Cops: Six MS-13 gang members arrested

Six MS-13 gang members were arrested - and one charged with murder - in a December killing in Hempstead that Nassau police said was a case of mistaken identity.

John Nazario Mazariego, 27, of Roosevelt, was charged with second degree murder in the stabbing death of Plutaco Galindo, 23, Westbury.

Galindo and three friends were at the El Pacifico Bar on North Franklin Street about 2:40 a.m. on Dec. 23, police said, when they were confronted by Mazariego, and five other members of MS-13.

Homicide Det. Sgt. Gregory Quinn said, "This defendant and his friends believed the other individuals were members of a rival gang, 18th Street, but they were not. . . . They were just stopping in there for a beer."

The four, who have no known gang ties, Quinn said, attempted to leave, but outside the bar a confrontation began. Galindo and one of the men with him were stabbed, but the other man's wounds were not life-threatening.

Galindo and the other victim raced to a hospital in a car driven by a third man, police said, but crashed into a taxicab, and debris from the accident struck a nearby pedestrian.

Galindo reached Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola after the traffic accident, but was pronounced dead there at 3:51 a.m., police said. Police said the accident did not contribute to Galindo's death.

The cabdriver, his passenger and the pedestrian sustained nonlife-threatening injuries, police said.

Mazariego, also known as "Victorino," was arrested without incident Monday night in Baldwin by homicide and Bureau of Special Operations officers, police said. Five others were previously arrested on assault charges stemming from that case, police said.

Mazariego was to be arraigned Tuesday in First District Court, Hempstead.