Three leaders of the 18th Street gang are headed away for a very long time. On Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court, the trio was sentenced to a combined total of more than 115 years in prison for racketeering, murders and a string of violent acts that prosecutors say stretched from New York to Texas and all the way to El Salvador. Federal officials describe the punishments as the latest chapter in a years-long, multi-agency investigation that they say took apart the gang’s upper ranks and operations.
“The defendants were high-ranking members of an international criminal organization fueled by violence and fear that left a wake of sorrow and destruction in its path,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said, summing up prosecutors’ view of the case. Prosecutors say Jose Douglass Castellano, known as “Chino,” received 425 months in prison, roughly 35 years, while Junior Zelaya-Canales, “Terco,” and Walter Fernando Alfaro Pineda, “Clever,” were each hit with 480-month terms, or 40 years, in related proceedings. All told, the three are looking at more than 1,300 months behind bars, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York.
Sentences and victims
Prosecutors said the leaders directed and carried out multiple violent acts to boost the gang’s reputation and grow its membership. Among the most serious crimes tied to the leadership are the September 12, 2016 killing of 15-year-old Joshua Guzman in Hempstead, the October 25, 2017 murder of Jonathan Figueroa in Saugerties, and the February 2, 2018 killing of Oscar Antonio Blanco-Hernandez in Queens, as detailed in filings and reporting by Hoodline. Victims’ relatives and community groups have said the decades-long terms bring a measure of hard-earned closure, even if they do not erase the loss.
How the probe unfolded
Federal officials credited a long, coordinated investigation that pulled together the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and multiple state and local partners, tracing orders from high-ranking leadership down to street-level actors. The FBI’s public materials describe 18th Street as a transnational criminal street gang that traffics in drugs and weapons and uses lethal violence to control territory and settle scores, according to the FBI.
The prosecution was handled by the Eastern District of New York’s International Narcotics and Money Laundering Section and is catalogued as E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 18-CR-139 (S-7). U.S. Attorney’s Office officials also pushed the sentencing news out on social channels, with the initial thread posted from the US Attorney EDNY account on X.
What this means locally
Local prosecutors and police are calling the result a major blow to a gang they say has terrorized neighborhoods and exported violence across state lines. Community advocates, while welcoming the lengthy sentences as a clear warning shot to would-be recruits, have also stressed that prosecutions alone are not enough, and that prevention programs, victim services and steady neighborhood investment need to continue alongside law enforcement crackdowns.
Anyone looking for the government’s full summary of the charges, defendants and sentences can turn to the EDNY press release and the case docket referenced above, which include filings and contact information for follow-up.
