On a cold Sunday evening in January 2018, the city of Reading, Pennsylvania, was shaken by an act of violence that would become one of the deadliest in its recent history. Inside a first-floor apartment of a row home on South 3rd Street, police discovered a grim scene. Four young men had been shot multiple times. Three were pronounced dead at the scene, while the fourth succumbed to his injuries at a local hospital. One of the victims was Jarlyn Lantigua-Tejada, a 20-year-old Hispanic male. The other men killed alongside him were identified as 20-year-old Joshua Santos, 23-year-old Juan Rodriguez, and 23-year-old Nelson Onofre.
In the immediate aftermath, investigators assured the public that the killings were not a random act, but rather a targeted attack. Despite this, no suspects were immediately named, leaving a community in mourning and searching for answers.
The investigation that followed was complex and spanned several years, eventually uncovering a violent drug trafficking organization known as the 'Trinidad' enterprise that had been terrorizing the Reading area. The quadruple homicide was just one of several violent crimes, including another murder and a kidnapping, linked to this group's operations which involved the distribution of methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine.
A significant breakthrough came in October 2019, when federal and local authorities announced a sweeping indictment against ten members of the Trinidad organization. The charges laid against them included murder, kidnapping, drug distribution, and firearms offenses directly connected to the January 28th slayings. The accused individuals were Jesus Feliciano-Trinidad, identified as the leader, Yomar Velazquez-Figueroa, Fitzgerald Daliot-Rios, Mariela Alvarado, Dewayne Quinones, Owen Malave-Medina, Pedro Sanchez-Laporte, Lillian Garcia-Ortiz, Angel Rivera-Silva, and Mayco Alvarez-Jackson. One of the suspects, Pedro Sanchez-Laporte, who was the uncle of victim Joshua Santos, managed to evade capture and became a fugitive.
After more than three years on the run, Sanchez-Laporte was finally apprehended by the FBI in Florida in April 2021. The wheels of justice continued to turn, and in October 2022, a trial resulted in the conviction of DTO leader Jesus Feliciano-Trinidad, along with Dewayne Quinones and Mayco Alvarez-Jackson, on federal murder and weapons charges for their roles in the quadruple homicide. In December 2023, Feliciano-Trinidad was sentenced to life in prison. A year later, in December 2024, Dewayne Quinones and Mayco Alvarez-Jackson also received life sentences for their parts in the brutal killings, ensuring that those responsible for the death of Jarlyn Lantigua-Tejada and his friends would be held accountable. Pedro Sanchez-Laporte was sentenced to 198 months in prison.
