MS-13

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6 MS-13 gang members, illegal immigrants involved in deadly Maryland stabbing, ICE says
By Travis Fedschun | Fox News

Six of the seven people charged in the stabbing death of a man in Maryland in July have been identified by federal officials as being part of the MS-13 gang and in the country illegally, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Baltimore County Police Department announced Tuesday that seven suspects, including a 16-year-old charged as an adult, were charged with killing 21-year-old Daniel Alejandro Alvarado Cuellar.

Cuellar's body was discovered July 31 in the grass outside an apartment building in the Townson area and had "multiple sharp-force injuries," officials said in a news release.

Police said that Cuellar was the intended victim of a planned gang-related murder, but said a motive for the slaying remained under investigation.

“We know this group of individuals was conducting surveillance on him, they were watching him, following him. We know they watched as he left the laundromat and went back across the street to the apartment complex and that is where some of those individuals accosted him,” Baltimore County Police Officer Jennifer Peach told FOX45. “We know they used knives and multiple people stabbed him multiple times.”

The seven suspects were all charged with first-degree murder, according to police.


The suspects in the killing of Daniel Alejandro Alvarado Cuellar. (Baltimore County Police Department)

They have been identified as Jonathan Escobar-Hernandez, 20, of Towson, Md.; Marlon Leonardo Fabian-Flores, 20, of Manchester, Md.; Edwin Edgardo Garcia-Martir, 18, of Middle River, Md.; Hugo Portillo-Chavez, 31, of Cockeysville, Md.; Jose Fausto Rivera-Coreas, 19, of Cockeysville, Md.; Odaliz Rosas-Yanez, 20, of Cockeysville, Md.; and Leonel Alexander Velasquez-Hernadez, 16, of Cockeysville, Md.

An ICE spokeswoman told Fox News on Sunday that the agency has issued six immigration detainers. The federal agency said that detainers were lodged once the individuals entered local law enforcement custody on murder charges.

USCIA acting director Ken Cuccinelli discusses the new details about arrested MS-13 members on 'The Ingraham Angle.'

Of the seven suspects, six are in the U.S. illegally, the ICE spokeswoman added. Of the six illegal immigrant suspects, who were not named, five are Salvadoran and one is Mexican, ICE said.

All of the six illegal immigrants were identified as MS-13 members in an ICE gang database, the ICE spokeswoman said.

Investigators believe that Cuellar's killing was due to a war between two rival Latino street gangs, the 18th Street and MS-13, according to the Baltimore Sun.

President Trump addresses the arrest of gang members for brutal murders during rally; Trace Gallagher has the details.

The 21-year-old had been seen making a hand gesture that was believed to be “indicative of an affiliation with the 18th Street,” detectives wrote in charging documents obtained by the Sun.

The seven suspects arrested in connection with Cuellar's slaying remain held without bail in the Baltimore County Detention Center, according to police. All seven could face a life sentence in prison if they are convicted, officials said, while adding that it's possible that others may also face charges in connection to the murder.

MS-13 is active in Maryland, but is usually focused in the suburbs around Washington D.C. Earlier this year, a 14-year-old girl was killed with a machete and a baseball bat when MS-13 gang members turned on an associate "in extremely violent behavior."

That slaying came only months after authorities arrested five MS-13 gang members for the murder of another MS-13 member, Jacson Chicas, 16. He was stabbed more than 100 times and then dumped on the side of a Virginia road and set on fire.

In 2019, officials said that MS-13 has been ramping up recruitment in the D.C. area after taking a break in 2018.



"We've seen a rise in gang activity here this spring. There have been a few homicides in the region, as you've seen," Jay Lanham, director of the Northern Virginia Gang Task Force, told FOX5 in June. "Last year, we saw the gangs, especially MS-13, laying low. We arrested a lot of the program and clique leaders so their leadership was lacking."

Lanham said at the time that the 18th Street Gang is MS-13's top rival.

MS-13, also known as La Mara Salvatrucha, recruits young teenagers from El Salvador and Honduras, though many gang members were born in the U.S. The gang has been blamed for dozens of killings since January 2016 across a wide swath of New York's Long Island, the Los Angeles area, and the D.C suburbs.

The notorious MS-13 gang has been singled out by President Trump for its brutality, which has led to a series of crackdowns by law enforcement on the federal and local levels.

Fox News'  Robert Gearty contributed to this report.

19 MS-13 gang members indicted in 'medieval-style' California slayings were in country illegally, officials say
By Travis Fedschun | Fox News

Federal authorities in Los Angeles charge 22 MS-13 members with seven medieval-style slayings, including cutting the heart out of a rival; Trace Gallagher reports.

Nearly all of the members and associates of an MS-13 gang charged in the “medieval-style” slayings of seven people in California were in the country illegally, officials said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles charged 22 people linked to a subset of the vicious gang that's known as the Fulton clique, members of which are suspected in nearly 200 crimes in several states over 9 years, according to a federal indictment released Tuesday.

"We have now taken off the streets nearly two dozen people associated with the most violent arm of MS-13 in Los Angeles," U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said.

Of the 22 defendants, 19 had entered the country illegally in the past three or four years, according to Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles.

Federal prosecutors allege the suspects operated in the San Fernando Valley, an area that recently absorbed an influx of young immigrants from Central America.


Prosecutors say photos show MS-13 gang member standing in the woods holding a machete and flashing a gang sign and flashing a gang sign (Los Angeles U.S. Attorney's Office)

"Under the influence of these young gangsters, younger associates who wanted to become members of MS-13 were 'required to kill an MS-13 rival or someone perceived to be adverse to MS-13 to be initiated into MS-13,' according to the indictment," the U.S. Attorney's Office said Tuesday.

"In Los Angeles, a clique added new members through an initiation ritual known as 'jumping in,' during which several existing MS-13 members beat up a prospective MS-13 member for 13 seconds while the shot caller counted aloud for 13 seconds," the indictment read. "Beginning in 2017 in Los Angeles, MS-13 members who identified with '503' had been required" to murder a rival or other enemy of the group.

Authorities said "503" represents the sub-group of MS-13 and is the telephone country code for El Salvador.

The brutality involved in some of the alleged killings was also disclosed in graphic detail by authorities. Four of the killings took place in Angeles National Forest. The slayings were carried out using machetes, bats and knives, according to the indictment.

In one case a member of a rival gang who had been believed to have defaced MS-13 graffiti was targeted and had his heart cut out of his chest, authorities said.

On March 6, 2017, the victim, identified as “J.S.,” was driven to Angeles National Forest, where six MS-13 gang members attacked him with a machete, killing him, the indictment claimed.


Officials in Hempstead, New York are trying to combat dangerous gangs from moving into abandoned houses and buildings.

“The victim was dismembered and his body parts were thrown into a canyon after one of the defendants allegedly cut the heart out of the victim’s body,” a news release from Hanna’s office said.

"Taking violent offenders off the street should send a message to MS-13 members and their associates that medieval-style violence and senseless murder will not be tolerated in Los Angeles," said Paul Delacourt, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles field office.

Hanna released photos showing MS-13 members displaying a machete, gang signs and guns in various poses.

Sixteen of the 22 people indicted are charged in connection with six slayings, which officials said were so "heinous, cruel or depraved" that the defendants are eligible for the death penalty. Prosecutors have not said whether they intend to seek capital punishment, however.


Prosecutors say photos show MS-13 gang members flashing gang signs and displaying guns and showing off an MS-!3 tattoo. (Los Angeles U.S. Attorney's Office)

All 22 of the alleged MS-13 members and associates are in custody. Eighteen had been apprehended during the last year on a range of federal and state charges, authorities said. Three were arrested in recent days in the Los Angeles area by a task force that included FBI agents, Los Angeles police officers and Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies. Another alleged MS-13 affiliate was arrested over the weekend in Oklahoma.

Authorities also filed two more cases under seal against juvenile defendants in federal court.

"The collaborative law enforcement effort solved several murder cases and dealt a severe blow to members of the gang who engaged in acts of brutality not seen in the region for over 20 years," Hanna said.

MS-13 becomes Trump's public enemy No. 1

MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, was founded more than two decades ago in Southern California by immigrants fleeing El Salvador's civil war. Its founders took lessons learned from the brutal conflict to the streets of Los Angeles, as they built a reputation as one of the most ruthless and sophisticated street gangs in the country.

With as many as 10,000 members in 46 states, MS-13 has diversified its operations from a violent street gang, with members being convicted of crimes ranging from kidnapping and murder to drug smuggling and human trafficking.