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Edwin Rodriguez, also known as “Manicomio” (Mental Hospital), pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday, April 3.
Prosecutors said the 24-year-old, formerly of Central Islip, was a member of the Normandie Locos Salvatruchas clique of MS-13.
He confessed that on the evening of April 11, 2017, he and other gang members lured Justin Llivicura, Michael Lopez, Jorge Tigre, and Jefferson Villalobos to a wooded park in Central Islip under the guise of smoking marijuana.
Once the group arrived, Rodriguez and nearly a dozen other MS-13 members surrounded the young men and attacked them with machetes, knives, wooden clubs, and an axe.
The victims, all targeted for being perceived rival gang members who had “disrespected” the MS-13 on social media, were hacked, stabbed, and bludgeoned to death. Their bodies were discovered the following evening.
Rodriguez, who was three months shy of his 18th birthday at the time of the killings, was considered a fugitive from justice until August 2019, when he was arrested in El Salvador.
The United States formally requested his extradition in September 2019 and the Supreme Court of Justice of El Salvador authorized the move in July 2022.
He faces up to life in prison when sentenced.
MS-13 is considered to be the most violent criminal organization on Long Island, according to federal prosecutors.
Since 2003, hundreds of its members and clique leaders have been convicted in the Eastern District of New York, a majority of them on racketeering charges for murders, attempted murders, and assaults.
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