A member of the notorious MS-13 gang on Aug. 31 pleaded guilty for his part in four murders, including the slayings of two teenage girls who were attacked with baseball bats and machetes while walking home in Brentwood, New York.
Enrique Portillo, 26, admitted to racketeering and firearms charges in connection with four murders in 2016 and 2017, including the killings of teenagers Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens in Brentwood in 2016.
The other two murders in which Mr. Portillo admitted involvement were those of Dewann Stacks in Brentwood in October 2016 and Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla in Central Islip in January 2017.
He also pleaded guilty to participating in four attempted murders, including the discharge of a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun in connection with one of the attempted murders, as well as arson.
Mr. Portillo faces up to life in prison on the racketeering charge and a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence on the firearms charge, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
“As part of his desire to gain status within MS-13, Portillo repeatedly acted with complete disregard for human life, killing four individuals along with multiple other attempts,” FBI assistant director-in-charge James Smith said in a statement.
Gang violence had been a problem in some Long Island communities for more than a decade, but local police and the FBI began pouring resources into a crackdown after the community outrage sparked by the killings of the high school girls.
According to court filings, Mr. Portillo admitted to chasing and attacking both victims with baseball bats and a machete, striking each of them numerous times in their heads and bodies, resulting in their deaths.
It was stated that MS-13 members had targeted 16-year-old Cuevas after she and several friends got involved in an altercation with MS-13 members at Brentwood High School one week before the murders.
Ms. Mickens’s body was discovered later that night and Ms. Cuevas’s body was found the next day. They were covered with multiple lacerations and had sustained severe head and body blunt force trauma.
“I am confident that justice for the victims will be delivered when Portillo is sentenced for his savage crimes,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said.
“This Office will not rest until all MS-13 gang members are held to account for their utter lack of respect for human life and the rule of law,” he added.
Mr. Portillo was among several adults and juveniles charged in 2017 in the girls’ deaths and the first publicly revealed to have been convicted. Two adults are still awaiting trial. The cases involving the juveniles are sealed.
MS-13 got its start as a neighborhood street gang in Los Angeles but grew into a transnational gang based in El Salvador. It has members in Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico and thousands of members across the United States with numerous branches, or “cliques,” according to federal authorities.
