Authorities searched an area in the Massapequa Park Preserve for hours Friday after receiving information about a possible victim of MS-13 being buried there.

Sources told News 12 that they are acting on a credible tip in their effort to unearth a body.

State police, Nassau police and officers from Homeland Security Investigations were on the scene just south of the Sunrise Highway and north of the Massapequa Lake.

It’s the same area where authorities found the body of Julio Espantzay-Gonzalez in March 2017.

Prosecutors say he was lured there in January 2017 by MS-13 gang members with the promise of sex and drugs. They say he was then hacked to death with machetes because MS-13 thought he was a member of a rival gang.

Five alleged members of MS-13 have been arrested so far for the Espantzay-Gonzalez killing.

Later in the afternoon, Nassau police brought in a vehicle used to excavate and dig in wooded areas.  

News 12 was told that investigators will likely be back in the same area on Saturday.