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7h ago

MS-13 Member Sentenced to 55 Years for 2017 Quadruple and Additional Killing

Omar Antonio Villalta, known as 'Anticristo,' received the sentence for his role in five brutal murders, marking the sixth sentencing in the DOJ's crackdown on MS-13 violence.

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The victims, from left, Justin Llivicura, Jefferson Villalobos, Michael Lopez Banega and Jorge Tigre.
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Inmates remain in a cell at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) mega-prison, where hundreds of members of the MS-13 and 18 Street gangs are being held, in Tecoluca, El Salvador on January 27, 2025. The CECOT, the largest prison in Latin America and emblem of the war against gangs of the government of President Nayib Bukele, celebrates two years since it was inaugurated on February 1. (Photo by Marvin RECINOS / AFP) (Photo by MARVIN RECINOS/AFP via Getty Images)

Overview

  • Omar Antonio Villalta, a member of MS-13's Guanacos Lil Cycos Salvatruchas clique, was sentenced to 55 years in federal prison on May 7, 2025.
  • Villalta pleaded guilty to racketeering, including predicate acts of murder, for the 2017 killings of four young men in Central Islip, New York, and one in Charlottesville, Virginia.
  • The Central Islip victims were lured to their deaths by two female MS-13 associates, Leniz Escobar and Keyli Gomez, and were killed with machetes, knives, and clubs by over a dozen gang members.
  • Villalta's sentencing is part of the Department of Justice's Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative targeting transnational criminal organizations like MS-13.
  • This sentencing follows convictions and lengthy prison terms for five other MS-13 members involved in the Central Islip murders, with additional defendants awaiting sentencing.