Two illegal aliens from El Salvador, identified as members of the notorious MS-13 gang, were arrested in Houston on February 27 and appeared in court on March 1 to face charges of aggravated kidnapping and murder.
Prosecutors have alleged that MS-13 gang leader Miguel Angel Alvarez-Flores, 22, whose nickname is “Diabolico”(one who is diabolical or of the devil) and Diego Alexan Hernandez-Rivera, 18, held a 14-year-old girl against her will for four days at one apartment and two weeks at another location. During that time, gang members forced drugs and alcohol on her to keep her disoriented and submissive, sexually assaulted her multiple times, and Flores tattooed an image of the grim reaper from her knee to her foot. The murder case relates to the February 16 discovery of the body of another young woman next to a curb along a Houston street.
The Houston Chronicle reported that the teenage girl who was kidnapped and sexually assaulted was able to identify the murder victim as a young woman who was held at the same apartment she was. She knew the slain girl only as “Genesis.”
During the court hearing, the kidnap victim testified that Genesis allegedly made an outburst against the gang members’ Satanic rituals and shrine, after which Alvarez-Flores declared that the “Beast” required a soul sacrifice, the Chronicle reported.
When the kidnapping victim woke up the day after that incident, Genesis was gone.
The Chronicle report noted that Prosecutor Lisa Collins told the judge on March 2 that Hernandez-Rivera told police that he led the woman known as Genesis to a remote area and shot her twice. Court records noted that the two suspects had been identified as MS-13 gang members from El Salvador. A bond was set at $150,000 for each suspect, but because they have been identified as illegal aliens, if they cannot raise that amount they will be held by federal immigration authorities.
ABC’s Houston affiliate KTRK reported that the two suspects smiled and waved to the cameras before the charges were read against them, as if they thought the violent crimes were a joking matter.
A March 3 report from CNN provided some enlightening information for those unfamiliar with MS-13 and its history of violent activities. The report cites the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts, which said that the gang, which is also known as La Mara Salvatrucha, one of the largest criminal organizations in the United States.
The Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office reported that in 2012, MS-13 became the first, and remains the only, street gang designated by the U.S. government as a “transnational criminal organization.”
CNN observed that the Justice Department regards MS-13 as such a major threat that the FBI created the MS-13 National Gang Task Force in 2004.
The report went on to cite a statement from the US Attorney’s Office noting:
MS-13 is one of the largest criminal organizations in the country, with more than 6,000 members in at least 46 states and the District of Columbia, the US Attorney’s Office said. In addition, more than 30,000 members operate internationally, mostly in El Salvador, Honduras, [and] Guatemala.
In our article posted on July 9, 2014, we reported that a then-recent internal summary of Border Patrol operations at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Nogales (Arizona) Placement Center stated that 16 unaccompanied immigrant children being held at the facility are members of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13).
The summary, which was obtained by the Townhall online magazine, noted that Border Patrol officials at Nogales were alerted to the MS-13 presence among the detainees when they discovered gang-related graffiti on the walls of the processing center. It stated:
Border Patrol Agents (BPAs) and Customs and Border Protection Officers (CBPOs), assigned to The Nogales Placement Center (NPC), discovered that 16 unaccompanied alien children (13 El Salvadoran males, two Guatemalan males and one Honduran male) currently being held at the NPC are members of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). The MS-13 gang members admitted to their gang associations following a discovery of graffiti at the NPC. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) were notified.
In an earlier article we published on June 16, 2014, Chris Cabrera, the vice president of the National Border Patrol Council Local 3307 in the Rio Grande Valley, told National Review that Border Patrol agents had reunited identified gang members with their families in the United States. An officer had recently told Cabrera about a known teen member of MS-13 whom he was powerless to stop entering the country. Cabrera asked, in frustration: “If he’s a confirmed gang member in his own country, why are we letting him in here?”
“I’ve heard people come in and say, ‘You’re going to let me go, just like you let my mother go, just like you let my sister go. You’re going to let me go as well, and the government’s going to take care of us,’” Cabrera said. “Until we start mandatory detentions, mandatory removals, I don’t think anything is going to change. As a matter of fact, I think it’s going to get worse.”
How much worse can things get? As we just saw from the kidnapping, rape, torture, and murder in Houston, presumably by MS-13 members, much worse.
Related articles:
Illegal Immigrant “Children” Include MS-13 Gang Members
Flood of Illegal Immigrants Now Includes Gang Members
Obama Administration’s Futile Response to Illegal Immigrant Minors
Obama Administration Weakens Illegal Immigration Enforcement
Report: Obama Immigration Policy Partly Responsible for Deaths of Americans