A member of the notorious MS-13 gang could spend the rest of his life in prison after admitting to his role in a string of murders, including two high school students, and other attacks on Long Island.
Enrique Portillo, age 26, of Brentwood, pleaded guilty to racketeering and firearms charges in federal court in Central Islip on Thursday, Aug. 31, according to the US Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District.
Prosecutors said Portillo, a member of the Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside (Sailors) clique of MS-13, participated in four murders targeting rival gang members between September 2016 and January 2017.
The first murders occurred on Sept. 13, 2016 in Brentwood. Portillo and several other members brutally attacked 15-year-old Nisa Mickens and 16-year-old Kayla Cuevas, both students at Brentwood High School, with baseball bats and machetes.
According to investigators, the girls were targeted over a series of disputes they had with associates of MS-13 that escalated into an altercation at Brentwood High School the week prior.
Mickens’ body was discovered that evening on Stahley Street, near Cuevas’ home. Cuevas’ body was found the following day behind a neighboring house.
Both girls had suffered blunt force trauma to their heads, as well as severe cuts on their bodies.
Portillo and others next targeted 34-year-old Dewann Stacks on Oct. 13, 2016, believing him to be a rival gang member.
Armed with baseball bats and machetes, the group beat and hacked the man to death on American Boulevard in Brentwood, according to prosecutors.
Stacks died from severe sharp and blunt force trauma to his face and head, and was left nearly unrecognizable.
The final murder occurred on Jan. 30, 2017, when members of the Sailors clique targeted 29-year-old Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla inside El Campesino Deli in Central Islip.
Alvarado-Bonilla was wearing a football jersey with the number 18 on it, leading the group to conclude that he was a member of a rival gang.
Portillo identified the man to other MS-13 members as their target and made sure that he stayed at the deli, prosecutors said.
At around 10:30 a.m., an MS-13 member donning a mask entered the deli and shot Alvarado-Bonilla multiple times from behind, killing him.
An employee at the deli was struck in the chest by a stray bullet and survived.
Investigators determined that Portillo also took part in the attempted killings of two men in Brentwood in July 2016. Believing them to be rival gang members, he and two others fired a semi-automatic handgun at one man and attacked the other with a machete.
One victim suffered a gunshot wound and survived, while the other man was left severely disfigured.
The following September, Portillo and several others set fire to a parked car in the driveway of a rival gang member in Brentwood, on Freeman Avenue.The group poured gasoline on the vehicle, causing it to explode and ignite a second car.
Portillo’s crimes continued even when he was incarcerated, according to prosecutors.
He admitted to trying to kill two fellow inmates at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn by stabbing them with shanks in September 2017 and May 2019. Both victims survived the attacks.
“These senseless and barbaric killings, including those of teenagers Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens, shook our communities and reverberated around the nation,” said Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison.
“It is my hope that this guilty plea will provide the victims’ families some peace while also demonstrating our commitment to dismantling these criminal enterprises.”
Portillo faces up to life in prison on the racketeering charge and a minimum of 10 years on the firearms charge.
He is scheduled to be sentenced in January 2024.
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