A suspected MS-13 gang member was extradited to New York and finally arraigned on Wednesday in the vicious assault and kidnapping of a 15-year-old boy on Long Island last year.
Cops had been looking for Josue Zepeda Padilla for more than a year before U.S. Marshals arrested the 28-year-old in North Carolina on March 5.
Zepeda Padilla was wanted in the January 2024 beating and kidnapping of a 15-year-old in Huntington. The boy was lured into the Huntington Long Island Rail Road station, where he was robbed and assaulted, investigators said.
Afterward, the boy was taken to an abandoned building, where his head was covered with a hood. Zepeda Padilla then stabbed the boy in the neck and left him for dead, according to police.
The boy miraculously survived the attack. He regained consciousness in the deserted building and made it to a nearby road before collapsing. A passerby spotted him and called 911.
In February 2024, cops announced six arrests in the case.
Brayan Jimenez Avila, Yeison Chavez Campos, Maycoll Ramirez Cerrato and Marcos Serpos were accused of beating the teenager, while Maybelline Garcia Cornejo was charged with driving from the station to the abandoned building. An unnamed minor was accused of luring the victim into the Huntington station.
While the six other suspects were nabbed quickly, Zepeda Padilla evaded capture until authorities tracked him down last month in Winston-Salem, N.C.
