Ms-13 Gang Member Caught Illegally Crossing US-Mexico Border Into California: Border Patrol

Central American migrants sit above the US-Mexico border fence as a Border Patrol agent stands guard, as seen from Tijuana to San Diego as seen from Playas de Tijuana, in Baja California state, Mexico, on March 21, 2019. Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images

An MS-13 gang member from El Salvador was arrested after crossing into the United States illegally, said the Border Patrol on Wednesday.

The 28-year-old El Salvadoran national, who was not named, was found at 12:45 a.m. Wednesday by an agent patrolling the mountains in the San Diego, California, border sector “when he encountered six men near the border wall,” the agency said in a news release.

All six of the men, who were questioned by the agent, said they were illegally present in the United States, officials said.

The men were placed under arrest and transported to a nearby Border Patrol station for processing. At the station, a records check revealed that one of the men, a 28-year-old El Salvadorian national, was a documented MS-13 gang member,” the release stated.

The documented MS-13 gang member will be processed and deported at a local Border Patrol station, while the other five men—including one Honduran national, a Mexican national, and three El Salvadoran nationals—will be processed and removed, agents said.

“I’m proud of the great work by our agents arresting this gang member,” said Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke in the release. “Their hard work keeps our neighborhoods safe.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ), during the waning days of former President Donald Trump’s administration, said that some of MS-13’s highest-ranking leaders were charged with terrorism offenses.

According to the DOJ in January, “An indictment was unsealed in Central Islip, New York charging 14 of the world’s highest-ranking MS-13 leaders who are known today as the Ranfla Nacional, which operated as the Organization’s Board of Directors, and directed MS-13’s violence and criminal activity around the world for almost two decades.”

Borromeo Enrique Henriquez, aka “Diablito de Hollywood,” is widely recognized as the most powerful member of the Ranfla Nacional, and he and “10 other defendants are in custody in El Salvador.” The DOJ said it “will explore options for their extradition to the United States with the Government of El Salvador.”