After a recent alleged gang attack in Southold, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa is gearing up to head back to Southold and Greenport and combat what he deems an insidious and escalating gang presence.
Sliwa told SoutholdLOCAL on Sunday that a group of Guardian Angels will be “going into Greenport and Southold” on Monday, some of whom participated in a program in Greenport “the last time around.”
Also, Sliwa said, “We are beginning to make progress in terms of possibly making a presentation about a Guardian Angels anti-gang program in the school system.”
The goal, Sliwa said, is to present a two-pronged approach, with both the Guardian Angels coming in first, and next, the educational component, with the possible creation of a junior Guardian Angels program in the schools. Later, the community could be asked to join patrols again.
Sliwa first collaborated with former Greenport Village Mayor David Kapell in 2005, when he came to Greenport and organized a citizen-based group that helped patrol village streets.
The Guardian Angels is a volunteer-based organization made up of citizen volunteers who help protect communities around the world.
Recently, Sliwa reflected on his experience in Greenport, and said at the time, he tried to enlighten the community and explain that gangs were a real issue. “When I was warning the locals about how these gang-bangers were setting their roots in to the ground, many of the leaders, both in the community, business, and police divisions tried to shoot me, the messenger, because they didn’t like the sound of my message about gangs moving in. In fact, I will never forget that some business owners in Greenport likened calling in the Guardian Angels to yelling, ‘Shark!’ at the beach. People felt that if we were helping to eradicate the growing gang menace, that property values would plunge and that people would not come and frequent their bucolic shops,” he said.
After a patrol one night, Sliwa said Kapell dropped him off at the Long Island Rail Road station. “As I was waiting for the train, a husband and wife came up to me and said that our Guardian Angel services would be better used back in New York City. The husband said, ‘We don’t have a gang problem anywhere in Greenport or Southhold’. I pointed out two other guys waiting for the train who had MS-13 tattoos on their necks. I told them these guys were not customizing their neck, they were bragging boldly and openly of their gang affiliation.”
In October, after a violent machete attack and shootings by alleged gang members in Southold, some authorities say that they believe the increase in gang presence on the North Fork could be on the rise.
“I think the amount of potential gang members in our area has definitely increased,” Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley said last month. “Prior to the recent assaults, their activity has not been this blatant. This case, however, has us very concerned of the potential violent acts associated with these gangs.”
Greenport Village Mayor David Nyce, however, said he believed the incident was not indicative of a greater trend. “I have conferred with Chief Flatley and I feel that, while there may be some gang members and activity associated with them, these are still isolated incidents. Every community on Long Island must deal with these situations and we will continue to monitor them and rely on our police department to keep us apprised and safe,” he said.
Meanwhile, Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said he had “full faith and confidence in the Southold Town Police Department and the department’s leadership to address issues regarding public safety and gang activity.”
Robert DeSena, founder of Council for Unity, an organization aimed at eradicating gang activity in Riverhead and other areas including New York City, said that any community, in any part of the country, whether upscale or poverty-ridden, can be seen as fertile for gang members to flourish.
“The ultimate measurement of gang activity in anywhere stems from the conditions that promote and support gang activity,” he said. “When there is no opportunity for upward mobility, no positive role models, rampant materialism that defines your worth, indifference on the part of society, isolation and so on, gangs are going to swell. They thrive when youth are disenfranchised and hopeless.”
There has been an increase in MS-13 participants in the Suffolk County Correctional Facility’s Council for Unity group, DeSena said. “That could be symptomatic of what is occurring in key areas like Brentwood, Central Islip, Wyandanch and Amityville,” he said.
But gang activity on the North Fork is not new — and the presence of the violent street gang, the La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, has been noted in crimes dating back years.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations has a Long Island Gang Task Force; Suffolk County Police are members of the group. According to the FBI, MS-13 is “a violent international street gang comprised primarily of immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. With numerous branches, or ‘cliques,’ the MS-13 is the largest street gang on Long Island. Since 2002, more than 200 MS-13 members, including more that two dozen clique leaders, have been convicted on federal felony charges in the Eastern District of New York. More than 50 of those MS-13 members have been convicted on federal racketeering charges. Seventeen of those defendants have received sentences of 10 years or more, and more than a dozen MS-13 defendants have been sentenced or are awaiting sentencing on murder convictions. These prosecutions are the product of investigations led by the FBI Long Island Gang Task Force, composed of agents and officers of the FBI, Nassau County Police Department, Nassau County Sheriff’s Department, Suffolk County Probation, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department, and the Rockville Centre Police Department.”
In Greenport in 2007, two Shelter Island men were savagely beaten by seven gang members brandishing baseball bats. The motive, police said, was gold chains the victims wore on their necks.
At that time, Sliwa collaborated with Kapell to bring a chapter to the village after residents expressed concerns about crime and drug activity.
Back in 2007, Sliwa said the presence of MS-13 gang members were “entrenched,” and spreading across Long Island, in communities including Riverhead, Baldwin, Brentwood, Valley Stream, Freeport, and Copaigue.
During the attack in Greenport, several of the assailants allegedly shouted they were part of the MS-13 street gang and told the victims they were going to die.
Less than a month later, a Sag Harbor man, Marvin Velasquez-Moreno, was arrested after beating another man unconscious on the Greenport railroad dock.
The MS-13 gang, considered by the FBI to be the most dangerous gang in the United States, has been forging a path of destruction in the United States, moving into areas not only in southern states such as New Mexico, but also, in Suffolk County.
MS-13 gang members often wear blue and white and have tattoos in visible areas such as foreheads, knuckles and cheeks.
Sliwa told SoutholdLOCAL in October, “Times have changed but the problems continue to spread their tentacles into the fabric of life in the community. From the streets to the schools to the places where gang-bangers frequent and flex their affiliation. Our closest location now, is in Huntington, the village, which has had its fair share of similar gang problems. It is ironic that when we had our stand up, this past Sunday for the Columbus Day Festival in Huntington, a lot of people asked if we could do something about the growing problems in Riverhead and beyond.”
Sliwa said he’d be willing to come back and meet with many of the same business, community, and police leaders who “questioned our need back in 2007. We are experts in the field of gang prevention and gang intervention. Many of our members speak Spanish and we are able to provide an alternative. So rather than say, ‘I told you so,’ I would be more than happy to return with a contingent of Guardian Angels to help locals deal with this growing gang menace.”
On October 22, at an indictment in Suffolk County Criminal Court, Assistant District Attorney Ryan Hunter said a Greenport teen charged in a violent gang attack in Southold last week was operating on an “order” from a higher up in the MS-13 gang.
According to Hunter, Walter Vasquez, 17, who attends the Greenport Union Free School District, confessed in writing and said he as was ordered “to do something bad” to the two victims in the attack.
Vasquez was indicted at the Arthur M. Cromarty Criminal Court before Judge William Conden. He was charged with two counts of assault in the first degree, a felony, two counts of gang assault in the first degree, a felony, and two counts of assault in the second degree, a felony. He was held on $500,000 cash bail or $1 million bond.
Attorney Lane Bubka of Riverhead said his client Vasquez, who is from El Salvador, pleaded not guilty and is “not a gang member”, despite the district attorney’s charges.
Also indicted was Jeremiah Nathanael Recino Torres, 19, of Aquebogue; he was charged with two counts of assault in the first degree, a felony, two counts of gang assault in the first degree, two counts of assault in the second degree, a felony and one count of criminal possession of a firearm. He pleaded not guilty and was also held on $500,000 cash bail or $1 million bond.
Hunter said Recino Torres “lied to the police” and had a “conversation about killing” the victims; he also gave written confessions, Hunter said. He was the alleged driver and lookout in the incident, Hunter said, which involved five suspects.
The fifth suspect, Hunter said, has not yet been caught. According to a source close to the investigation, the fifth subject goes only by a street name and has not been found.
Recino Torres, also from El Salvador, Hunter said, was found in a vehicle with a gun and machete and faces five to 25 years in jail.
He is represented by attorney Luis Pagan of Riverhead.
Suspect Pedro Emilio Santamaria, 31, of Greenport, was also indicted and charged in the incident.
Walking on crutches, the fourth suspect and alleged MS-13 gang member, 17, who was nabbed in relation to what police said was a gang-related attack on South Harbor Road and State Route 25 in Southold last month, was the first of the four suspects to be indicted before Judge Condon.
Represented by Sayville-based attorney Eric Besso, Freddie Fernando Torres Campos, who turned 17 in custody, was charged with two counts of assault in the first degree, a felony, two counts of gang assault in the first degree, a felony, and two counts of assault in the second degree, a felony. He was held in lieu of $500,000 cash bail and $1 million bond and faces five to 25 years in jail, if convicted.
Hunter painted a verbal picture of the violent attack, alleging that Torres Campos, one of five suspects, members of the MS-13 street gang, plotted the attack against a rival Greenport street gang, planning to “attack and kill them.” According to Hunter, the five were in a vehicle and found the victims near their homes in Southold.
Torres Campos, he said, brandished a machete in the attack, his two co-defendants had guns, Hunter said. The three “ambushed” the two victims, Hunter said, shooting one in the abdomen and one in the back and elbow, while two others were “lookouts”. The victim shot in the abdomen remains hospitalized, Hunter said, while the victim shot in the back has had bullets removed, with one bullet too close to the spine to remove. He may be paralyzed, Hunter said.
Torres Campos, Hunter said, was shot in the foot by a co-defendant and struck by a .22 calibre bullet.
Besso said his client, from El Salvador, pleaded not guilty. Torres Campos, he said, now lives with a cousin, has a girlfriend and works as a landscaper, with limited resources. He asked the judge for lower bail; the request was denied due to the violent nature of the crime and the fact that Torres Campos is not a citizen, Condon said.
“He’s a young boy who was misled by the others,” Besso said.
Hunter said he had a signed written confession from Torres Campos.
Through an interpreter, Torres Campos told Judge Rudolph Bruer at his arraignment in Southold Town justice court that he lived on Route 25 in Southold but is from El Salvador and is a “non-citizen”; he has lived in the area for a year and works seasonally for a landscaper, but could not remember the name of the company.
Police said Torres Campos was was taken into custody at Southampton Hospital where he was admitted on the day of the shooting for treatment of a gunshot wound to his left ankle.
The arrest came one day after three suspects charged in last Tuesday’s shooting in Southold appeared before Judge Bruer at Southold Town justice court Tuesday. Bail for initially set for each at $250,000.
Last month, after two men were shot on South Harbor Road in Southold on October 14, police identified and arrested the first three suspects in connection with the crime — and said they are members of the MS-13 street gang.
According to Southold Town Police, Pedro Emilio Santamaria, 31, of Greenport, Jeremias Nathanael Recinos Torres, 19, of Aquebogue, and Walter Vasquez, 17, of Greenport, were arrested after the attack.
The judge ordered an order of protection for the two victims, whose names were not revealed.
The shootings occurred after midnight on October 14, police said. A responding officer spotted Santamaria and Recinos Torres in a parked vehicle a short distance from the scene of the shooting — and a loaded .22 calibre semi-automatic handgun was discovered in the vehicle, police said.
Police said it appears that the incident stems from a dispute between some of the defendants and the victims that occurred at the Third Street Park in Greenport on Friday night — and it is believed that the victims are members of Mara-18 or 18th Street, a rival street gang.
Editor’s note: A criminal charge is an accusation. By law, a person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
