ICE Arrests MS-13 Member Wanted for El Salvador Murder

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested David Antonio Aviles Perez, a 35-year-old member of the MS-13 gang, in San Diego, California, last week, following an international warrant for his role in a 2014 murder in El Salvador. Perez, who had been living in the United States without legal authorization, faces deportation to serve a 20-year prison sentence for aggravated homicide in his home country.

The arrest occurred on March 26, according to Department of Homeland Security officials. Perez, also known by the alias "la bruja" or "the witch," was taken into custody without incident and remains detained pending removal proceedings. Authorities in El Salvador issued the warrant after convicting him in December for the killing of a rival gang member in the town of Yucuaiquín in La Unión province. According to the Salvadoran attorney general's office, Perez and an accomplice, Ismael Enrique Mendoza Flores, pursued the victim during a dispute, forced him to kneel, and shot him multiple times in the chest, back, and face.

Perez's entry into the United States remains unclear, but his criminal activity resurfaced there nearly a decade after the El Salvador incident. On...