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Nearly a dozen members of the gruesome Trinitarios street gang were indicted Monday for five murders — including the killing of a Big Apple influencer who starred in a Tekashi 6ix9ine music video, the feds announced.
Eleven gang members from Bad Boys 7, a faction of the Trinitarios street and prison gang also known as BB7, were hit with numerous charges connected to a spate of violent crimes in the Bronx, New Jersey, and the Hudson Valley.
Federal prosecutors unsealed a 15-count indictment charging the suspects with murder, assault, robbery, carjacking, narcotics trafficking and wire fraud between September 2023 and September 2025 — including the gunpoint robbery of an international record artist.
“As alleged, the BB7 Trinitarios, operating from their historical headquarters in the Bronx, terrorized communities in New York City, Westchester, and northern New Jersey, night after night,” US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement.
The gang bust charges six alleged BB7 members — Justin Martha, Michael Mercedes Marte, Jose Peralta Gomez, Manuel Abad Rivas, Wilfren Carbuccia and Jeilin Portes Guaba — with the August 2025 slaying of 32-year-old social media star Ariela La Langosta.
She was shot multiple times and found dead in her car on the Cross County Parkway in Mount Vernon.
La Langosta, whose real name was Ariela Mejia-Polanco, had once starred in rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine’s “Wapae” music video and boasted more over half a million followers on Instagram, where she regularly shared fashion and modeling content.
She was gunned down after the sextet tried to carjack her black Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG SUV, federal prosecutors said.
Darwin Martinez, an alleged member of the gang known as “Mole,” was separately charged with the July 2025 murders of Gabriel Alvarez and Adam Waldropt at a Bronx car meet.
The other killings occurred in the Bronx and in Newark and Paterson, the feds said.
Some of the Trinitarios members were also charged with the June 2025 gunpoint robbery of prominent Dominican musician Bulin 47.
The gangbangers allegeldy used a GPS tracker to follow the rapper from Massachussets to a hotel parking lot in Fort Lee, NJ and robbed him of high-value jewelry.
A twelfth defendant, Jarol Ledesma, was charged with Hobbs Act robbery and interstate stalking in connection with the gunpoint robbery.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement that the takedown was a result of the NYPD’s “precision policing strategy and the police department’s “relentless work targeting dangerous gangs and guns.”
Officials said they hope this latest gang bust sends a loud warning to others in the Big Apple.
“Today’s outcome sends a clear message: this type of violence will never be tolerated in New York,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. said. “The FBI New York Safe Streets Task Force remains steadfast in our mission to dismantle violent gangs, protect the American public, and deliver justice for the victims.”
The alleged Trinitarios gang members face life in prison if convicted on racketeering conspiracy.
All defendants were awaiting arraignment Monday.
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