MS-13 leader in Trump’s crosshairs to be sentenced in racketeering case involving 8 Long Island murders

An MS-13 gang leader from the suburbs of New York City is expected to be sentenced Wednesday in a federal racketeering case involving eight murders, including the 2016 slayings of two Long Island teenage girls.  

Also known as “Blasty” and “Plaky,” Alexi Saenz pleaded guilty last July to his role in ordering and approving the killings as well as other crimes during a rash of bloody violence that prompted President Donald Trump to make several visits to Long Island promising to eradicate the criminal organization. 

Among the killings Saenz oversaw were the deaths of Kayla Cuevas, 16, and Nisa Mickens, 15, lifelong friends and classmates at Brentwood High School who were brutally slain with a machete and a baseball bat. Other victims included Javier Castillo, 15, of Central Islip, who was befriended by gang members only to be hacked with a machete in the head, neck, torso and extremities in an isolated marsh. His remains were buried and not found until a year later. 

Another victim, Oscar Acosta, 19, was found dead in a wooded area near railroad tracks nearly five months after he left his Brentwood home to play soccer.

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Cuevas and Mickens were honored during Trump’s 2018 State of the Union address, with the victims’ parents in attendance.

During his first term, Trump announced in 2020 that the Justice Department would be seeking the death penalty against Saenz. 

Under the Biden administration, however, Attorney General Merrick Garland informed federal prosecutors in November 2023 that the DOJ was pulling its intent to seek capital punishment against Saenz or his brother, Jairo Saenz. 

Saenz’s lawyers are seeking a sentence of 45 years behind bars, but federal prosecutors want the judge to impose the maximum sentence of 70 years and argue Saenz deserves to live out his days in prison for his “senseless” and “sadistic” crimes.

“The eight victims who lost their lives did nothing to deserve what the MS-13 did to them,” prosecutors wrote in legal filings ahead of Wednesday’s hearing. “The defendant and the others killed them in service of the gang without remorse or any regard for them as human beings.”

But Saenz’s lawyers have argued for leniency, saying in their own legal filings that the now-30-year-old is remorseful and “on a journey of redemption” while incarcerated.

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“With the passage of time and much reflection, it is hard for Mr. Saenz to reconcile the person he is today with the person he was when he committed the crimes,” their sentencing memo reads. “He is profoundly sorry, and although he knows the families may not accept his apology, it is sincere, and he accepts full responsibility for his participation in these crimes.”

Saenz’s lawyers also say he suffers from intellectual disabilities and lasting trauma from an abusive father and difficult upbringing in El Salvador. They say Saenz was recruited and unwittingly “groomed” into MS-13 because he was an “easily influenced” and “gullible” high school student on Long Island.

Prosecutors, however, counter that Saenz has remained “firmly entrenched” in MS-13 while in a federal lockup in Brooklyn for the past eight years. They cited photos of him posing with other gang members behind bars and displaying gang signs and gang paraphernalia. They also say Saenz has been disciplined for assaulting other inmates, refusing staff orders and possessing sharpened metal shanks, cellphones and other contraband.

“Indeed, the same pattern of violence and mayhem that has marked his life on the street has not waned with the passage of time,” prosecutors wrote.

The DOJ says Saenz was the leader of an MS-13 “clique” operating in Brentwood and Central Islip known as Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside.

He admitted in July 2024 that he’d authorized the eight killings and three other attempted killings of perceived rivals and others who had disrespected or feuded with the clique.

Saenz also admitted to arson, firearms offenses and drug trafficking – the proceeds of which went toward buying firearms, more drugs and providing contributions to the wider MS-13 gang.

Trump designated MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in February, shortly after beginning his second term.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.