Feds: Alleged gang member extradited in 2016 machete killing
Breon Peace, left, is sworn in on Friday, Oct. 15, 2021 as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York by United States Chief District Judge Margo K. Brodie. Peace was appointed by President Joseph Biden. Credit: U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern
An alleged MS-13 member has been extradited to the United States from El Salvador to face murder charges in the 2016 machete killing of a perceived rival gang member, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
José Jonathan Guevara-Castro, 27, who previously lived in Roosevelt, was arrested in Acajutla, Sonsonate, El Salvador on Aug. 13, 2020, about a month after he was charged in an indictment with the murder of Kerin Pineda, 20, of Freeport.
Guevara-Castro, also known as “Suspechoso," was detained in El Salvador pending his extradition, which took place Tuesday. He was arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlene R. Lindsay Wednesday afternoon and ordered detained.
Guevara-Castro's attorney, Steve Zissou, declined comment.
“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,” U.S. Attorney Breon 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 is charged with participating in the murder of Pineda, who was believed to be a member of the 18th Street gang, an MS-13 rival, authorities said.
Federal prosecutors said Guevara-Castro was a member of the Hollywood Locos Salvatruchas or Hollywood cllique of MS-13, which joined forces with the Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside (Sailors) clique to kill Pineda.
Prosecutors alleged that on May 21, 2016, MS-13 members lured Pineda to a secluded wooded area near the Merrick-Freeport border, where he was surrounded and violently attacked with machetes. Pineda’s body was then buried in a hole that had been dug the day before, prosecutors said, and was found by authorities more than a year later.
Guevara-Castro was arrested in 2020 as part of a national crackdown on MS-13 that was announced by former President Donald Trump and ex-Attorney General William Barr.
Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.
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