- Carlos Portillo, a member of the notorious MS-13 gang, was found guilty of using a machete to kill Julio Cesar Gonzales Espantzay in Long Island in 2017.
- The victim was lured to his death by a woman working with the MS-13, who promised him drugs and sex.
- Long Island and Queens are some of the areas with the largest MS-13 presence in the U.S., where dozens of murders and disappearances are attributed to the group.
Carlos Portillo, a Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang member, was found guilty in connection with the machete murder of a teenager in Massapequa Preserve, Long Island (NY).
According to the Nassau County District Attorney, Portillo was one of several men who macheted to death Julio Cesar Gonzales Espantzay, whose body was found in March 2017, two months after he was reported missing.
The victim was lured to his death after a woman working with MS-13 promised him drugs and sex, according to police. Other men and a woman are already serving time for Gonzales Espantzay’s death. Portillo will be sentenced on March 7, News 12 reported.
Long Island and Queens are two of the areas with the largest Mara Salvatrucha presence in the U.S., where dozens of murders and disappearances are attributed to the group. The Central American-based group recruits young men and women, mostly of Latino origin.
This week Carlos Guerra pleaded guilty to killing two men in New York to move up the ranks in the MS-13 gang. In August, Jose Jonathan Guevara Castro was extradited from El Salvador to New York as a suspect in the brutal murder of a rival group member on Long Island, federal prosecutors announced.
In July, a federal judge sentenced Eduardo Portillo, another MS-13 gang member extradited from El Salvador to New York, was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to helping kill a 15-year-old rival with a machete after luring him to a secluded Long Island park.
In May, Erasmo Humberto Lima Martinez, alias “Tun Tun,” also a member of the dangerous Mara Salvatrucha gang, committed suicide in a federal prison in Brooklyn (NYC).
Earlier in April, young Leniz Escobar, who called herself “La Diablita,” was convicted in connection with brutal Mara Salvatrucha gang murders in New York.