The arrest of a Trinitarios gang member in Massachusetts earlier this week highlighted the fact that, despite a sweeping crackdown by federal prosecutors earlier this year, the organization is still a force in New England.
Luis Jose Nivar Cabral is charged with a single count of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, filed in federal court in Maine. An affidavit filed in support of the charge identified Cabral as a member of the gang.
The Trinitarios gang, according to prosecutors, shuttles drugs between Massachusetts and Maine, where they operate a “lucrative drug trade.” Drugs brought to Maine are typically mixed with cutting agents at so-called trap houses, then distributed out to drug dealers on a consignment basis.
“The Trinitarios focus their sales of controlled substances in Maine due to the higher prices that can be obtained. Higher prices exist in Maine for controlled substances due to a steady demand, coupled with the lack of a consistent supply and inconsistent quality,” prosecutors wrote in an affidavit supporting the arrest of more than a dozen gang members in February.
Prosecutors say Cabral made regular trips to Maine from Massachusetts beginning in August 2025, months after prosecutors claimed they dealt a “significant blow” to the gang’s operations.
In Maine, prosecutors say Cabral broke into at least three homes and led police on a high-speed chase, during which several people fired at pursuing officers.
The gang known as the Trinitarios started at Rikers Island in New York in the 1990s, by people who were facing murder charges.
The gang is tied to a pair of 2017 killings in Lawrence and two double shootings in Lynn in late 2023. But in the last 18 months, they have been responsible for what prosecutors described as “a dramatic increase in gang violence … as a direct result of the Trinitario incursion into the state.”
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