A reputed MS-13 gang member has admitted to helping kill a 27-year-old man while the victim sat in a parked car outside of his Brentwood home four years ago, federal prosecutors said.
Edwin Amaya-Sanchez, 30, also of Brentwood, pleaded guilty Tuesday at Central Islip federal court to his role as the getaway driver in the July 14, 2014 shooting death of Jose Lainez-Murcia.
“Amaya-Sanchez admitted that he participated in the planning and execution of a murder on Long Island in which the victim was marked for death because he was suspected of having killed MS-13 gang members in El Salvador,” said Richard Donoghue, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
The gang has been identified as a top target of federal investigators due to its ultra-violent tactics. Last year, members of the gang allegedly committed a quadruple murder in Central Islip, drawing visits from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Donald Trump. Both vowed to crack down on the gang as a result.
Prosecutors said Amaya-Sanchez knew where Lainez-Murcia lived, what car he drove, and what time he left for work in the morning, because they previously worked together. He and two co-conspirators armed with 9 mm handguns shot the victim as he entered his car, authorities said. Amaya-Sanchez dropped the gunmen off and picked them up afterward.
He was arrested when members of the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force rounded up a dozen other alleged MS-13 members last year.
Amaya-Sanchez, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who was previously deported, faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced Oct. 17 by Judge Joseph F. Bianco.
