MS-13 Member Sentenced For Coercing Recruits At Manor Field Park

A MS-13 gang member from Huntington Station received the maximum prison sentence on Tuesday for threatening violence as an attempt to recruit new members for the gang at Manor Field Park, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini.

Juan Lopez, 32, was sentenced to one and one-third to four years in prison. He was convicted of first-degree attempted coercion in April.

"Today’s sentence sends a significant message to MS-13 gang members that if they try to threaten the lives of young people in our community or intimidate them to get them to join this gang, we will send them to prison,” Sini said in a press release.

On April 16, 2017, Lopez and sevearl other MS-13 members approached two young men at Manor Field Park in Huntington Station and tried to recruit them into their gang, the DA says. When the young men resisted the recruiting attempt, Lopez said "this is how you end up dead in the park," according to the DA.

Lopez was arrested the next day.

The recruiting attempt at the park happened just five days after four young men were killed near a park in Central Islip by alleged MS-13 gang members.

“My office will keep the pressure on MS-13 and continue to find innovative and strategic ways to prosecute gang members to get them off our streets," Sini said.

Image via Suffolk DA