The gang just as vicious as MS-13 but without the notoriety: Savage Trinitarios return to the spotlight after years in the shadows
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A ‘Wall of Grief’ mural marks the spot where a 15-year-old Bronx boy, who wanted to be a detective when he grew up, fell victim last month to a New York City drug gang with a long history of ruthless violence.
The mural pays tribute to Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz who was killed June 20 by a group of Trinitarios in a crime that sent shockwaves reverberating through the Big Apple and beyond. The murder captured the attention of music stars Rihanna and Cardi B.
News outlets aired chilling surveillance video of the boy struggling for his life as he was dragged out of a bodega and slashed with a machete and knives.
Bronx prosecutors last week announced the indictment of 12 Trinitarios in the boy’s death and said Lesandro was killed after he was mistaken for a Trinitario from a rival “set” the group was plotting against. Police said Lesandro had no gang affiliation.
Two days earlier, in another shocking display of violence, Trinitarios stabbed and beat a 14-year-old member of a rival gang as cars stopped on a busy Bronx six-lane highway. The boy was stabbed more than 13 times and had to be revived after going into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital. Police released video of the attack and federal prosecutors arrested a Bronx man who admitted striking the boy with a log.
The violence appears to mark a re-emergence of a gang that had fallen into the shadows after a series of law enforcement takedowns from 2009 to 2014 wiped out the group’s leader and a large number of members.
Just four years ago, federal prosecutors said the Trinitarios if they weren’t extinct, they were certainly an endangered species. But they appear to be back and this time thrust into a national spotlight.
Such acts of brutality don’t surprise Manuel Gomez, a former U.S. army intelligence officer and NYPD cop-turned-private investigator, who said he obtained the video of Lesandro’s last moments and shared it with WPIX-TV , which was the first to report it.
Gomez told Fox News that the Trinitarios have been just as vicious as MS-13 without drawing the same amount of attention. President Trump has singled out the former for its brutality - labeling them “animals” - as part of his crackdown on illegal immigration.
“Trinitarios are just as blatant as MS-13 when it comes to killing someone and just walking away,” Gomez said. Trinitarios are Dominican; MS-13 is Salvadoran
Gomez said the ranks of the Trinitarios include several individuals who are in the country illegally. He also said Trinitarios recruit new members in high schools. Some recruits are even younger. As part of the initiation process recruits are required to run a gauntlet.
“Their preferred weapon of choice is the machete and the knife and their philosophy is ‘a gun runs out of bullets but a knife never does,’” Gomez said.
A 2011 NYPD database placed the number of Trinitarios in the city at nearly 1,200, according to The New York Times . The database contained the names of nearly 24,000 gang members.
From 2009 to 2012, federal prosecutors announced a series of racketeering indictments charging 149 Trinitarios and associates in connection with a variety of crimes, including nine murders and 24 attempted murders.
Tags
Who is online
100 visitors
Deport these a-holes, too. And then build a wall to keep them out.
I can think of a faster and less costly method to get rid of these violent thugs/terrorists.