US accuses several detainees identified as MS-13 leaders of terrorism

federal prosecutors. Department of Justice (DOJ) charges announced on Thursday terrorism and extortion of more than a dozen alleged high-profile leaders international gang MS-13accusing them of leading criminal activity, including murders in the United States, El Salvador, Mexico and other countries over the past two decades.

Indictment printed by the Eastern District Department of Justice NY details the charges against the 13 defendants, including racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to provide or conceal material support for terrorists, and conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism.

Four alleged gang leaders were expelled from Mexico and arrested by the FBI at the George W. Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on Wednesday.according to a statement from the Department of Justice, including three high-ranking MS-13 leaders arrested on charges of terrorism and extortion.

Vladimir Antonio Arevalo-Chávez, Walter Yovani Hernandez-Rivera and Marlon Antonio Menjivar-Portillo were charged with overseeing the spread of the gang in Mexico, where they forged alliances with Mexican cartels and traded drugs, people and weapons, including killing migrants and members gangs. tried to escape Illicit proceeds funded the gang’s attempts to control territory and influence the Salvadoran government.

They face further charges, including a conspiracy to smuggle aliens resulting in death and could be sentenced to death if found guiltyprosecutors said.

Four co-defendants: José Wilfredo Ayala-Alcantara, aka Indio of Hollywood, Jorge Alexander De La Cruz, aka Kruger of Petonales, Juan Antonio Martinez-Abrego, aka Mary Jane of Hollywood, and Francisco Javier Roman-Bardales, aka Veteran tribes. , they are still fugitives.

According to the statement, the remaining defendants are in El Salvador custody pending possible extradition to the United States.

MS-13 leaders arrested for terrorism and extortion

13 defendants are part of the MS-13 command staff. and to fulfill important leadership roles in the organization’s international operations, according to the lawsuit.

Prosecutors said the defendants authorized and directed the violence, including multiple murders in the United States, Mexico and elsewhere, as part of an effort to expand MS-13’s influence and territorial control.

As stated in court documents, The 13 defendants are part of the MS-13 command and control structure, consisting of Ranfla Nacional, Ranfla in Las Calles and Ranfla in Los Penales, and they play an important leadership role in the activities of the organization in El Salvador, Mexico, the United States and around the world.

“Today’s action shows that there is no hiding place anywhere in the world for leaders of violent gangs that terrorize the American population,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.

“The Justice Department will continue to use the full power of our law enforcement agencies to disrupt and eliminate MS-13 and other transnational criminal organizations and bring their leaders to justice,” Garland said.

New York Control

Created by Salvadoran refugees in California in the 1980s and then exported to Central America, the MS-13 has long been fortress on the eastern tip of Long Island, In NYC. Hundreds of members were convicted of more than 65 murders in the Eastern District of New York from 2009 to the present, according to the Department of Justice.

The indictment details how MS-13 leaders sought to control gang members in the New York area by sending proxies to direct activities that included murder, assault, extortion, kidnapping, and drug dealing.

– The US is offering up to $5 million for the capture of Mar Salvatrucha leader in Honduras.
– A member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, wanted in the US for at least three murders, falls in Mexico.
– Naib Bukele assures that in the fight against gangs in El Salvador, “territorial control now belongs entirely to the state.”