By Rich Bockmann
A ruthless leader of the MS-13 gang on Long Island will spend the rest of his life behind bars after being sentenced for the 2010 slaying of a fellow gang member in Far Rockaway who failed to draw blood for the violent crew, authorities said.
Carlos “Silencio” Ortega, 24, was sentenced to life in prison by U.S. District Judge Joseph Bianco in Nassau County Nov. 21 stemming from a number of charges, including the bloody murder of fellow gang member Mario Alberto Canton Quijada on the beach in Far Rockaway in March 2010.
Ortega was convicted of the murder in federal court in Central Islip, L.I., earlier this year along with fellow MS-13 member Heriberto Martinez, 26, who is awaiting sentencing.
The two thugs, members of the Sitios Locos Salvatruchas arm of the El Salvadorian gang on Long Island, were also convicted of a number of violent charges in crimes stretching across Long Island.
“Ortega committed heinous acts of violence in the name of MS-13, cutting a swath of murder from Brentwood to Far Rockaway, all within the span of a few weeks,” U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch for the Eastern District said. “From a suspected rival gang member to an MS-13 gang member who was not violent enough, there was no room for mercy in the gang’s code of enforcing respect through murder.”
“Today’s life sentence is a fitting end to Ortega’s reign of terror,” she added. “He will now have the rest of his life to contemplate the just results of his allegiance to the killing machine known as MS-13.”
Authorities said Ortega and Martinez used the guise of attacking a rival gang member when they lured Quijada, known by the street name “Baby Blue,” to the beach in Far Rockaway in 2010.
Upset with Quijada’s reluctance to “put in work” or kill rival gang members, Ortega set upon his victim with a gun, but when it jammed he and Martinez hacked their fellow member to death with knives and machetes, the federal prosecutor said.
The two were convicted of his murder in March.
MS-13, also known as La Mara Salvatrucha, is Long Island’s largest street gang, and Quijada’s murder is not the only time the two gang-bangers drew blood.
Prosecutors were also able to show Ortega killed a young man suspected to be a rival gang member when he lured David Sandler, 21, to Timberline Drive under the pretext of buying marijuana from him.
Authorities said Ortega shot Sandler in the face and fired at one of his friends, who was able to escape.
Martinez was also convicted of killing a 19-year-old mother and a Long Island bouncer, prosecutors said.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
