MS-13 Gang Member Pleads Guilty To 2017 Quadruple Murder On LI: Feds

CENTRAL ISLIP, NY — Seven years after the murder of four young men in Central Islip shocked Long Island and the nation — and brought then-President Donald Trump to the area for a gang conference where he vowed to end the violence that he said had transformed bucolic communities into "blood-stained killing fields" — another MS-13 gang member pleaded guilty Wednesday, federal officials said.

The bodies of the four young men, 16, 18, 18 and 20, were found in a park across the street from an elementary school, police said at the time.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, on Wednesday in federal court in Central Islip, Edwin Rodriguez, 24, also known as "Manicomio" (Rodriguez), a member of the violent transnational criminal organization La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in connection with his participation in the April 11, 2017 murders of Justin Llivicura, Michael Lopez, Jorge Tigre, and Jefferson Villalobos.

After committing the murders, Rodriguez was a fugitive from justice before he was arrested in El Salvador and extradited to the United States in 2022, federal officials said.

The guilty plea proceeding was held before United States Circuit Judge Joseph F. Bianco, sitting by designation. When sentenced, Rodriguez faces up to life in prison, officials said.

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, James Smith, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office, and Robert E. Waring, Acting Commissioner, Suffolk County Police Department, announced the guilty plea.

Peace expressed his appreciation to all the members of the FBI’s Long Island gang task force and the FBI’s legal attaché in San Salvador for their "outstanding" collaboration. Peace also thanked the International Criminal Police Organization for their assistance.

According to court filings and statements made during the guilty plea proceeding, Rodriguez was a member of the Normandie Locos Salvatruchas, or Normandie, clique of MS-13, officials said. In order to maintain and increase his membership and status in the gang, in early 2017, he conspired with other MS-13 members and associates to orchestrate and execute the murders of perceived rival gang members who had "disrespected the MS-13 in their social media
postings," federal officials said.

On the evening of April 11, 2017, five young men, including the four murdered, were lured to a wooded park in Central Islip by MS-13 associates, under the guise of smoking marijuana, federal officials said. There, Rodriguez and nearly a dozen other MS-13 members and associates, armed with machetes, knives, an axe, and wooden clubs, surrounded the four under the cover of darkness, and attacked them, Peace said.

One of the intended victims was able to escape; however, Llivicura, Lopez, Tigre and Villalobos were captured and then brutally hacked, stabbed and bludgeoned to death, federal officials said.

The bodies were discovered the following evening. More than a dozen MS-13 members and associates have been charged in connection with the April 11, 2017 murders, federal officials said.

Rodriguez, who was three months’ shy of his 18th birthday at the time of the murders, was originally charged in a sealed juvenile information filed on March 16, 2018; he remained a fugitive from justice until August 28, 2019, when he was arrested in El Salvador, pursuant to an Interpol Red Notice, officials said.

The United States formally requested his extradition on September 3, 2019; Rodriguez was detained pending his extradition to the United States, which was formally authorized by the Supreme Court of Justice of El Salvador on July 7, 2022, federal officials said.

He was extradited to the United States, and made his first appearance in-district on August 10, 2022, Peace said. In connection with his guilty plea Wednesday, Rodriguez also agreed to be transferred to adult status for purposes of prosecution, federal officials said.

One of the victims, Jorge Tigre, a Bellport High School honor student, was not a gang member and reportedly became a target after he refused to associate with gang members following the murder of two girls in Brentwood, Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas, by MS-13 gang members with machetes, according to authorities.

Tigre's sister Monica Tigre, in an interview with Patch, said she and her family are left with only memories.

"The only thing I can say was that he was a wonderful person. He was always smiling and helping my family and me. I will remember him — his smile and his kindness," Tigre said.