An MS-13 gang member known as “Anticristo” has been sentenced to 55 years in prison for orchestrating and participating in the 2017 slayings of four young men in a New York park. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced Wednesday that Omar Antonio Villalta pleaded guilty to his role in the premeditated killings carried out by more than a dozen MS-13 members and associates.
The victims—Justin Llivicura, Michael Lopez, Jorge Tigre, and Jefferson Villalobos—were lured to Central Islip’s Brentwood Park under false pretenses by two female MS-13 associates, Leniz Escobar and Keyli Gomez. Once the men arrived at a wooded area, gang members ambushed them with machetes, knives, an axe, and clubs fashioned from tree limbs. One victim managed to escape; the others were brutally murdered and left in a secluded section of the woods.
According to prosecutors, Villalta was a central figure in planning and executing the attack. He distributed weapons, directed gang members, and ensured the victims were led into a trap. The gang targeted the young men because they believed they had disrespected MS-13 by posing in photos with certain clothing and hand signs.
Following the New York murders, Villalta fled to Charlottesville, Virginia. There, he and other MS-13 members killed Martin Rivera Guevara, a coworker suspected of being affiliated with a rival gang. Villalta and others lured him into a wooded area, attacked him with machetes and knives, and dumped his body off a bridge.
MS-13 has since been designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. Department of State. The violent gang has been tied to numerous gruesome crimes across the country, including the recent murder of Rachel Morin, a mother of five, by an illegal alien MS-13 member.
President Donald Trump’s administration made targeting and deporting criminal illegal alien gang members a top priority. Within his first 100 days, DHS removed hundreds of MS-13 members from the country, strengthening immigration enforcement and disrupting gang operations.
