Opinion ID: 742598
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Murders of Gus Rivera and Four Unidentified Suppliers

Text: 18 Gus Rivera was a Supreme Team member who had introduced the gang's leaders to some of its Colombian suppliers. According to the trial testimony, four of these Colombian drug traffickers were robbed of their cocaine and brutally murdered in July 1989 by Miller, Arroyo, Hale, Hunt, and Jimenez. However, other than the testimony that two of these men were known as Fernando and George, the government was unable to present evidence as to their identities, and their bodies were never identified. The jury found that these murders, alleged as RICO predicate acts, were not proven beyond a reasonable doubt. 19 In the wake of these murders, the gang decided that Rivera was more of a liability than an asset. Accordingly, in August 1989, Arroyo arranged for him to be killed. Rivera was shot in the head in a Baisley Park courtyard, but he survived and hid from the gang, temporarily. Arroyo learned Rivera's whereabouts from Rivera's girlfriend by threatening to kill her. Arroyo and Hale proceeded to track Rivera to a Queens motel room, where they shot him to death.