Two alleged MS-13 members were ordered held pending trial Tuesday after federal prosecutors charged them in connection with the murders of a 15-year-old boy in Brentwood and a Huntington man who was taken to Maryland and shot.
Edwin Chavez-Garay, 25, of Brentwood, and Jairo Diaz-Gamez, 27, of Bayshore, were arraigned Aug. 4 in federal court in Central Islip on a second superseding indictment.
Prosecutors identified both defendants as members of the Vegas Locos Salvatruchas clique of MS-13.
Chavez-Garay is also known as “Spooky” and “Cruger.” Diaz-Gamez is also known as “Cameleon” and “Anonimo.”
The indictment charges them with racketeering offenses connected to the Feb. 19, 2016, murder of Miguel Garcia-Moran in Brentwood and the Aug. 19, 2023, murder of Carlos Lemus Interiano in Fort Washington, Maryland.
They also face charges including murder, conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Anne Y. Shields ordered both defendants detained pending trial.
Federal prosecutors said Garcia-Moran was 15 when Chavez-Garay and Diaz-Gamez allegedly targeted him because they incorrectly believed he belonged to a rival gang.
The defendants allegedly lured the teenager to a wooded area behind 80 Emjay Boulevard in Brentwood and beat him to death with metal rods.
FBI agents and Suffolk County police officers found skeletal remains in the area on Sept. 21, 2016, while searching for evidence connected to another MS-13 murder. The remains were later identified as Garcia-Moran’s.
Prosecutors said Chavez-Garay and Diaz-Gamez later rose in rank within the Vegas clique.
Years after Garcia-Moran’s killing, they allegedly targeted Lemus Interiano, a Huntington resident and member of the same MS-13 clique who had fallen out of favor with the gang.
Chavez-Garay and Diaz-Gamez allegedly lured Lemus Interiano to Maryland on Aug. 19, 2023, and shot him in a wooded area.
Maryland authorities searching for another body found one of Lemus Interiano’s arm bones at Piscataway Stream Valley Park in Fort Washington in February 2025.
A later search and excavation uncovered additional human remains, clothing and a bullet, prosecutors said.
The indictment also accuses Chavez-Garay and Diaz-Gamez of participating in a conspiracy to murder Carlos Lopez-Lopez between late 2023 and March 2025.
Lopez-Lopez, a former MS-13 member, was allegedly targeted because gang members believed he was cooperating with law enforcement.
According to a detention filing, Chavez-Garay and Diaz-Gamez allegedly helped dig a grave in a wooded area of Suffolk County and drove armed to Lopez-Lopez’s home with plans to lure him outside and shoot him.
Lopez-Lopez was ultimately stabbed and drowned after being attacked on a beach in Blue Point on March 3, 2025. Three other defendants were previously charged with committing that murder.
Federal prosecutors also accuse Chavez-Garay and Diaz-Gamez of participating in the street-level sale of cocaine and marijuana on Long Island.
Authorities said proceeds from the drug sales were used to purchase firearms, ammunition and other weapons and to send money to MS-13 leaders in the United States and Central America.
The superseding indictment was returned by a federal grand jury on July 30. It also contains allegations against six previously charged MS-13 defendants connected to two additional Long Island murders and other crimes.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said the charges demonstrate that federal and local authorities will continue pursuing MS-13 cases regardless of how much time has passed.
The investigation involved Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, Suffolk County police and several other law enforcement agencies in New York and Maryland.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Megan E. Farrell and Paul G. Scotti are prosecuting the case.
Each defendant faces up to life in prison or the possibility of the death penalty if convicted.
The charges are allegations. Chavez-Garay and Diaz-Gamez are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
