An MS-13 leader is sentenced to 68 years in racketeering case involving 8 murders

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — The leader of an MS-13 clique in the suburbs of New York City was sentenced Wednesday to 68 years in prison in a federal racketeering case involving eight murders, including the 2016 killings of two high school girls that focused the nation’s attention on the violent Central American street gang.

Alexi Saenz pleaded guilty last year for his role in ordering and approving the killings as well as other crimes during a rash of bloody violence that prompted President Donald Trump to make several visits to Long Island and call for the death penalty for Saenz and other gang members during his first term in the White House.

Saenz’s lawyers sought a sentence of 45 years behind bars, but prosecutors wanted the judge to impose the maximum sentence of 70 years. Prosecutors, who previously withdrew their intent to seek the death penalty, said Saenz deserves to live out his days in prison for his “senseless” and “sadistic” crimes.

Judge Gary Brown, in handing down the sentence, said the reduction of two years from the maximum recognized Saenz’s role in pleading guilty and avoiding a painful and costly trial, as well as his efforts in convincing his younger brother, the gang’s second-in-command, to do the same.