of cops and gang leadership said he needed to get off Long Island.

Suarez's Manhattan-based attorney Raymond L. Colon, who is expected to cross-examine Cifuentes following the conclusion of his direct testimony, said of Cifuentes Tuesday after testimony ended: "He's been very selective in his testimony and has no corroboration whatsoever for any alleged crimes that were committed between him and the defendant prior to Dec. 16, 2018.”

Earlier Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph F. Bianco, who is presiding over Suarez's trial, denied Colon's request for a mistrial after witness Jose Martorell, a Suffolk County probation officer assigned to the gang unit, testified about interviewing Suarez. Colon argued Martorell’s testimony could lead jurors to speculate that Suarez was in police custody before his March 13, 2017, arrest in the deli slaying and that he may have been in the country without legal status, which Colon said could result in “another stain on his character.”

Bianco offered Colon the option of having prosecutors question Martorell more to try to clear up the issue, but Colon, after consulting with Suarez, rejected it.

Asked by Bianco if he had discussed the issue with his attorney, Suarez, speaking through an interpreter replied: "I agree with my attorney."