MS-13 Gang Member Charged In Connection With Queens Killing

BROOKLYN, NY – A former MS-13 gang member has been charged with murder in connection with the 2012 death of an 18-year-old in Queens, officials announced Friday.

Marcelo Esquivel, 31 of Jamaica, Queens, has been charged with murder in-aid-of racketeering and causing death through the use of a firearm in connection with the killing of Daniel Licona-Gonzalez, 18, in July 2012, according to the U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of New York.

Esquivel was arrested on Thursday and arraigned Friday afternoon.

If convicted, Esquivel faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison and is eligible for the death penalty.

At the time of Licona-Gonzalez's death, Esquivel was the local leader of the Centrales Locos Salvatruchas Clique of La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, in Jamaica, Queens, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office.

According to filings in court, on July 2, 2012, Esquivel directed two MS-13 members to murder a member of the rival Latin Kings gang and gave them a gun, according to the U.S. attorney's office. The two members rode a bicycle to a location understood to be in Latin Kings territory to find their target, according to the news release.

In the area of Lowe Court and 149th Street in Jamaica, the two members saw a group of men they believed were Latin Kings. One member yelled "La Mara," referencing his gang, and shot Licona-Gonzalez in the head, officials said. Licona-Gonzalez died the next day.

The MS-13's leadership is based in El Salvador and Honduras, but the gang has thousands of members across the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. Esquivel's charges are the latest in a series of federal prosecutions by the office targeting members of MS-13.

"The Eastern District will continue to do everything possible to crush the MS-13 and Esquivel's arrest sends a powerful message that the passage of time will not deter this Office and our law enforcement partners from investigating, prosecuting and holding accountable anyone who commits violent crimes on behalf of the gang," U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Richard P. Donoghue said in a prepared statement.