18th Street Gang Member Admits Murdering Two Men

SAUGERTIES, NY — A Queens gang member pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn to racketeering conspiracy charges in connection to his participation in two murders, including that of a Saugerties man.

Breon Peace, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said Wednesday that Yanki Misael Cruz-Mateo, 25, of Jamaica, was involved with the Oct. 25, 2017, murder of Jonathan Figueroa, 20, of Saugerties, and the Feb. 2, 2018, murder of Oscar Antonio Blanco Hernandez, 20, of Queens.

When sentenced, Cruz-Mateo, aka “Yankee Mateo,” “Doggy” and “Wino,” faces up to life in prison.

Peace said Cruz-Mateo’s admission in court holds him accountable for two savage killings committed for the purpose of instilling fear and promoting gang violence.

“While the defendant’s guilty plea cannot bring back the two lives senselessly taken or undo the cruelty of his actions,” he said, “it is my hope that it will bring a measure of closure to his victims’ families.”

Prosecutors said Cruz-Mateo was a member of the Queens-based Shatto Park Locos Sureños sect of 18th Street.

In the late evening of Oct. 24, 2017, Cruz-Mateo lured and traveled with Figueroa from Queens to Kingston, planning to murder him because 18th Street members suspected he was an informant for law enforcement.

When they got to Kingston, they were met by other 18th Street members who, in the early morning hours of Oct. 25, 2017, brought Figueroa to Turkey Point State Forest in Saugerties, stabbed him to death and buried him in a makeshift grave.

Cruz-Mateo ordered the murder to be video-recorded — capturing multiple 18th Street members repeatedly stabbing Figueroa, slashing his throat, amputating his ear and dragging his body.

In the video, Cruz-Mateo said that the man was being murdered for “being a rat.”

The video was then sent to other 18th Street members as a warning not to disrespect the gang or cooperate with law enforcement.

Figueroa’s body was found in February 2018 by the FBI and other law enforcement in a 5-foot grave. He had more than 100 stab wounds including at least on to the head that appeared to have fractured his skull and a slash to his throat that ruptured his trachea.

The other murder — of Blanco Hernandez in Queens — was because 18th Street gang members suspected him of being a rival gang member. He had been shot three times in the torso and head on Feb. 2, 2018.

Four of Cruz-Mateo’s co-defendants were previously convicted and four are awaiting trial.