(RepublicanJournal.org) – While many of the migrants who come to the United States are simply looking for a better way of life, some are gang members who wish to continue their reign of terror and establish a foothold in the country. Authorities have been seeking one of the senior leaders of the gang Mara Salvatrucha, known as MS-13, on multiple charges of terrorism. Cesar Humberto Lopez-Larios, known as one of the “Twelve Apostles of the Devil,” was recently arrested in Texas.
According to a press release from the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Homeland Security and the FBI took Lopez-Larios into custody at the George Bush Airport in Houston on Sunday, June 9. A judge then ordered his transfer to New York, where he will face charges of directing the transnational crime group’s activities in the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, and other countries, over the past 20 years.
Lopez-Larios has been wanted by the FBI as a fugitive of justice for more than three years. He is facing four charges: conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to provide and conceal material support to terrorists, narco-terrorism conspiracy, and conspiracy to finance terrorism.
US Attorney Breon Peace said the arrest “is a significant achievement for law enforcement and another crucial step in the dismantling of this international criminal enterprise.” Lopez-Larios joins more than two dozen other high-ranking gang members who have been charged in New York’s Eastern District.
MS-13 originally began in the 1980s when immigrants from El Salvador formed a street gang in Los Angeles. Over the years, it expanded exponentially and its reach spans Central America, the majority of the United States, and Europe. They are accused of human trafficking and the trafficking of drugs and firearms. The gang also wages extreme violence upon its communities and victims.
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