Thursday, October 22, 2026
Two alleged members of the MS-13 gang were arraigned on Oct. 22 Thursday in federal court in Central Islip on charges stemming from the June 28 killing of a teenager in Hempstead, as well as alleged drug trafficking and illegal firearm possession.
Isaac Eliseo Lopez Alvarez, also known as “Flaco” and “Kofla,” and Denis Alexander Gonzalez Sorto, known as “Demon,” “Demon Boy” and “DM,” were charged with racketeering conspiracy and related firearms and narcotics offenses, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, said. The indictment was unsealed Oct. 20.
Both defendants are alleged members of MS-13’s Hempstead Locos Salvatruchas clique and were in state custody on murder charges. Prosecutors allege the defendants and another gang member targeted Michael David Grajeda Suazo because they suspected he belonged to the rival 18th Street gang.
The killing was retaliation for previous attacks on MS-13 members, according to the indictment. In the weeks before the murder, Gonzalez Sorto, Lopez Alvarez and other clique members allegedly discussed identifying, locating and killing suspected 18th Street gang members. They also allegedly targeted and surveilled Grajeda Suazo before the attack.
On the evening of June 28, Grajeda Suazo was walking with two other people on Fulton Avenue in Hempstead when the defendants and a third MS-13 member spotted him, prosecutors allege. The three rode their bicycles ahead of him, turned onto an adjacent street and dismounted.
As Grajeda Suazo passed, the men allegedly approached him from behind. Gonzalez Sorto stabbed him repeatedly with a knife, including in the chest, while Lopez Alvarez and the third man kicked and stomped him as he lay mortally wounded, according to the indictment. The three then fled on bicycles.
“As alleged, the defendants carried out a planned and savage killing, stabbing and beating a teen on the street in Hempstead in furtherance of MS-13, a vicious transnational gang,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said in a news release.
The indictment also charges the defendants with conspiring to distribute cocaine and marijuana. Prosecutors allege MS-13 cliques sold the drugs on Long Island and used the proceeds to finance criminal operations, including purchasing firearms, ammunition and other weapons and sending money to gang leadership in Central America.
Both men also face charges of being aliens in possession of a firearm. Investigators recovered a 9 mm P80 semiautomatic handgun from a bedroom the defendants shared at their Hempstead residence during a search conducted under a warrant, according to the release. The weapon is described as a “ghost gun,” assembled from privately obtained components without a commercial serial number.
FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr., Homeland Security Investigations Acting Special Agent in Charge Pete Gizas and Nassau County Police Commissioner Pat Ryder also announced the charges with Nocella.
“Today’s indictments are a reminder that we will hold violent criminals fully accountable and never tolerate gang violence in Nassau County,” Ryder said in the release. “Our investigators will work with our partners to see these cases through. County Executive [Bruce] Blakeman and I will use all of the resources at our disposal to keep Nassau County safe, and fight back against those who look to do others harm.”
The federal prosecution is part of a broader effort targeting MS-13, which prosecutors describe as a violent transnational criminal organization with members and leadership across the U.S. and Central America. The U.S. attorney’s office said hundreds of gang members have been convicted on federal felony charges in the Eastern District of New York since 2003.
If convicted, each faces up to life in prison or the possibility of the death penalty, authorities said.
