U.S. Department
of Justice
Combatting Gun and Gang-Related Violence
The Office’s Violence and Organized Crime Unit as well as Prosecutors in the Office’s White Plains Division bring prosecutions focused on addressing gun and gang-related violence in communities within the Southern District of New York. These prosecutions, which often make use of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), include the following:
Violent Gangs and Racketeering
- 28 Gang Members And Associates From Newburgh and Poughkeepsie Charged With Racketeering, Narcotics, And Firearms Offenses: In April 2026, Gabriel Roman, a member of the Young Gunnaz Gang (“YG”), was sentenced to 160 months in prison for racketeering conspiracy, firearm, and aggravated identity theft offenses. In November 2023, 28 members of YG, including the gang’s high-ranking street leaders, were charged with committing various racketeering, narcotics, and firearms offenses, including eleven shootings and attempted murders, and seven armed robberies. In addition to serious acts of violence in the cities of Poughkeepsie and the Newburgh, the gang was also responsible for trafficking large amounts of narcotics across New York State, and perpetrated fraud schemes to enrich members of the gang. All 28 defendants have all been convicted, and all but one have now been sentenced, all to substantial terms of imprisonment.
- Two Members Of Violent Gang Alliance Charged With Murdering A Sixteen-Year-Old Boy In The Bronx: In December 2025, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton announced the unsealing of an Indictment charging Ahmar Garcia, a/k/a “OB,” and Raheem Patterson, a/k/a “Rah Rah,” with committing the murder of sixteen-year-old Nisayah Sanchez on September 29, 2021, as a result of a gang war that plagued the city throughout that year that cost the lives of multiple young men and boys throughout the Bronx. They are also charged with an attempted murder and assault with a dangerous weapon which injured another victim during that same shooting. Patterson is also charged with an attempted murder and assault with a dangerous weapon that occurred on December 2, 2021, when he shot at a rival gang member in Manhattan.
- Naasón Joaquín García Charged With Racketeering Conspiracy, Sex Trafficking, And Child Exploitation Of Members Of La Luz Del Mundo Church (Communicado de prensa en espanol): In September 2025, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton announced the unsealing of an Indictment charging Naasón Joaquín García (“Naasón”), Rosa Sosa, Azalia Rangel García, Eva García De Joaquín, Joram Núñez Joaquín, and Silem García Peña with sexual, financial, and related criminal conduct victimizing members of the La Luz del Mundo (“LLDM”) Church over many years. As alleged in the Indictment, the defendants engaged in a racketeering enterprise (the “Joaquín LLDM Enterprise”) that exploited the LLDM Church and persisted for decades to facilitate the systemic sexual abuse of children and women—including the creation of photos and videos of sadistic child sexual abuse. For decades, the Joaquín LLDM Enterprise operated for the sexual gratification of Naasón and his father, the former leader of the Joaquín LLDM Enterprise, Samuel Joaquín Flores (“Samuel”), who died in 2014. This investigation is ongoing. If you have been victimized by the defendants in any way or have any information about their alleged illegal behavior, please call 212-637-1033 or email USANYS.LLDM@usdoj.gov.
- 27 Members Or Associates Of Tren De Aragua Charged With Racketeering, Narcotics, Sex Trafficking, Robbery And Firearms Offenses (First RICO Charges Against TdA Members and Associates): In April of 2025, the Office announced two Superseding Indictments charging 27 individuals currently or formerly associated with the designated foreign terrorist organization Tren de Aragua (“TdA”) with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracy, robbery, and firearms offenses. The first Superseding Indictment (the “TdA Indictment”) charges six alleged members of TdA. The second Superseding Indictment (the “Anti-Tren Indictment”) charges 19 alleged members of “Anti-Tren,” a splinter faction comprised of former TdA members, along with two additional associates of Anti-Tren.
- Twenty-Eight Leaders And Members Of The Valentine Avenue Crew Charged In Manhattan Federal Court With Racketeering: In March 2025, the Office announced a sprawling indictment charging 28 defendants in a racketeering enterprise, committing multiple violent crimes in aid of racketeering, including murder, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, distributing narcotics, and carrying and using firearms in connection with an armed drug trafficking operation based on Valentine Avenue in the Bronx, New York for well over three decades from 1993 to the present.
- Two Highest-Ranking Leaders of Gorilla Stone Bloods Gang Sentenced to 35 Years Each: In November 2024, the two highest-ranking leaders of the Gorilla Stone Bloods Gang, Dwight Reid and Christopher Erskine, were sentenced to 35 years each in prison after their convictions at trial. This office charged 21 Gorilla Stone members with racketeering and narcotics offenses, including a murder and multiple shootings and attempted murders. All 21 Gorilla Stone defendants have been convicted and sentenced to prison, with ten receiving sentences greater than 15 years’ imprisonment. Gorilla Stone, founded by Reid over 20 years ago, has many members across New York State, including throughout New York City, Westchester, Upstate New York, and the New York State Prison System, and all over the country — such as in Florida. Gorilla Stone is comprised of various sets (or “Caves,” as they are called by gang members). Gorilla Stone is a highly organized and efficient street gang with an organizational commitment to violence that strictly enforces its internal laws. Among Gorilla Stone’s acts of violence were: a September 2020 broad daylight murder of a teenager on a busy Poughkeepsie street; an October 24, 2020 gang-related shooting outside of a Miami, Florida strip club, in which two rival gang members were shot and seriously wounded, requiring one to be airlifted from the scene; multiple shootings and attempted murders, including an August 8, 2018 shooting in Brooklyn, New York, July 5, 2020 gang shootings at a house party in Miami, Florida, and a July 20, 2020 drive-by shooting in New Rochelle, New York; a June 12, 2020 gunpoint drug-related robbery in Peekskill, New York; and a vicious January 12, 2018 face slashing of a rival gang member on 125th Street in Manhattan outside a subway station.
Homicides
- Florida Man Arrested For 1993 Execution-Style Murders Of Husband And Wife In The Bronx: In April 2026, William Antonio Solis, a/k/a “Vegano,” a/k/a “La Vega,” was arrested in connection with the June 21, 1993, execution-style murders of Luis Guerrero and Danis Sime in the Bronx. As alleged, Solis and two co-conspirators planned to rob Guerrero, a narcotics supplier, at a Bronx apartment, restrained Guerrero, stole his drugs, lured Sime into the apartment, and then executed both victims by shooting them in the head. The murders were carried out in the presence of the victims’ three-year-old child.
- Bronx Gang Member Convicted Of 2013 Murder: In February 2026, Lamar Williams, a/k/a “Black,” a/k/a “Little Black,” a/k/a “Chase Money Marz,” was convicted at trial of murder in aid of racketeering, murder through use of a firearm, and racketeering conspiracy in connection with the 2013 murder of Rasheed Barton in the Bronx. Williams, a leader of the Mac Ballers set of the Bloods gang, shot and killed Barton on August 11, 2013, near East 174th Street and Bronx River Avenue. The murder was committed in connection with Williams’s membership in the Mac Ballers gang and his participation in a crack cocaine conspiracy.
- Four Defendants Charged With Cyberstalking, Kidnapping, And Murder In Parking Lot Of Bronx Shopping Center: In February 2025, Ivan Collado, Alexander Villalba, Arecio Collado, and Joel Vargas were charged in connection with the cyberstalking, attempted kidnapping, and murder of Raymond Resto in the parking lot of the Throggs Neck Shopping Center in the Bronx. As alleged, the defendants stalked Resto over a drug debt, used a GPS tracking device installed on his car to locate and surveil him, and then kidnapped and murdered him in front of his wife. The charged conduct arose from a cocaine-trafficking conspiracy in which the defendants sought repayment and information about customers after a dealer they supplied was unable to repay a narcotics debt.
- Luigi Mangione Charged With The Stalking And Murder Of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson And Use Of A Silencer In A Crime Of Violence: In December 2024, Luigi Nicholas Mangione was charged in connection with the murder of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan. As alleged, Mangione planned the attack for months, stalked Thompson for days, and then shot him in broad daylight outside a Manhattan hotel in a targeted, premeditated killing. Mangione was charged with using a firearm to commit murder, interstate stalking resulting in death, stalking through use of interstate facilities resulting in death, and discharging a firearm equipped with a silencer in furtherance of a crime of violence.
- Husband And Wife Found Guilty Of Murder And Car-Jacking: In September 2024, Jamie Orsini and Nicholas Orsini were found guilty, after a jury trial, carjacking resulting in death and conspiracy to commit carjacking. In 2020, the Orsinis plotted the murder of Jamie Orsini’s ex-husband, Steven Kraft. As part of that murder, they planned a sophisticated cover-up, involving the use of burner phones, the movement of Kraft’s car to a different city, and the destruction and disposal of all physical evidence. Among other things, they purchased items—such as a 1,000-square-foot tarp and a full-body coverall—to allow them to commit the murder and dispose of evidence, they repeatedly practiced “dry runs” for how they would move Kraft’s car, and they purchased a “burner phone” to use without law enforcement being able to trace the phone to them. On April 28, 2020, in Beacon, New York, after Kraft dropped his daughters off with the Orsinis, who had custody of their children, the Orsinis killed Kraft and took his car and cellphone. Nicholas Orsini then drove the car into Newburgh, New York, leaving it in a high-crime neighborhood, got rid of Kraft’s cellphone, and used the burner phone to call a taxi to bring him back to Beacon, throwing the burner phone out before getting into the taxi. After the murder, the Orsinis managed to destroy or dispose of evidence—including Steven Kraft’s body—buying a new burner phone to use when they repeatedly drove to and from upstate New York, and creating large homemade incinerators. Jamie Orsini sent multiple text messages to make it look like she believed that Kraft was still alive, and, having dumped Kraft’s car in Newburgh, when speaking with the police, professed ignorance, but kept hinting that, maybe if Kraft went to Newburgh after leaving her home, something might have happened to him there.
Firearms Offenses - Shootings and Gun Trafficking
Man Pleads Guilty To Possessing A Machine Gun Used In November Bronx Shooting: In April 2026, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton announced that David Maldonado pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff to possessing a machine gun in connection with a November 14, 2025, daytime shooting during which Maldonado fired 12 rounds from a machinegun on a public street in the Bronx, New York.
Brooklyn Man Charged With Daytime Shooting Beside Manhattan School And Playground: In February 2026, U.S. Attorney Jay Clyton announced the unsealing of a Complaint charging Michael Zayas in connection with the January 14, 2026, daytime shooting during which ZAYAS fired a gun 10 times in the vicinity of Kelly Playground in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. The images below show ZAYAS, minutes prior to the shooting (approximately 2:37 p.m.), entering the elevator on a particular floor on an apartment building located approximately two blocks away from the scene of the shooting, then masked and fleeing westbound on 17th Street toward 9th Avenue after the shooting.
- Man Pleads Guilty To Discharging Machine Gun That Killed 69-Year-Old Bystander In East Harlem (Faisil McCants Admitted to Causing the Death of Robin Wright): United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, and Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), Ricky J. Patel, announced that Faisil McCants pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff to possessing and brandishing a machine gun in connection with an August 27, 2025, daytime armed robbery and shooting in which McCants fired 15 rounds on a public street in East Harlem, striking and killing a 69-year-old woman.
Gun And Drug Trafficker Convicted: In July 2025, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton announced the conviction at trial yesterday of Bianneury Pena, a/k/a “Charly,” for his role in gun and drug trafficking conspiracies as well as his unlawful possession of a firearm as an illegal alien. The conviction followed a 4-day jury trial before U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote.Man Pleads Guilty To Possessing A Machine Gun Used In November Bronx Shooting: In April 2026, U.S/. Attorney Jay Clayton announced that David Maldonado pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff to possessing a machine gun in connection with a November 14, 2025, daytime shooting during which Maldonado fired 12 rounds from a machinegun on a public street in the Bronx, New York.