Police in Suffolk County, New York, say they stopped a MS-13 gang’s attempt to kidnap and likely kill a 16-year-old boy. The attempt allegedly involved illegal aliens and Unaccompanied Alien Children.

Plainclothes police from Long Island patrolling near Brentwood High School witnessed the gang attacking a 16-year-old boy and attempting to force him into a van, the New York Post reported. Officers moved in and arrested three MS-13 gang members and two affiliates.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Timothy Sini said all five of the gang members are from El Salvador. Two of the gang members entered the U.S. illegally while three others entered as Unaccompanied Alien Children.

“We do believe they were looking to elevate their status in the MS-13 community by carrying out that murder,” Sini told reporters during a press conference.

The alleged gang members consisted of four males and one female. Three of the Salvadoran teens — Jorge Bermudez Cedillos, 18, Lilliana Villanueva, 17, and Oscar Fuentes, 18 — entered the U.S. illegally and became classified by immigration officials as Unaccompanied Alien Children. The other two — Vidal Contrera-Ortiz, 18, and Miguel Rivera, 20 — entered the U.S. illegally but did not receive the UAC designation, Newsday reported.

Rivera reportedly told police, “We were going to take him somewhere private and beat him to death with the bats.” Officials said Rivera admitted to being a member of the MS-13 “Carleton click.”

The failed kidnapping followed three other gang-related incidents on December 5. Officers stated that young men traveling in a van assaulted three other 16-year-old boys with bats. The three did not end up being kidnapped.

Court records reported by Newsday revealed that Bermudez Cedillos said they would use anything they had in the van to kill their victim.

The female suspect, Villanueva, said she heard Bermudez Cedillos refer to the victim as “18.” Officials speculated that the “18” referred to the rival 18th Street gang.

All of the alleged MS-13 gang members except Rivera attended Brentwood High School along with the victims of the day’s attacks.

“It’s those detectives that foiled the plot to kill a 16-year-old boy,” Sini told reporters. “They held those individuals at the scene at gunpoint, while waiting for a response from patrol.”

The region has been hard hit by MS-13 gang violence. Since 2015, at least 25 people have been killed in gang-related homicides, officials stated.

Prosecutors filed second-degree conspiracy charges against the five gang members. They are being held pending a $250,000 cash bond. It is likely that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will place immigration detainers on all five suspects.

Between October 1, 2013, and September 30, 2017, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials reported 58,438 illegal aliens from El Salvador (the birthplace of MS-13) have been classified as Unaccompanied Alien Children. An additional 48,651 UACs came from Honduras — also a hotbed for MS-13 gang activity. Over the past two years, Border Patrol agents apprehended 93,828 Family Unit Aliens (FMUA). CBP officials define a FMUA as a child under 18 who is apprehended with a family member.

Earlier this month, Breitbart Texas reported on federal records that revealed one-third of MS-13 gang members arrested by law enforcement in recent weeks entered the U.S. as Unaccompanied Alien Children.

The number of Unaccompanied Alien Children apprehended by Border Patrol agents have increased each of the last five months from 997 in April to 2,961 in September — a 197 percent increase.