Eleven members of the BB7 Trinitarios street gang were charged Monday with five murders, multiple assaults, and armed robberies stretching across Westchester County, the Bronx, and northern New Jersey — a sweeping federal indictment built on some of the most dramatic evidence prosecutors have laid out in years.
The chase that ended in a killing.
At the center of the 15-count indictment is the death of Ariela Mejia-Polanco, 33, a social media influencer shot dead on the Cross County Parkway in Mount Vernon last August. Prosecutors allege six defendants chased her in a black Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG SUV from upper Manhattan through the Bronx and into Westchester during a high-speed carjacking attempt — a pursuit that ended with her death.
Westchester County District Attorney Susan Cacace didn't mince words about what the case represents. "Either the highways of this county belong to the criminal gangs, or they belong to the public; through these charges, we are reaffirming that the rights of the law-abiding public will always come first," she said. U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton described the BB7 set as a group that "terrorized communities in New York City, Westchester, and northern New Jersey, night after night."
A body count that spans two states.
Beyond Mejia-Polanco's killing, the indictment alleges a run of violence stretching from September 2023 to September 2025: the murder of Frankelis Tavarez in the Bronx, a double homicide at a Bronx car meet that killed Gabriel Alvarez and Adam Waldropt, the murder of Alvis Perez Liriano in Newark, a retaliatory shooting targeting rival gang members near Paterson, and an armed robbery attempt in the Bronx that left two victims shot and seriously injured.
A stalking case with its own unsettling twist.
A 12th defendant, Jarol Ledesma, faces separate charges tied to the armed robbery of a musician identified by the New York Post as Dominican artist Bulin 47. Prosecutors allege the defendants planted a GPS tracker on the victim and followed him from Massachusetts through Westchester County all the way to a hotel parking lot in Fort Lee, New Jersey, before robbing him at gunpoint.
How investigators built the case.
Westchester County Public Safety Commissioner Terrance Raynor credited detectives from the department's General Investigations Unit, Forensic Investigations Unit, and Real Time Crime Center for cracking the Mejia-Polanco homicide, pointing to interagency collaboration and technology as the keys to solving it. Cacace called the overall investigation "one of the most extensive interagency partnerships in Westchester's recent history."
What's next.
Defendants convicted on the racketeering conspiracy charge face up to life in prison. All 12 had not yet been arraigned as of Monday's announcement, and no arraignment date has been publicly set. The charges remain allegations, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
