Alexi Saenz, known on the streets as “Blasty,” will face a federal judge as prosecutors push for a maximum 70-year sentence for the savage racketeering spree that shocked Long Island and drew national attention during President Trump’s first term. Saenz admitted authorizing the murders of eight people, including teenage girls Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens, who were hacked to death with a machete and baseball bat in 2016, turning their hometown into a symbol of MS-13 terror.

Trump vowed to eradicate the gang and highlighted the girls’ deaths during his 2018 State of the Union address with the victims’ parents in attendance. In 2020, the Justice Department under Trump announced it would pursue the death penalty against Saenz, but Biden’s DOJ reversed course, dropping the death penalty in late 2023, a move that angered victims’ families and drew Trump’s scorn.

Now, as Saenz’s attorneys plead for a 45-year sentence, claiming he is remorseful and a “changed man,” prosecutors argue that the self-proclaimed gang leader still flaunts his loyalty to MS-13 from behind bars, smuggling contraband, flashing gang signs, and maintaining ties with other gang members even during his eight years in a Brooklyn jail. Photos show Saenz proudly posing with gang symbols, while disciplinary records reveal violence and defiance toward prison staff.

Prosecutors insist that Saenz’s leadership in the MS-13 “Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside” clique, responsible for terrorizing Brentwood and Central Islip, should keep him locked away for life. They cite the brutal murder of 15-year-old Javier Castillo, lured by gang members before being hacked to death, and Oscar Acosta, 19, who vanished on his way to play soccer, later found dead in the woods.

Saenz’s lawyers argue he was a “gullible” teen with intellectual disabilities, groomed by MS-13 after a difficult upbringing in El Salvador and Long Island, and that he is now seeking redemption. Prosecutors, however, counter that Saenz’s “pattern of violence and mayhem” hasn’t stopped with time, saying he remains “firmly entrenched” in gang life.

Trump, who in February designated MS-13 a Foreign Terrorist Organization during his second term, has long framed Saenz’s case as a test of America’s resolve against brutal gang violence and lawlessness in immigrant communities. With Saenz’s sentencing now imminent, the case represents a powerful moment in the war on MS-13 that Trump has championed while challenging a justice system many say goes too easy on the worst offenders.

As the judge prepares to hand down the sentence, the families of the murdered teens, who endured years of pain and courtroom delays, may finally see justice for the lives stolen by a gang Trump vowed to crush — and a killer who became the face of MS-13’s reign of terror on American soil.