MS-13 Member From Mineola Pleads Guilty To 2017 Machete Murder: DA

MINEOLA, NY — An MS-13 member from Mineola has pleaded guilty in the 2017 Uniondale machete murder of a fellow gang member, Nassau County prosecutors said.

Twenty-four-year-old Luis Alejandro Varela, a.k.a. Felon, is one of two gang members who pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder and second-degree conspiracy for the murder of Carlos Rivas-Majano, who was hacked to death.

Varela and his co-defendant — 27-year-old William Reyes-Fuentes, a.k.a. Desobediente, of Uniondale — are due back in court on Aug. 9 and face up to life in prison, prosecutors say.

"For more than a year, Carlos Rivas-Majano's family was left to speculate what had happened to him, until his body was recovered in a sump by the Meadowbrook Parkway," said Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly. "The defendants — Luis Alejandro Varela and William Reyes-Fuentes — were part of an MS-13 crew that lured the victim into that wooded area, beat him, and killed him. We will continue to work with every law enforcement partner to rid our communities of this dangerous gang."

According to Donnelly, on Aug. 11, 2017, Rivas-Majano told a family member that he was on his way home from a deli in Uniondale, but he never arrived. He was lured into the woods near the Meadowbrook Parkway and Glen Curtiss Boulevard in Uniondale, where he was hacked and stabbed to death with machetes. His body was found in the sump on Aug. 29, 2018.

The attackers were members of the Downtown Criminals clique of MS-13, who perceived Rivas-Majano to be an enemy of the gang.

A co-defendant in the case, Edar Ventura, was sentenced to 32 years to life in 2019 after pleading guilty to two counts of murder, and related charges, for the deaths of Rivas-Majano and 16-year-old Alexon Moya, who was a bystander in a separate killing.

Cases against co-defendants Carlos Benitez-Hernandez, Jose Quintanilla-Cruz, and Nerlin Chacon-Ruano are pending.

Patch's Alex Costello contributed to this report.