Crime scene investigators collect evidence in Alley Pond Park after a 16-year-old boy was found dead by a bird watcher.
Photo by Mark Hallum
An MS-13 gang leader from Queens was convicted by a Brooklyn federal jury on Wednesday, Aug. 9, for ordering the brutal murder of a 16-year-old boy inside Bayside’s Alley Pond Park in 2017.
Melvi Amador-Rios, 32, of Briarwood was found guilty on 17 of the 18 counts of a third superseding indictment following a three-week-long trial.
Amador-Rios was convicted of murder in aid of racketeering, which carries a mandatory life sentence, and other crimes for ordering two fellow members of his Jamaica-based Centrales Locos Salvatruchas clique of the transnational criminal organization to kill gang member Julio “Bad Boy” Vasquez on May 16, 2017, after the teenager failed to kill his friend, thus falling out of favor with MS-13. Amador-Rios, known on the streets as “Letal” and “Pinky,” suspected he was cooperating with law enforcement, according to federal prosecutors.
Vazquez was lured to a wooded area of Alley Pond Park where co-conspirators Josue “Colocho” Leiva and Luis “Inquito” Rivas stabbed him more than 30 times and nearly decapitated him before leaving him to die. He was discovered on May 21 of 2017 by an unsuspecting bird watcher who smelled and saw a decomposing body.
Amador-Rios was also convicted of ordering a non-fatal shooting that left another 16-year-old, Louis Serrano of Jamaica, paralyzed.
“With today’s verdict, an extremely dangerous MS-13 gang leader aptly nicknamed ‘Letal,’ or ‘Lethal,’ has been brought to justice for his murderous racketeering crimes and now faces a mandatory life sentence,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said. “The outstanding work of our prosecutors, along with members of the FBI and the NYPD, underscores this office’s continuing efforts to make our communities safer by dismantling violent gangs.”
Amador-Rios ordered three associates to kill…
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