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Six of the seven people charged with fatally stabbing a man in the Loch Raven neighborhood of Baltimore County, Maryland, in July have been identified by federal officials as being part of the violent MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha) gang and were in the country illegally, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson said recently.
The Baltimore County Police Department announced on September 3 that seven suspects had been 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 Loch Raven and had “multiple sharp-force injuries,” noted an official news release.
Back on September 4, Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger called the crime a gang-related homicide and, since then, ICE found six of the suspects in the federal gang database.
The ICE spokeswoman said that of the six who are in the United States illegally, five are Salvadoran and one is Mexican.
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The spokeswoman told Fox News on September 8 that the agency has issued six immigration detainers, which were lodged once the individuals entered local law-enforcement custody on murder charges.
In its September 9 coverage of this latest murder involving MS-13 members, WJZ-TV, the CBS station in Baltimore, quoted Tony Avendorph, identified as a retired gang investigator in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and Los Angeles.
“I wouldn’t be a bit surprised Baltimore County doesn’t also have a gang database and they were aware of [the MS-13 presence],” Avendorph said.
WJZ reported that President Trump “has frequently lashed out at MS-13, tying the gang to the immigration debate, which critics believe is a way to demonize immigrants.”
The report observed that in 2017, Jeff Sessions, who was U.S. attorney general at the time, came to Baltimore to speak about MS-13, and he referenced the murder of 15-year-old Demaris Reyes, who was tortured and stabbed to death two years ago. “MS-13 is one of the most dangerous gangs in America,” Sessions told reporters. “A 15-year old girl from near here in Gaithersburg was stabbed 13 times with knives and a wooden stake by MS-13 members. Her killers filmed the murder so they could show their leaders back in El Salvador.”
We reported back in 2017 that two illegal aliens from El Salvador, identified as members of MS-13, had been arrested in Houston and appeared in court to face charges of aggravated kidnapping and sexual assault of one teenage girl and the murder of another.
In an earlier report back in 2014 we noted that an 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 were members of MS-13.
MS-13 was established in Los Angeles in the 1980s among immigrants from El Salvador. Many gang members were deported after being arrested, and because of the deportations, MS-13 leaders turned to recruiting more members back in Central America, members who have, in turn, illegally entered the United States.
Image of suspects: Screenshot of a video by WJZ 13, Maryland
Related articles:
Illegal Alien MS-13 Gang Members Charged With Kidnapping, Rape, and Murder in Houston
Illegal Immigrant “Children” Include MS-13 Gang Members
Flood of Illegal Immigrants Now Includes Gang Members
Warren Mass has served The New American since its launch in 1985 in several capacities, including marketing, editing, and writing. Since retiring from the staff several years ago, he has been a regular contributor to the magazine. Warren writes from Texas and can be reached at [email protected].
