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Sunset Trinitarios Gang Leader Ediberto Santana has pled guilty to federal racketeering charges.

NEW YORK - The leader of the notorious Sunset Trinitarios Gang has pled guilty to federal charges of racketeering in connection with the acts of murder and terrror his gang perpetrated throughout the Bronx and Manhattan, prosecutors said.

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that EDIBERTO SANTANA, a/k/a “Flaco Veneno,” pled guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy involving murder, arising out of SANTANA’s long-time leadership of the Sunset Trinitarios gang.  SANTANA pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty.

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“Today’s guilty plea should serve as a reminder that we are committed to seeking justice for victims no matter the passage of time and to holding gang leaders responsible for the violence that they instigate,” Williams said.

According to the Indictment, SANTANA’s plea agreement, and statements made in Court:

SANTANA is the long-time leader of the Sunset Trinitarios (“Sunset”), a violent set of the national Trinitarios street gang that controlled territory in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn, among other places.  

Under SANTANA’s leadership and at SANTANA’s direction, Sunset perpetrated a near-constant string of violent crime for nearly a decade, including murders, shootings, assaults, and robberies.  

Among other acts of violence, SANTANA ordered the March 13, 2011, murder of Dennis Marquez, age 16, who was stabbed to death in the Bronx; the October 23, 2013, murder of Michael Beltre, age 17, who was shot and killed in the Bronx; and the November 17, 2013, murder of Rafael Alam, age 23, who was shot and killed in the Bronx. 

SANTANA, 33, of Brooklyn, New York, pled guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy with murder as a special sentencing factor, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. 

The statutory maximum sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing will be determined by a judge.  

SANTANA is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Crotty on February 8, 2023.