International gang MS-13 tied to hacking deaths of Long Island teens

Nisa Mickens, 15
Nisa Mickens, 15 (Facebook)

Over a dozen members of the international gang MS-13 have been charged with seven deaths that occurred on Long Island. Ten of the 13 alleged gang members are undocumented immigrants. They are citizens of El Salvador or Honduras and are in the U.S. illegally.

All 13 face seven murder charges, racketeering, attempted murder, assault, obstruction of justice and arson in the 41-count indictment.


On September 12, 2016, best friends Nisa Mickens, 15, and Kayla Cuevas, 16, were reportedly ambushed by Selvin Chavez and Enrique Portillo, both 19, when they took a walk together. The girls were beaten to death with baseball bats and hacked with machetes. Cuevas allegedly feuded with the gang members on social media and Mickens, according to police, “was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Cuevas’ mother Evelyn Rodriguez says her daughter was “bullied and targeted in school.”

They both attended Brentwood High School in Suffolk County, New York City. Mickens would have celebrated her 16th birthday on September 13.


Also in September 2016, police discovered the skeletal remains of Oscar Acosta, 19, Miguel Garcia-Moran, 15, in a remote industrial area.

Jose Pena-Hernandez, 18, a third Brentwood High School student’s body was found on a known burial ground for gang victims, a wooded area near Pilgrim Psychiatric Center. A known MS-13 gang member, Pena-Hernandez was murdered because he violated gang rules by being “gay” and was cooperating with police.

He was murdered on June 3, 2016 and according to police, his body showed evidence of “repeated stab wounds and beatings with a bat, a blunt force instrument.”

Kayla Cuevas, 16
Kayla Cuevas, 16 (Facebook)

Jairo Saenz, 19, is the a leader of one of the local factions of MS-13 called Funny, and his older brother Alexi, 22, is the leader of another MS-13 associated gang named Blasty.

School officials advised parents in a letter that “children not wear clothing that could be considered to be gang-related.” Blue is MS-13’s color. The gang was founded by immigrants fleeing El Salvador’s civil war more than two decades ago. It’s the first to be designated as an international criminal group. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), they have as many as 10K members in 46 states

Eleven gang murders in Suffolk County were attributed to MS-13 in 2016. Police have arrested more than 125 suspected MS-13 gang members in Brentwood and elsewhere.

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