#26 Trinitarios gang members indicted for violent stabbings at Rikers Island

More than two-dozen accused Trinitarios gang members were indicted Thursday for a host of stabbings on Rikers Island.

The 24 defendants include two alleged leaders who ran the group behind bars — and another who was busted earlier this month for allegedly streaming a nearly two-hour-long Facebook Live video from inside Rikers.

Each of the defendants is accused of using coded language, phone calls and letters to plot and carry out a dozen stabbings and two more violent attacks between September 2015 and July 2019 at the infamous jail complex.

They allegedly used makeshift shivs to slice up their victims’ faces, with some suffering deep lacerations, according to the joint investigation dubbed “Operation Green Fury” after the gang’s color.

The massive, 69-count indictment announced by Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark alleges that half of the slashings targeted rival gang members, while the other half were carried out on fellow Trinitarios who violated the rules of the group behind bars.

“During their time in Rikers Island, these defendants allegedly conspired and engaged in numerous slashings and stabbings that caused grievous wounds,” Clark said in a statement. “They allegedly carried out these attacks in order to preserve and protect the power of the Trinitario gang, meting out punishment to their own members as well as rivals”

One of the indicted, Francisco “Buenon” Nunez, 22, has been accused of slashing two rival gang members in the face on Oct. 8, 2018.

More recently, Nunez was caught sharpening his social media skills from Rikers, streaming a Facebook Live video for one hour and 41 minutes on Sunday, June 14, during which he complained about conditions behind bars and joked around with friends, law enforcement sources said.

In another stabbing committed on September 15, 2017, three of the defendants — Jovier de la Cruz, 26, Pedro “Cuzzo” Valera, 28, and Rafael “Haivita” Perez, 26, — entered the cell of Joseph Feliciano, a fellow Trinitario, and slashed him in his face over his bad standing in the gang, according to prosecutors.

Seven months later, Valera was involved in a second stabbing, when he knifed another alleged Trinitario, Steven Ayala, in his face and back during an attack on April 10, 2018.

That slashing was believed to have been ordered by Jesus “Jeezy” Zapata, 30, and Hector Hernandez, 25, two defendants who allegedly ran the gang’s operation in Rikers between 2017 and 2019.

Of the defendants, ages 19 to 32, six are still in Rikers, while 10 are in prisons upstate and the remaining 10 had been freed.

Twelve of the defendants were arraigned this week in Bronx Supreme Court, including the six Rikers inmates and six others who had since been discharged. The 10 inmates upstate have yet to be arraigned and the remaining four are still on the run, according to the Bonx DA’s office.