Federal authorities working with Westchester, Bronx and New Jersey prosecutors and police say they have solved the fatal Cross County Parkway shooting of social media influencer Ariela La Langosta and four other murders in the New York metropolitan area with a sweeping indictment of 11 members of a Trinitarios street gang.
The indictment, announced Monday, July 20, for the first time publicly revealed that La Langosta, whose real name is Ariela Mejia-Polanco, was the victim of a botched carjacking.
Six of the men charged are implicated in her killing and could face the death penalty, according to the indictment.
All 11 alleged gang members and a 12th defendant pleaded not guilty and were ordered held without bail at a pair of arraignments Monday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Victoria Reznik in White Plains federal court.
What officials say happened Aug. 17, 2025
Mejia-Polanco, 33, was heading home from an upper Manhattan nightclub where she worked early on Aug. 17, 2025, when she was killed in her Mercedes Benz in a hail of bullets as she approached the Broad Street exit in Mount Vernon. She was in view of the new luxury apartment building 42 Broad where she rented an apartment. She also owned a home in Stony Point in Rockland County.
The suspects in the case were members of the Bad Boys 7 branch of the Trinitarios. They had targeted the luxury SUV and at some point placed a GPS monitor on it so it could be tracked, authorities said. As she tried to pull away when two cars boxed her in on the exit ramp, the shots were fired and the suspects fled, leaving her to die in the front seat.
Both of the cars had been stolen, but the Westchester police Real Time Crime Center was able to identify the cars and track them through license plate readers. One of the cars was eventually found in New Jersey near where some of the defendants lived.
U.S. Attorney describes collaborative investigation effort
At a press conference Monday at the Westchester Police Academy, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said the collaboration among local and federal law enforcement agencies kicked into full gear about a month after Mejia-Polanco’s killing when multiple agencies met in Westchester.
James Barnacle, assistant director in charge of the FBI New York field office, called Mejia-Polanco’s killing “horrific in its brutality” and said that in addition to the five murders, the investigation linked the gang to four non-fatal shootings and a dozen robberies. The gang members, ranging in age from 20 to 30, had 40 prior arrests among them, Barnacle said.
Who has been charged in connection to influencer’s murder?
The indictment details an alleged racketeering conspiracy between September 2023 and September 2025 involving murders, robberies, assaults, carjackings, drug trafficking and wire fraud tied to the 11 members of Bad Boys 7, which was primarily active in New Jersey and the Bronx.
Those indicted on the top charges, racketeering conspiracy and murder in aid of racketeering are Cheldrid Sosa, Erick Placencia, Justin Martha, Michael Mercedes Marte, Jose Peralta Gomez, Manuel Abad Rivas, Wilfred Carbuccia, Jeilin Portes Guaba, Javier Pena, Angel Baez Manon and Darwin Martinez. Martha, Marte, Gomez, Rivas, Carbuccia and Guaba are implicated in Mejia-Polanco’s killing.
The 12the defendant, Jarol Ledesma, was also indicted with four of the gang members on stalking and robbery charges related to a June 2025 theft of nearly $400,000 worth of jewelry in the parking lot of a Hyatt Place hotel in Fort Lee, NJ. He and four of the others had already been arrested on state charges in the case brought by the Bergen County Prosecutors’ Office in September. They were accused of placing a GPS monitor on the car driven by the victims from Massachusetts and tracking them through the Bronx and Manhattan before confronting the victims at the hotel.
Ledesma’s lawyer John Wallenstein said he would move to sever his client’s case from the others as it would be highly prejudicial to be tried among alleged murderers.
The other killings were of Frankelis Tavarez on March 30, 2024, in the Bronx; Gabriel Alvarez and Adam Waldropt on July 28, 2025, in the Bronx; and Alvis Perez Liriano on Aug. 2, 2025, at a barbershop in Newark, NJ.
Manon had already been facing state charges in Tavarez’ killing and Sosa was also implicated in that killing in the federal indictment. Martinez was indicted in the Bronx in the double homicide, accused of riding up on a moped to steal a necklace and when the victim resisted he shot Alvarez and Waldropt.
The federal indictment charges Sosa, Placencia, Marte, Gomez, Rivas, Carbuccia and Pena in Liriano’s murder.
All the defendants except for Placencia had been in custody prior to their indictment. He was arrested Sunday in Manchester, NJ.
Indictment puts revenge killing speculation to rest
Mejia-Polanco as La Langosta had more than 560,000 followers on Instagram and was a close friend of the controversial rapper and former gang member Tekashi 6ix9ine and appeared in his video for the song “Wapae” in 2023.
The indictment put to rest speculation that her killing was in revenge for Hernandez’ testimony against fellow Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods members after he was indicted with them years ago on federal racketeering charges.
Mejia-Polanco had two children, a son and a daughter, both teenagers. She worked at a pair of nightclubs in Inwood, Opus Lounge and Ikon New York.
Among the online tributes to her was one from the rapper Cardi B, who posted a photo of her with “Rip Dominican pretty.” Tekashi posted videos of him and Ariela together, calling her the “Queen of New York” and writing “NY will never be the same.”
The murder in aid of racketeering charges include special factors that make all the defendants except for Ledesma eligible for the death penalty.
Westchester District Attorney Susan Cacace said the search warrants executed after the highway killing turned up weapons, ammunition, GPS trackers, telecommunication devices and fake licenses and eventually the cars used that morning by the suspects. The investigation uncovered a “sprawling criminal network of violent gang members” some of whom caused the death of Mejia-Polanco simply because her luxury car caught their attention.
“She was an innocent young woman unknown to any of these gang members who had the misfortune of crossing their paths by pure happenstance,” Cacace said.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Feds announce charges in Westchester killing of Ariela La Langosta
Reporting by Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News | USA TODAY Network
