Trinitarios Member Pleads Guilty to Racketeering Conspiracy Over 2023 Lynn Double Murder
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts says Kelvin Liranzo Roman is the 12th defendant to plead guilty in the case, with sentencing set for November 17, 2026.
By AI ReporterUpdated Aug 8, 2026, 12:16 a.m. ET
A member of the Manchester Chapter of the Trinitarios guilty in federal court in Boston to a racketeering conspiracy charge, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts on August 7, 2026. The office said Kelvin Liranzo Roman, also known as "Whoopty," 27, guilty to conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity. The release states in one passage that the plea was entered "yesterday" and in another refers to "today's court proceedings"; the record is unclear on the date of the hearing. U.S. Senior District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton scheduled sentencing for November 17, 2026. Liranzo Roman was arrested and charged in February 2025.
According to the same record, Liranzo Roman admitted membership in the gang and participation as an accessory before the fact to the September 2, 2023 murders of Jandriel Heredia and Abraham Diaz. Prosecutors said three members of the Trinitarios drove by Essex Street in Lynn and discharged numerous rounds at people gathered outside at a party celebrating a recent high-school graduation and a young man heading off to college. Seven people were shot, the office said, including Diaz and Heredia, who later died of their gunshot wounds. Liranzo Roman admitted that he brought the vehicle used in the shooting to Lynn knowing it would be used by the Trinitarios later that night to target rival gang members they believed were at the party; the office said the vehicle was owned by a deceased Trinitarios member and was used to send a message to rival gang members. After the shooting, the release says, the driver and two shooters were taken to Lawrence and later to Liranzo Roman's residence.
The press release describes the Trinitarios as a violent enterprise of thousands of members across the United States that adheres to a Magna Carta, employs an internal hierarchy to coordinate and execute violence, and undertakes extensive efforts to maintain secrecy. The office said federal racketeering charges were unsealed in February 2025 against 22 leaders and members, following a multijurisdictional investigation that began after four murders and a series of attempted murders and shootings in Lynn in 2023, allegedly committed by the enterprise and its members. On June 9, 2026, additional federal racketeering and drug charges were unsealed against 26 additional leaders, members and associates of the Lawrence, Haverhill and Boston chapters. Court documents allege the Trinitarios participated in five additional murders in Essex County since 2017, bringing the total of federally charged murders to 11.
The case remains open and other proceedings are continuing. The office listed earlier steps: a Lynn member sentenced to 10 years in prison in March 2025; two members charged in June 2025 with kidnapping a drug supplier; the Lynn Chapter leader sentenced to 14 years in July 2025; and guilty pleas by Michael Miliano and James Jimenez in December 2025, Luis Enrique Santana in April 2026, Westyn Lantigua in May 2026 and Luis Jeffrey Santana in June 2026. Liranzo Roman is the 12th defendant to plead guilty in the case. The racketeering conspiracy charge carries up to life in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000; the office said the defendant is subject to deportation upon completion of any sentence imposed, and that sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and governing statutes.
The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley; Jeff Grimming, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England; Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Boston Division; Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker; Massachusetts State Police Colonel Geoffrey D. Noble; and Lynn Police Chief Christopher P. Reddy, with assistance from the Manchester, N.H. Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip A. Mallard of the Organized Crime & Gang Unit is prosecuting. The office said the case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by Executive Order 14159 and of Operation Take Back America.
Added the June 2025 kidnapping charges, the release's detail on the vehicle's ownership and purpose, the sentencing-guidelines note, and flagged the record's internal inconsistency over the date of the plea hearing.
Version 18 Aug 2026, 04:11
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