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Press Release

Leader Of Sunset Trinitarios Responsible For Murdering Two Teenagers In 2013 And 2014 Convicted Of Racketeering And Murder

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that on Friday, September 20, 2024, a jury found CARLOS RAMIREZ, a/k/a “Guerra” guilty of racketeering conspiracy, murder, and firearms-related charges. RAMIREZ was found guilty following a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman and is scheduled to be sentenced on January 9, 2025. 

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “For more than a decade, the family members of Michael Beltre and Jordanny Correa have waited for justice.  Their wait is now over.  With its verdict, the jury has now held Carlos Ramirez, a/k/a “Guerra,” a leader of the Sunset Trinitarios, responsible for nearly a decade of drug trafficking, robberies, and violence, including the murder of these two young men, both teenagers at the time that they were shot to death.  It does not matter how long ago their lives were lost to the scourge of gang violence in this city.  I promise you that the career prosecutors of this Office and our law enforcement partners will never stop investigating and prosecuting these righteous cases.  If any member of the public has information that they wish to share with us about any unsolved murder in this city, then we encourage you to come forward.”

According to the Indictment, public court filings, and the evidence presented at trial:

From 2010 to 2024, members of the Sunset Trinitarios, a violent drug trafficking organization and street gang founded in Sunset Park in Brooklyn, New York, committed a terrifying number of violent crimes, including multiple murders and attempted murders and numerous gunpoint robberies all across the metropolitan area.  RAMIREZ was one of the members of the Sunset Trinitarios during this period, and he rose to multiple positions of leadership within the gang, both out on the street and when he was incarcerated in the custody of state and federal detention facilities in New York City.  As a “devil soldier messenger” of the Sunset Trinitarios, which came to celebrate the murder of innocent victims and their purported delivery to the devil, RAMIREZ obtained two identical tattoos memorializing the two murders he committed on behalf of the gang.

On October 23, 2013, RAMIREZ participated in the murder of Michael Beltre, who was seventeen years old.  Beltre was shot multiple times on the street in the Bronx after RAMIREZ struck him and held him for another gang member to shoot.

On November 2, 2014, RAMIREZ murdered Jordanny Correa, who was nineteen years old.  RAMIREZ shot Correa multiple times at point-blank range inside an apartment in the Bronx.  

On February 28, 2023, RAMIREZ attempted to murder a former leader of the Sunset Trinitarios inside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.  RAMIREZ committed this attack because he believed that this former leader had previously supplied information to law enforcement.  With the help of others, RAMIREZ slashed and stabbed the victim with a knife, causing severe injuries to the victim’s face and the rest of his body in multiple locations.

10 others of RAMIREZ’s co-conspirators and fellow members of the Sunset Trinitarios previously pled guilty and are awaiting sentencing or have been sentenced, receiving sentences to date that have ranged from multiple years through life in prison.

If you believe you have information related to RAMIREZ or the Sunset Trinitarios, please consider reporting using the following link: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/report-crime.

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RAMIREZ, 29, of the Dominican Republic, was convicted of conspiracy to commit racketeering, murder in aid of racketeering, and the use of a firearm to commit murder. Each of the three offenses carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and murder in aid of racketeering carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

The mandatory and maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by a judge

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Drug Enforcement Task Force and the New York City Police Department, which also supported the prosecution through trial.  Mr. Williams also thanked the Bureau of Prisons and the New York City Department of Correction for their assistance.

This case is being handled by the Office’s Violent and Organized Crime Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas John Wright, Brandon D. Harper, and Timothy Ly are in charge of the prosecution, with the assistance of Paralegal Specialists William Coleman and Kiersten Luger.

Contact

Nicholas Biase, Shelby Wratchford
(212) 637-2600

Updated September 23, 2024

Topic
Violent Crime
Press Release Number: 24-297