The Essex District Attorney’s Office released a statement regarding the arrests and indictments of six people, allegedly members of a criminal syndicate, in connection to convenience store break-ins and lottery thefts. Four of the six who were arrested are Lynn residents.
The office listed 12 break-ins between Feb. 27 and April 11 that resulted in the theft of scratch tickets. The break-ins occurred at convenience stores in Lynn; Saugus; Swampscott; Peabody; Marblehead; Wilmington; Wakefield; Seabrook, N.H.; Nashua, N.H.; Fremont, N.H.; and Windham, N.H.
David Garcia, 22, and Westyn Lantigua, 23, both of Lynn, were arrested on the charges of nighttime breaking and entering, larceny of more than $1,200, larceny from a building, wanton destruction of property valued at more than $1,200, receiving stolen property worth less than $1,200, being common and notorious thieves, money laundering, and being fugitives from justice. Lantigua was also charged with improper credit card use valued at less than $1,200.
Darwin Batista, 20, of Lynn, was also charged with money laundering and being a fugitive from justice, while Angel Santos, 24, of Lynn, was charged with improper credit card use valued at less than $1,200 and being a fugitive from justice.
Israel Garcia, 22, of Methuen, and Aaron Diaz Liranzo, 25, of Revere, were charged with money laundering and being fugitives from justice.
The statement said there were 121 indictments charging “known members and associates of the Trinitarios with various charges.”
According to the National Gang Center, the Trinitarios originated in the late 1990s as a protection measure for Dominican inmates in New York state prisons. After inmates left the prisons, the group became a street gang.
“Its members are particularly involved in drug trafficking, robberies, auto theft, and murder,” the National Gang Center’s James Howell and John Moore wrote in the research article “History of Street Gangs in the United States.”
The statement said the investigation, called Operation Smash and Cash, is the result of a three-month-long multi-agency effort examining “at least 12 breaks into convenience stores spanning Essex and Middlesex counties and across four New Hampshire communities and the subsequent theft of approximately $50,000 dollars of lottery tickets during the months of February, March, and April.”
“These indictments and arrests are a reflection of the tremendous partnerships between state and local agencies and represent how law enforcement and prosecutors from my office work tirelessly and side-by-side to solve and prosecute crimes perpetrated by criminal networks,” District Attorney Paul Tucker said.
The defendants were arraigned and held without bail in District Court on the fugitive from justice charges until May 30. They were later arraigned on the other charges in Superior Court and held without bail until May 8 and May 10, when bail arguments will be heard.
Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the Essex District Attorney’s Office, detectives from the Lynn, Marblehead, Peabody, Saugus, Swampscott, Wakefield, Wilmington, and Tewksbury police departments, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, and detectives from the Seabrook, Windham, Merrimack, Fremont, Nashua, Derry, and Exeter, N.H. police departments investigated the case, according to the statement.
