LYNN — Luis Enrique Santana, 32, has pled guilty to racketeering charges, including participating in two murders and two other attempted murders dating back to 2019.
Santana is a member of the Lynn Chapter of the Trinitarios, a violent criminal gang with thousands of members across the country. During the court proceeding, Santana, who was arrested and charged in February 2025, admitted that he was a member of the gang and participated both in the shooting in March 2019, in which the Trinitarios tried to kill three rival gang members, as well as his participation as an accessory after the fact to two murders that occurred in September 2023.
He has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity. The charge of RICO conspiracy is up to a life sentence in prison, five years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.
The Trinitarios gang has been, as U.S. attorney Leah Foley once put it, “reigning terror” across Massachusetts for over a decade. Originally founded in New York in the ’90s, they made their way to New England towns and cities including Lynn, Lawrence, Boston, Worcester, and Haverhill and have been connected to numerous murders, shootings, assaults and drug trafficking.
During the incident in September 2023, the members of the Trinitarios had driven by a college graduation party in Lynn and fired numerous rounds at the civilians who were gathered outside, which resulted in seven people getting shot. Two of them died from the gunshot wounds later on.
Afterward, Santana assisted in moving the vehicle that was used from Lynn to Lawrence, with the intent to conceal it from law enforcement and destroy evidence that it contained.
Last February, 22 alleged gang members and leaders were faced with federal racketeering charges. Santana is now the ninth defendant to have pled guilty.
U.S. Senior District Court Nathaniel M. Gorton has scheduled his sentencing for Aug. 19, 2026.
