A notorious MS-13 gang leader who admitted to involvement in at least seven murders received a sweetheart plea deal thanks to Biden’s Department of Justice.
Jairo Saenz, 28, will avoid the death penalty and life in prison as he will receive a sentence of 40 to 60 years on charges including murder, attempted murder and arson.
He was known for ruthlessly running the Long Island branch of MS-13 alongside his brother Alexi, who previously pleaded guilty to similarly violent charges in a plea deal that is expected to result in a 70-year sentence, reports Fox News.
Their branch of the infamous MS-13 gang, an organized crime racket that originated in Los Angeles in the 1980s, was known as the Sailors, according to authorities.
In their time running the gang in Suffolk County, their branch was linked to several violent cases including the murder of two Brentwood High School girls with a machete and a baseball bat in September 2016.
The slaughter of Kayla Cuevas, 16, and Nisa Mickens, 15, came after one of the girls reportedly criticized the ‘Sailors’ on Facebook.
Saenz’s gang then attacked the pair as they walked down the street, and the MS-13 gang was connected to the brutal murders after ICE became involved in a federal organized crime crackdown.
Following news of Saenz’s sweetheart plea deal this week, Suffolk County PBA President Lou Civello branded the move ‘disgraceful’ and ‘an insult to the families.’
Notorious MS-13 gang leader Jairo Saenz, 28, who admitted to involvement in at least seven murders received a sweetheart plea deal in one of President Biden’s DOJ’s last acts
Saenz was originally brought into custody in March 2017 and charged with murder for the September 13, 2016, killings of Brentwood, New York high school students Nisa Mickens (left) and Kayla Cuevas (right)
Saenz’s branch of the gang was dismantled during President Trump’s first term as he launched a federal crackdown on MS-13, which has continued to operate in regions across the country.
At their arrests, the Saenz brothers sparked outrage by joking and laughing in court while the girls’ families watched on, and once in jail, Saenz is said to have taken part in violent attacks on other inmates and assaulted corrections officers.
Federal prosecutors had previously sought the death penalty for the Saenz brothers under Trump’s term, but they since received lenient plea deals after Biden’s DOJ took over.
Prosecutors are also seeking the death penalty against Saenz’s brother, Alexi Saenz. Trump referred to the brother as a ‘bloodthirsty MS-13 leader’
Civello said the case of Cuevas and Mickens’s murders stunned the community, as he slammed prosecutors for allowing them the ‘opportunity to be out and back on our streets’ after their lengthy sentences.
‘When you look at how barbaric these crimes were, murdering young kids with machetes, baseball bats, this is a clear case for the death penalty,’ he told Fox News.
He noted that if Saenz serves the lower end of his 40-to-60-year sentence, it will amount to less than six years for each murder he has admitted to committing or ordering.
‘We’re always grateful for the federal partnership and the resources they bring to the table, but at the same time, we need justice, that’s the important part,’ Civello said.
‘If it were true justice, this person should never see the light of day again. There should never be the opportunity to be out and back on our streets.’
Authorities offered a $15,000 reward for information following Mickens and Cuevas’s murders, which were quickly tied to the infamous MS-13 gang
The plea deals offered to the MS-13 gang leaders is one of the final acts of President Biden’s Department of Justice
In a statement to Fox News after the plea deal was announced, a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office confirmed to Fox that the brothers ‘were no longer facing the possibility of the death penalty.’
‘Our Office had been directed by the U.S. Attorney General in 2023 not to seek the penalty if they were convicted of the capital counts,’ the statement read.
As well as the tragic murders of Cuevas and Mickens, the ‘Sailors’ were connected to a slew of other violent crimes across the upstate New York area.
This included additional charges levied at Saenz in June 2018 related to his involvement in the killing of Oscar Acosta, who was beaten with tree limbs and tied up by other gang members.
Saenz was then called and Acosta was loaded into the trunk of a car and driven to an wooded area where he was stabbed and slashed to death with a machete. His body wasn’t recovered for four months.
Saenz was also involved in the October 2016 murder of Javier Castillo, who the MS-13 members believed to be associated with a rival gang. He was also attacked and killed with a machete. His body wasn’t recovered for a year.
Three days later, Saenz and several MS-13 members struck again and murdered Dewann Stacks, who they also suspected was in a rival gang. He was killed with a baseball bat and machetes.
Alexi Saenz (pictured during his March 2017 arrest) and brother Jairo have been connected to a number of vicious murders, but the brothers will avoid the death penalty thanks to the new plea deals
Saenz was charged with a sixth murder in July 2019 – the killing of Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla, who, once again, was suspected of being a rival gang member – reportedly due to the color of his football jersey.
The violent crimes perpetrated by MS-13 at the time led President Trump to launch a task force, with then-Attorney General Bill Barr explaining at a press conference that the gang wasn’t driven by commercial interest like the mob.
‘It’s about the honor of being the most savage, bloody-thirsty person you can be and building up the reputation as a killer,’ Barr said. ‘This is in someway a death cult.’
However, he added, MS-13 is involved in human and narcotics trafficking to finance the operation.
But the basic purpose, Barr said, is ‘violence and terrorizing people.’
