Nassau County officials say two MS-13 gang members have plead guilty in the August 2017 machete murder of a man in Uniondale.  

The body of Carlos Rivas-Majano was discovered in a wooded area along the Meadowbrook Parkway a year later.  

Officials say Luis Alejandro Varela, 24, of Mineola, and William Reyes-Fuentes, 27, of Uniondale, pleaded guilty on Friday to second-degree murder charges and conspiracy in the second degree.  

Varela is due back in court on August 9 where he is expected to be sentenced to up to 21 years to life in prison.  

Reyes-Fuentes is also due back in court on August 9, where he is expected to be sentenced to up to 20 years to life in prison. 

“For more than a year, Carlos Rivas-Majano’s family was left to speculate what had happened to him, until his body was recovered in a sump by the Meadowbrook Parkway,” said District Attorney Anne Donnelly. “The defendants – Luis Alejandro Varela and William Reyes-Fuentes – were part of an MS-13 crew that lured the victim into that wooded area, beat him and killed him. We will continue to work with every law enforcement partner to rid our communities of this dangerous gang.” 

DA Donnelly said that on Aug. 11, 2017, Rivas-Majano told a family member that he was on his way home from a deli in Uniondale and never returned home.  

Rivas-Majano, a perceived enemy of the gang, was lured into the woods near the Meadowbrook Parkway and Glen Curtiss Boulevard in Uniondale, where he was hacked and stabbed to death with machetes.