An MS-13 gang leader whom authorities have been pursuing for more than three years was arrested in Houston, Texas, on Sunday.
Authorities from the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations detained Cesar Humberto Lopez Larios at George Bush Intercontinental Airport and charged him with several offenses, KHOU reported. report Thursday.
image show The suspect is a gang leader.
🚨BREAKING: A top leader of the notorious international gang MS-13 was arrested at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
Cesar Humberto Lopez Larios (45), known as one of the original “Twelve Apostles of the Devil,” has been on the run for more than three years and is finally… pic.twitter.com/SpNNe24C9e
— I Exist Because I’m a Meme 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) June 13, 2024
In a press release on Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York detail The case states Lopez Larios was a member of “the former Twelve Satanic Disciples and Ranfra National Leadership Organization of MS-13 in El Salvador, Mexico and the United States.”
The department went on to say that the suspect is charged with conspiracy to provide and conceal material support to terrorists, conspiracy to commit transnational terrorism, conspiracy to commit terrorist financing and conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism.
As described in the indictment and related court documents, Lopez Larios and his co-defendants were part of MS-13’s command and control structure, Ranfra Nacional, Ranfra en las Callesand Ranfla of Los Peñales. They play key leadership roles in the organization’s operations in El Salvador, Mexico, the United States, and around the world. In total, 27 of MS-13’s highest-ranking leaders have been charged in this and related indictments in the Eastern District of New York. United States v. Arevalo Chavez et al..
Additionally, beginning around 2002, Lopez-Larios, his co-defendants, and other MS-13 leaders allegedly began to establish a highly organized, hierarchical command and control structure as a means of implementing their decisions and enforcing their orders while in prison. They orchestrated violence and murder in El Salvador, the United States, and elsewhere, established military-style training camps for MS-13 members, and acquired military-style weaponry, including rifles, handguns, grenades, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and rocket launchers. Additionally, beginning around 2012, Lopez-Larios and other members of MS-13 began to Ranfra Nacional Negotiated with officials in the Government of El Salvador (GOES) and obtained benefits and concessions from the government. To extort these benefits and concessions, MS-13 has openly engaged in violent acts to threaten and intimidate civilians, target GOES law enforcement and military personnel, and manipulate El Salvador’s electoral process.
In 2019 report According to news.com.au, MS-13 is the most violent gang on the planet, with its criminal activities including mutilation, murder, drug trafficking and human trafficking.
“Most of the gang members who originated in Los Angeles are from El Salvador,” the outlet reported.
To read more articles about the MS-13 gang, click here.
