Trinitarios Drug Supplier Pleads Guilty: Organized Attempted Murder at Mexican Cartel's Direction, Sentencing Set for January
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts announced on October 14 that Janoy Batista, 47, also known as "El Viejo," an associate of the Lynn Chapter of the Trinitarios gang and a drug supplier to the gang, pleaded guilty on October 7 in federal court in Boston to conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity (RICO conspiracy) and drug conspiracy, including organizing an attempted murder that the gang undertook on behalf of a Mexican drug cartel. U.S. Senior District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton scheduled sentencing for January 7, 2027. Batista was arrested and charged in February 2025 alongside other leaders, members and associates of the Trinitarios.
According to the Justice Department, the Trinitarios is a violent criminal enterprise with thousands of members across the United States, adhering to a Magna Carta and employing an internal hierarchy to coordinate and execute violence while undertaking extensive efforts to maintain the secrecy of the organization and its members. At his plea hearing, Batista admitted that he was an associate of the gang and supplied it with drugs from Cartel Jalisco Nuevo Generacion (CJNG): CJNG shipped large quantities of cocaine and fentanyl to Batista in Lynn, Massachusetts, using car transport trucks, and he distributed the cocaine and fentanyl to Trinitarios members.
Batista further admitted that in November 2023, CJNG tasked him with killing a local drug contact whom the cartel believed had stolen a large quantity of drugs, indicating that he would be required to carry out the killing in order to continue receiving shipments. That month, Batista organized the failed murder attempt using a Trinitarios member's vehicle: in Salem, two shooters opened fire on the contact as he sat in his driveway, striking him multiple times, after which Batista picked up the shooters and the driver and drove them to an apartment controlled by the gang. The victim survived.
The department said federal racketeering charges were unsealed in February 2025 against 22 leaders and members of the Trinitarios, following an investigation that began in the aftermath of four murders and a series of attempted murders and shootings in Lynn in 2023; on June 9, 2026, additional racketeering and drug charges were unsealed against 26 more leaders, members and associates of the gang's Lawrence, Haverhill and Boston chapters. According to court documents, the gang has allegedly participated in five additional murders in Essex County since 2017, bringing the total of federally charged murders to 11 and the total number of federally charged defendants to 56. The RICO conspiracy charge carries a sentence of up to life in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, with the actual sentence to be imposed by a federal judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and governing statutes. U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley and other officials made the announcement; Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip A. Mallard is prosecuting the case, which is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative.
(Based on the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts press release)
Source: 司法部麻州地区联邦检察官办公室
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 波士顿（Boston）的 John Joseph Moakley 联邦法院大楼，麻州联邦案件在此审理（资料图）。照片：4300streetcar 摄，CC BY 4.0，经维基共享资源。 / The John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, where Massachusetts federal cases are heard (file photo). Photo: 4300streetcar, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
