An MS-13 gang leader from a New York City suburb is set to receive his sentence this Wednesday in a federal case related to racketeering, involving eight murders, including the brutal 2016 deaths of two teenage girls from Long Island.  

Called “Blasty” and “Plaky,” Alexi Saenz admitted last July to directing and approving these killings among other crimes, which sparked a spree of violence leading President Donald Trump to visit Long Island multiple times with promises to dismantle the gang. 

Saenz was involved in the murders of lifelong friends, Kayla Cuevas, 16, and Nisa Mickens, 15, who attended Brentwood High School and were savagely killed using a machete and a baseball bat. Another victim, 15-year-old Javier Castillo from Central Islip, was lured by gang members only to be gruesomely attacked with a machete and later buried in a marsh, his body remaining undiscovered for a year. 

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.

“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.

Robert Mickens and Elizabeth Alvarado, and Evelyn Rodriguez and Freddy Cuevas, the parents of Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas, who were killed by MS-13 gang members, are recognized by President Donald Trump during his State of the Union address on Jan. 30, 2018. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

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.