Two MS-13 Members Indicted in Brentwood Teen's 2016 Death

Federal prosecutors have indicted two alleged MS-13 gang members in the decade-old killing of a 15-year-old Brentwood boy, charging that the men beat Miguel Garcia-Moran to death with metal rods in 2016.

The two defendants — Ewin Chavez-Garay, 25, and Jairo Diaz-Gamez, 27 — face federal murder charges, prosecutors said. Investigators found Garcia-Moran's remains in September 2016 after the teen had been missing for months. Prosecutors said the gang members killed him because they mistakenly believed he was a member of a rival gang.

Beyond the Brentwood killing, federal prosecutors also allege that the two men later drove a Huntington man to Maryland, where he was killed.

The indictment marks the latest federal action arising from a wave of MS-13 violence that shook Suffolk County in the mid-2010s and drew national attention. Multiple MS-13 members have previously pleaded guilty or been convicted in connection with other murders in Brentwood and neighboring communities during that period.

The charges were announced by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, which has pursued a sustained effort since that era to prosecute gang members responsible for killings across Long Island. Suffolk County is home to one of the largest MS-13 presences in the United States outside of Central America, according to federal law enforcement.

Cases involving MS-13 violence in Brentwood and Central Islip drew widespread public attention after the 2016 killings of high school students Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens. Several gang leaders and members have since been convicted in federal court in connection with those and other murders.

The new indictment against Chavez-Garay and Diaz-Gamez suggests federal investigators continue to pursue unsolved killings from that period. A federal criminal indictment contains allegations only; both defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.