Police discovered a set of human remains on Friday in New York, in an area that has been recently hit by a deadly wave of killings by the MS-13 gang, according to Fox News reports.
Authorities fear, there is a possibility that the area, which is a park in Roosevelt, Long Island covering 27-acres, could be a massive burial ground for bodies of those killed by the violent gang.
Investigators admitted seeing several sites that resemble grave sites.
New York police said they were acting on a tip-off from Homeland Security about the possibility of the expansive area being used by the gang to hide the bodies of their victims.
Slow and tedious process
Detective Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick of the Nassau County Police Department Homicide Department told reporters that the process of finding bodies if there were more, would be slow and tedious owing to the difficult terrain, and the huge growth found at the site.
The difficulty of the terrain became evident when one detective broke his ankle, as he was searching the site.
Fitzpatrick assured the press that the police would go over the entire area, 'slowly but surely.'
The male Human Remains found by police on Friday, have yet to be identified, and it is still unclear how long they have been buried at the site. Fitzpatrick added the police were using search dogs to help in identifying locations that may have bodies buried under them, and the response from the canines had been positive so far.
MS-13 wave of violence
The gang draws most its members from El Salvadorian immigrants in the US and was formed in the 80's in California. It later spread out and now has members in Los Angeles, Wahington DC, New York, New Jersey, Houston, Boston, among other areas. MS-13 also has members in Toronto, Canada.
The gang is known to be extremely violent especially when it comes to retribution and is believed to be responsible for about 20 deaths, on Long Island since early last year.
On Tuesday, three teenagers affiliated with the gang pleaded guilty to their roles in the brutal murder of 15-year- old Damaris Reyes, which was a revenge killing.
In a plea bargain, the three will then act as State witnesses against three members of the gang who did the actual killing.
According to police statistics from Suffolk County, there are an estimated 400 members of M-13 operating there, 320 of them have since been arrested with the help of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE).