Trial Begins for MS-13 Leader Accused of Ordering Brutal Hit That Nearly Decapitated 16-Year-Old.

As a leader in the murderous MS-13 gang, Melvi Amador-Rios—nicknamed “Pinky”—ordered a hit on a 16-year-old boy in a New York City park that was so brutal it left the teenage nearly decapitated, federal prosecutors say.

Amador-Rios ordered the murders of at least four people during his reign as kingpin of the Centrales Locos Salvatruchas—a clique within MS-13—but the killing of Julio Vasquez was the only one successfully carried out, prosecutors allege.

The 32-year-old faces trial Monday in Brooklyn federal court for the murder of Vasquez, along with numerous other violent crimes that were allegedly carried out during his time as boss of the gang, which mostly operated in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York.

In May of 2017, Amador-Rios allegedly ordered two low-level gangsters – known as “chequeos” — to lure Vasquez, also a member of the clique, to Alley Pond Park in Queens because they suspected he may be cooperating with law enforcement. 

The two hitmen, Josue Leiva and Luis Rivas, stabbed and hacked Vasquez more than 30 times in the slaying. He was nearly decapitated, prosecutors charge.

Rivas and Leiva both pleaded guilty earlier this month to racketeering for the slaying of Vasquez. 

Prior to the Vasquez killing, Amador-Rios allegedly ordered another low-level member of his Centrales Locos gang to kill a rival member of 18th Street gang in Jamaica in 2016, prosecutors say. 

In that attack, a trio of Centrales Locos members set upon a suspected 18th Street gangster—who was 16 at the time—in the early hours of Oct. 23, 2016 near a street corner in Jamaica. 

The three assailants beat their target and shot him in the head, but their weapon jammed before they could deliver a fatal shot, federal authorities said. The victim is now a paraplegic. 

The three gangsters have each pleaded guilty to federal crimes for the near-fatal assault, including assault in-aid-of racketeering, attempted murder in-aid-of racketeering and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. 

If convicted, Amador-Rios faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

The jury will remain anonymous  at the trial, which is expected to last about two weeks.