MELVILLE, N.Y. _ A member of the MS-13 street gang pleaded guilty on Monday to taking part in the April 2017 killing of four young men in a Central Islip park.
Josue Portillo, 17, of Central Islip, pleaded guilty to a charge of racketeering that included five individual acts, including four murders and conspiracy before U.S. District Judge Joseph Bianco at the federal court in Central Islip.
Through an interpreter, Portillo admitted he was among a number of MS-13 defendants who planned the killings weeks in advance because he said they believed the four were members of the street gang known as 18th Street.
"On April 11, 2017, as a member of MS-13, I joined and participated in the murder of Michael Lopez, Justin Llivicura, Jorge Tigre and Jefferson Villalobos at the Clayton Street park in Central Islip because they were members of a rival gang," Portillo said through an interpreter.
In court, Portillo said he "coordinated" the attack on the four young men by helping girls lure the victims into the park to smoke marijuana, then telling fellow MS-13 members where to find the victims.
"Myself and another MS-13 member personally murdered Michael Lopez by stabbing him with knives," he said. "I did this knowingly, willfully and without coercion when I was 15 years old."
Portillo, who goes by the gang nicknames of "Sparky" and "Curioso," entered the United States illegally from El Salvador in 2014, according to his attorney Joseph Ryan of Melville.
Portillo is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 10. He faces a sentence of up to life in prison.
Eastern District federal prosecutors have said that more than a dozen MS-13 members took part in the brutal attack on the four young men, but many of them were juveniles whose names have not been released.
