MS-13 gang member pleads guilty to the murder of 4 young people in NY in 2017

2024-04-04 04:50:03

CENTRAL ISLIP, New York, USA (AP) — A member of the MS-13 gang has admitted participating in the murder of four young men on Long Island in 2017.

Edwin Rodriguez, 24, pleaded guilty Wednesday to racketeering charges in connection with the deaths of Justin Llivicura, Michael Lopez, Jorge Tigre and Jefferson Villalobos in Central Islip on April 11, 2017.

Rodriguez, who was 17 years old at the time and who according to authorities was nicknamed “Manicomio,” fled the country after the homicides but was arrested in El Salvador in 2019 and extradited to the United States in 2022.

After the hearing in federal court in Central Islip, Rodriguez’s attorney, Glenn Obedin, said in an email statement that his client was “relieved” to reach a plea deal and is “ready now to move on to the trial.” next phase of the process and to the next phase of your life.” Rodriguez could be sentenced to up to life in prison for his crimes.

Prosecutors said Rodriguez was a member of the MS-13 clique Normandie Locos Salvatruchas, which killed rival gang members who were believed to have disrespected MS-13 in their social media posts.

Rodriguez and other gang members lured the five youths to a wooded park in Central Islip under the pretext that they were going to smoke marijuana, prosecutors said. Instead, nearly a dozen MS-13 members and associates armed with machetes, knives, an ax and clubs attacked them under the cover of night.

Prosecutors said one of the victims managed to escape, but the other four were slashed, stabbed and bludgeoned to death and their bodies were discovered the next night.

More than a dozen MS-13 members and associates have been charged in connection with the killings, part of a series of gang-related deaths that shocked residents and highlighted the worsening problem of gang violence in the eastern suburbs of New York City.

MS-13 began as a gang in a Los Angeles neighborhood, but grew into an international criminal gang based in El Salvador. It has members in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, and thousands of members in various parts of the United States, with numerous branches, or “cliques,” according to federal authorities.

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