Earlier today, Junior Zelaya Canales, known by his street name “Terco,” a significant regional leader within the notorious 18th Street gang operating out of Queens, New York, admitted guilt to racketeering conspiracy charges. This plea is directly linked to his involvement in the tragic murder of 15-year-old Joshua Guzman on September 12, 2016, in Hempstead, New York. The court proceedings took place in a Brooklyn federal court before United States District Judge Hector Gonzalez.
Zelaya Canales stands as the final of nine defendants to plead guilty under a seventh superseding indictment. This indictment is part of a far-reaching racketeering conspiracy case that encompasses multiple violent crimes, including the murder of 20-year-old Jonathan Figueroa in Saugerties, New York on October 25, 2017, and the killing of 20-year-old Oscar Antonio Blanco Hernandez in Queens on February 2, 2018. The conspiracy also includes numerous shootings and a range of other gang-related criminal activities, all connected to the pervasive influence of the 18th Street gang. His co-defendants, including Walter Fernando Alfaro Pineda, Jose Douglas Castellano, Yanki Misael Cruz Mateo, Israel Mendiola Flores, Yoni Alexander Sierra, Jose Jimenez Chacon, Carolina Cruz, and Eric Chavez, had previously entered guilty pleas. Flores and Chacon have already been sentenced to lengthy prison terms of 425 months and 269 months, respectively, highlighting the severity of the crimes associated with the 18th Street gang. The remaining defendants, including Zelaya Canales, face potential life imprisonment at their sentencing.
The announcement of this guilty plea was jointly made by Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and James E. Dennehy, Assistant Director in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI).
United States Attorney Peace emphasized the significance of this conviction, stating, “Today’s guilty plea concludes an extensive investigation into the violent and deeply disturbing operations of the 18th Street gang. This operation has successfully removed some of the most influential, powerful, and ruthless leaders and members of this gang from our city streets across the nation.” He further added, “Working in concert with our law enforcement partners both domestically and internationally, our Office remains committed to relentlessly pursuing an end to the scourge of gang violence and the senseless loss of life it causes. While these guilty pleas cannot undo the profound harm inflicted by this gang, we hope they offer a measure of closure to the victims and their bereaved families.”
Mr. Peace expressed his gratitude to numerous law enforcement agencies for their crucial collaboration in this extensive investigation. These agencies include the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York, the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office, the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, the United States Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations Dallas, the New York State Police, the Kingston Police Department, the New York City Police Department (NYPD), the Nassau County Police Department, the Hempstead Police Department, and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.
The Pervasive Reach of the 18th Street Gang
This conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions against leaders, members, and associates of the 18th Street gang. Court documents and proceedings reveal that the 18th Street gang is a well-established, international criminal organization with a significant and violent presence. Its influence stretches across New York State, including Queens and Long Island, and extends throughout the United States, notably into areas like Houston, Texas. Members of the 18th Street gang are deeply involved in a wide array of criminal activities. These include murder, attempted murder, assault, extortion, illegal drug trafficking, firearms trafficking, production of fraudulent identification documents, witness tampering, and money laundering. The defendants in this case held various influential positions within the 18th Street gang hierarchy, demonstrating the organized nature of this criminal enterprise.
Walter Fernando Alfaro Pineda, for instance, held a national leadership role within the 18th Street gang, operating from Houston, Texas. His authority and control spanned across the United States. He was responsible for collecting illicit funds generated by gang members in New York through activities such as extortion from prostitution rings and illegal drug sales. These funds were used to support gang operations, including providing financial assistance to incarcerated 18th Street members both in the United States and in El Salvador. Alfaro Pineda also played a key role in supplying and trafficking illegal firearms to the gang’s New York-based operatives.
Junior Zelaya Canales, the defendant who recently pleaded guilty, was a regional leader of the 18th Street gang, based in Queens, New York. His power and influence extended throughout the New York City metropolitan area, highlighting the gang’s strong foothold in this major urban center. Jose Douglas Castellano was a senior member of the 18th Street gang located in Brooklyn, New York, whose influence reached into upstate New York, demonstrating the gang’s expanding reach beyond the city. Other defendants like Yanki Misael Cruz Mateo, Israel Mendiola Flores, Yoni Alexander Sierra, Jose Jimenez Chacon, Carolina Cruz, and Eric Chavez, held various roles ranging from members to associates, each contributing to the gang’s criminal activities across different locations.
Violent Acts to Enforce 18th Street Gang Power
The defendants engaged in numerous acts of violence to bolster the 18th Street gang’s prestige and reputation, and to solidify and expand their membership and standing within the gang. These acts of violence include the following specific incidents:
The 2016 Murder of Joshua Guzman
In September 2016, Zelaya Canales, then a regional leader of the Shatto Park Locos Sureños (SPLS), a sect of the 18th Street gang, issued the order to murder Joshua Guzman. This brutal command was partly motivated by the gang’s perception that Guzman had shown disrespect towards 18th Street gang members. On the evening of September 11, 2016, Zelaya Canales dispatched two lower-ranking gang members to Long Island. Their mission was to lure Guzman out and execute him, as a demonstration of their loyalty and commitment to the 18th Street gang. In the early hours of September 12, 2016, at approximately 1:03 a.m., the Hempstead Police Department was alerted by a ShotSpotter notification indicating gunshots in the vicinity of Linden Avenue and Laurel Avenue in Hempstead, New York. Responding to the scene, officers from the Hempstead Police Department and members of the Nassau Police Department discovered the lifeless body of 15-year-old Guzman near the curb. He had been fatally shot in the back of the head and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The 2017 Attempted Murder of Rival Gang Members
On July 9, 2017, Zelaya Canales personally led a shootout in Woodside, Queens. He was aided by at least two other 18th Street gang members. This violent confrontation arose from a territorial dispute with a rival gang, highlighting the ongoing conflicts and turf wars that characterize gang activity. At approximately 10:35 p.m., NYPD officers were dispatched to the area following numerous 9-1-1 calls reporting multiple gunshots. Witnesses recounted hearing gunfire and seeing approximately three to four men fleeing towards Woodhaven Boulevard. A subsequent search of the area by police officers led to the recovery of nine 9-millimeter shell casings, among other pieces of evidence, linking the incident to firearms.
Following this shootout, NYPD officers went to Zelaya Canales’s residence in Queens to execute two arrest warrants that were unrelated to the shooting incident. During the execution of these warrants, a significant cache of weapons and ammunition was discovered. This included a 9-millimeter Ruger handgun with a defaced serial number, along with 4 rounds of 9-millimeter ammunition, 56 rounds of .357 magnum ammunition, 34 rounds of .380 caliber ammunition, and 23 rounds of .38 ammunition. Forensic ballistics analysis later confirmed that the 9-mm Ruger handgun found in Zelaya Canales’s possession was the same weapon used in the July 9, 2017 shootout in Woodhaven, directly linking him to the crime.
The 2017 Assault of John Doe
On September 20, 2017, Eric Chavez, acting in concert with another 18th Street gang member, approached an individual identified as John Doe on the street. They proceeded to shoot him based on the mistaken belief that he was a member of the rival Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang. Despite being shot, John Doe survived the attack and received medical treatment for a gunshot wound at a local hospital. This incident underscores the violent and often indiscriminate nature of gang-related assaults, driven by rivalries and misidentification.
The 2017 Murder of Jonathan Figueroa
By October 2017, suspicion had fallen upon Jonathan Figueroa, a fellow member of the 18th Street gang. Gang members in New York suspected that Figueroa was cooperating with law enforcement in the ongoing investigation into the murder of Joshua Guzman. Senior figures within the gang, including Jose Douglas Castellano, sought authorization from Walter Fernando Alfaro Pineda to carry out Figueroa’s murder. Alfaro Pineda’s approval was deemed necessary because he had been the one to initiate Figueroa into the 18th Street gang in Houston, Texas. Furthermore, gang protocol dictated that the murder of a fellow member required the sanction of a high-ranking gang leader like Alfaro Pineda.
Having received Alfaro Pineda’s authorization, Castellano activated gang members based in Kingston, New York. He instructed them to coordinate with gang members in Queens to orchestrate Figueroa’s execution. The Kingston-based gang members began preparing for the murder by digging a grave in Turkey Point State Forest, anticipating Figueroa’s arrival.
In the late hours of October 24, 2017, Yanki Misael Cruz Mateo lured Figueroa from Queens to Kingston, New York, traveling together. Upon reaching Kingston, they were met by Israel Mendiola Flores and other 18th Street members and associates. In the early morning hours of October 25, 2017, they transported Figueroa to Turkey Point State Forest. There, they brutally murdered him by stabbing him repeatedly and buried his body in the makeshift grave. Cruz Mateo ordered the murder to be video-recorded. The video captured multiple 18th Street members and associates repeatedly stabbing Figueroa, slashing his throat, amputating his ear, and dragging his body. In the video, Cruz Mateo explicitly stated that Figueroa was being murdered for “being a rat,” sending a clear message about the consequences of disloyalty within the 18th Street gang. Cruz Mateo then disseminated the video to other 18th Street members as a stark warning against cooperating with law enforcement or showing any form of disrespect to the gang. Figueroa’s body was eventually discovered in February 2018 by the FBI, working with state and local law enforcement authorities. It was found in a five-foot deep grave in Turkey Point. A subsequent autopsy revealed the horrific extent of the violence inflicted upon him: he had sustained more than 100 stab wounds, including a skull-fracturing stab wound to the head, and a throat slash that had severed his trachea.
The 2018 Murder of Oscar Antonio Blanco Hernandez
On February 2, 2018, several 18th Street gang members carried out the murder of Oscar Antonio Blanco Hernandez, mistakenly believing him to be a member of the rival MS-13 gang. Jose Jimenez Chacon had initially met Blanco Hernandez several weeks prior through their shared employment at a house painting company in New Jersey. On the morning of the murder, Carolina Cruz and Chacon picked up Blanco Hernandez from his residence in New Jersey, under the false pretense of going to smoke marijuana together as friends. Cruz and Chacon drove Blanco Hernandez to Queens, where they rendezvoused with 18th Street gang members, including Cruz Mateo and Sierra, who entered the rear passenger seats of Cruz’s car on either side of Blanco Hernandez, effectively trapping him. Cruz then drove Chacon, Cruz-Mateo, Sierra, and Blanco Hernandez to a quiet residential neighborhood. Cruz-Mateo, Sierra, and Blanco-Hernandez exited the vehicle and began walking, while Cruz and Chacon remained behind with the car. After walking for a short distance, Cruz-Mateo produced a .380 caliber semiautomatic handgun and shot Blanco-Hernandez in the back of the head, killing him instantly. Blanco Hernandez’s body was discovered on a residential street in the Jamaica Hills area of Queens. The autopsy revealed that he had suffered three gunshot wounds: two to the torso and one fatal shot to the head.
Ongoing Efforts to Combat the 18th Street Gang
This case is part of an ongoing Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation, spearheaded by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the FBI. The primary goal of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most formidable drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, and money laundering organizations, targeting those who are principally responsible for supplying illegal drugs nationwide. OCDETF employs a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the combined strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to combat these complex criminal networks.
The government’s prosecution is being managed by the Office’s International Narcotics and Money Laundering Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Jonathan P. Lax, Erin Reid, Margaret Schierberl, Adam Amir, and Rebecca Urquiola are leading the prosecution, with crucial support from Paralegal Specialists Tareva Torres and Samuel Ronchetti.
The Defendant:
JUNIOR ZELAYA-CANALES, also known as “Terco”
Age: 28
Jamaica, New York
Co-Defendants Previously Convicted:
WALTER FERNANDO ALFARO PINEDA, also known as “Clever”
Age: 45
Houston, Texas
YANKI MISAEL CRUZ MATEO, also known as “Yenki Misael Cruz Mateo,” “Yankee Mateo,” “Doggy” and “Wino”
Age: 25
Jamaica, New York
ISRAEL MEDIOLA FLORES, also known as “Chapito” and “Sinaloa”
Age: 29
Kingston, New York
YONI ALEXANDER SIERRA, also known as “Arca,” “Arc Angel” and “Wasson”
Age: 26
Jamaica, New York
JOSE JIMENEZ CHACON, also known as “Little One”
Age: 26
New Brunswick, New Jersey
CAROLINA CRUZ, also known as “La Fiera”
Age: 31
Elizabeth, New Jersey
JOSE DOUGLAS CASTELLANO, also known as “Chino”
Age: 26
Brooklyn, New York
ERIC CHAVEZ, also known as “Lunatico”
Age: 25
Jamaica, New York
E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 18-CR-139 (S-7) (HG)
