On Oct. 25, 2017, the brutal gang-related murder of Jonathon Figueroa took place at Turkey Point State Forest in Saugerties. Implicated was transnational 18th Street Gang, which spans from Central America and Mexico to the United States and beyond. Recently, VICE TV’s new show “United Gangs of America,” featured this murder on their episode titled “18th Street” with shots of the “sleepy town of Kingston” and an explanation of the murder from Kingston Wire’s senior correspondent Jesse J. Smith.

Smith explains all the visceral aspects of the murder in the episode, with his background knowledge of the crime originating from the lengthy coverage he conducted on it in early 2018 for Kingston Times (now Hudson Valley One) in three articles titled “Indictment sheds light on local gang murder” (March 26, 2018), “Gang slaying in state park was recorded on video; four arrested” (March 28, 2018), and “How the 18th Street murder case was cracked” (April 10, 2018). These articles, Smith says, are the reason he was contacted by VICE’s production team to participate in the episode.

The 18th Street Gang, whose name comes from the 18th Street area of the Pico Union neighborhood of Los Angeles where they are based, spans across the country in cells known as “canchas.” Its members come mainly Mexico and the Central American countries. Smith said “the roots of 18th Street is a Mexican-American gang that dates back to the 1940s. In the ’80s the civil war in Central America happened and people start coming to America and kids get caught up in the [gang] lifestyle, and then after going into prison they get deported. [The gang first emerged on] the West Coast, then Central America, and now Queens and Long Island.”

The gang, according to Thomas Ward, also interviewed for the episode, is “the largest Latino or Latinx street gang in Los Angeles,” and the narrator of the episode states “18th Street claims up to 100,000 members around the globe, pulling in millions of dollars a year.” Known for their violent tendencies and recruiting teenaged “soldiers” to conduct business for them, the gang is linked to countless murders, extortions, thefts, kidnappings, drug-dealing and more.

Back to Kingston: In early 2018, Smith got a tip about the murder of Figueroa. “A guy came into the office and left a printout from Google Maps with a red X marking the spot and told me there had been something very hush-hush going on. The day before I was getting tips that there was a very unusual murder and three guys were arraigned for murder. It was very heavy security.”

Smith went on to explain the background. Yanki Misael Cruz-Matteo, 19, brought Figueroa upstate on a Trailways bus from Queens, where they lived, to Turkey Point State Forest, where other 18th Street Gang members were waiting. “At least one [of the gang members present] graduated from Kingston High School,” Smith said. Figueroa was suspected of being an informant or “snitch” and the members, led by Cruz-Matteo, proceeded to kill Figueroa and record a video of the whole event, which he then sent to his fellow gang members to prove his loyalty.

“One gang member turned informant and the FBI got the video that way,” Smith said. “They know Cruz-Matteo sent the video. They had a warrant for his phone and looked at his movement and brought the focus in to Turkey Point and then they found the body.”

At the same time the investigation was underway, Cruz-Matteo became involved in another murder, on Feb. 2, 2018, where he shot and killed a man in Queens who he believes is a member of the rival MS-13 gang. Afterwards, he hid out in Kingston while a joint FBI-Kingston Police Department-Ulster County District Attorney’s Office task force combed the area for suspects in Figueroa’s slaying. Cruz-Matteo was eventually pulled over and arrested by Kingston cops on Feb. 21, 2018. In March 2024, Cruz-Matteo pleaded guilty to the murder of Figueroa.

Smith said the experience working with VICE was “fun and different,” adding that he “worked in TV before but I always dealt in news like daily news not a production like this. It was interesting to see what they did.” For part of the episode, they brought Smith to Turkey Point and did a walkaround of the area where the murder was committed. “They had a drone at Turkey Point and would direct me. ‘Walk through this area like you’re looking for something.’”

The episode was recorded in 2022, and soon afterwards news broke that VICE went bankrupt. “I didn’t know if this would ever air. I assumed it would never see the light of day,” Smith said. He only knew that the show finally came to fruition when his sister saw a preview for it online and sent it to him. “I didn’t even think it would come out but I’m happy it did. It was a really compelling story, one of the larger cases I worked on. It involved a lot of research and I worked with contacts I’ve built up over 20 years,” Smith said.

Smith also said that since the murder in 2017 he hasn’t heard anything else locally about the 18th Street Gang operating in the area. “Cops said they are low key, don’t do unnecessary violence. The belief is that they’re still operating but not related to any major crimes,” adding that the crime was an “anomalous circumstance” and not evidence of a trend.

To learn more about the 18th Street Gang through the United Gangs of America episode, check it out on VICE TV here. It is also available to watch on other streaming services like Apple TV, Hulu, Sling and more.