MS-13 Member Pleads Guilty to Murder of Brentwood Teenager: Feds

BRENTWOOD, NY - A member of the deadly MS-13 street gang pleaded guilty to the 2016 Brentwood murder of 19-year-old Oscar Acosta in federal court Tuesday, according to prosecutors.

Nelson “Mendigo” Argueta-Quintanilla, 24, a member of the Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside (Sailors) clique of La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as the a transnational gang MS-13, pleaded guilty to racketeering charges relating to his participation in the murder of Acosta, the attempted murder of suspected rival gang members, and a conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana, according to Jacquelyn Kasulis, acting United States attorney for the eastern district of New York.

“This guilty plea will ensure that yet another violent member of MS-13, who has no regard for human life, will be imprisoned for his senseless, brutal crimes," said Stuart Cameron, acting commissioner of Suffolk County Police Department.

According to prior court filings and the defendant’s statements, Argueta-Quintanilla and other MS-13 members decided to kill Acosta because they suspected he was affiliated with their rival, the 18th Street gang. On April 29, 2016, Argueta-Quintanilla and other gang members lured Acosta to smoke marijuana in a wooded area near an elementary school in Brentwood, where they then brutally beat Acosta with tree limbs until he was unconscious, federal officials said.

The MS-13 members tied up his hands and feet, loaded him into the trunk of a car and drove to a an abandoned psychiatric hospital, officials said. After taking him out of the car, they carried Acosta — who was still alive — into the woods, where they stabbed and slashed him to death with a machete, officials said.

The MS-13 members buried Acosta’s body in a shallow grave, which was discovered in September 2016, Kasulis added.

Acosta was one of at least 17 murdered by MS-13 between January 2016 and July 2017, according to The New York Times. The gang has existed on Long Island for more than two decades and has roots in Los Angeles and Central America. Then-President Donald Trump traveled to Long Island in recent years to discuss the scourge gangs brought to the area. "They have transformed peaceful parks and beautiful, quiet neighborhoods into blood-stained killing fields," he said.

Argueta-Quintanilla is scheduled for sentencing on February 25, 2022 at 1p.m. at federal court in Central Islip . He faces up to life in prison.