Gonzalez, Marte Set for Superior Court Hearings on Haverhill Gun Charges

File photograph. (Image licensed by Ingram Image.)

Nestor Gonzalez and Juan Marte appear in Essex County Superior Court later this month. (File photograph)

Two known gang members whose local criminal history dates back to the 2016 Swasey Field shooting are set for Superior Court appearances later this month after grand juries indicted them on new firearms charges.

Nestor Gonzalez and Juan Marte were arrested and charged with unlawful firearm possession in November 2017 when stopped by State Police in Haverhill’s Railroad Square.

As WHAV exclusively reported last month, two others arrested on identical charges have already been freed. Cases against 20-year-old Lizmarie Lozada, and 22-year-old Carlos Rodriguez were dismissed. Lozada, of Lawrence, was riding in the front passenger seat, while Rodriguez was one of three in the back seat of the car driven by Gonzalez.

Marte was free at the time of his most recent arrest because all defendants in the Swasey Field shooting had their cases dismissed due to “lack of cooperation among the witnesses,” DA spokeswoman Carrie Kimball Monahan told WHAV.

Marte is said to be a known gang associate of Eddy Almonte, the Haverhill man accused of murdering 20-year-old Nike Colon in May. In the wake of Colon’s drive-by shooting death, tensions between the two rival groups increased, leading to what police called an all-out “gang war.”

Colon’s alleged killer Almonte is due back in Haverhill District Court Friday for a probable cause hearing.