By EFE
A New York court convicted Latina Leniz Escobar, alias 'Diablita', of organized crime on Monday for her participation in the murder of four young men with machetes at the hands of the Salvatrucha gang, also known as MS-13, in 2017, the Prosecutor's Office reported in a statement.
Escobar and a co-conspirator, identified as Kayli Gomez, took the four victims (and a fifth young man who managed to escape) to a park in the eastern New York City town of Central Islip.
Once there, they wrote text messages to members of the MS-13 gang, who
considered the young men to be members of a rival gang.
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The Mara Salvatrucha gang members then went to the park, where they surrounded the youths Justin Llivicura, Michael Lopez, Jorge Tigre and Jefferson Villalobos and killed them with machetes.
The victims were between 16 and 20 years old.
Escobar, who was 17 at the time of the events, is likely to be sentenced to life in prison.
"With today's verdict, Escobar has been held accountable for the crucial role he willingly played in the orchestration of
one of the most senseless and cruel mass murders in
the district in memory," said the attorney general for the Eastern District of New York. York, Breon Peace, cited in footnote.
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The acting director of the FBI in New York, Michael Driscoll, assured for his part that the trial showed that "Escobar played a crucial role in a heinous and senseless crime, the murders in 2017 of four young men who MS-13 I thought they were members of a rival gang.”
The Prosecutor's Office also emphasizes that in the days after the murder, the 'Little Devil' bragged to other members of the MS-13 about her involvement in the murders and in a phone call to her boyfriend, one of the leaders of a gang group within MS-13, recounted in detail what happened.
Authorities have filed charges against more than ten people allegedly related to that murder.
