A senior chief of the MS-13 road gang who was one of many FBI’s most wished gang fugitives was quietly arrested earlier this month on the California-Mexico border on narco-terrorism costs, authorities stated.
Freddy Ivan Jandres-Parada, 48, often known as Fortunate De Park View, was taken into custody on March 7 by federal authorities on the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego County, sources advised The Instances. Federal officers didn’t disclose any particulars in regards to the arrest.
Jandres-Parada’s apprehension, first reported by Courtroom Watch, comes greater than three years after his indictment in December 2020 on terrorism offenses regarding the course of MS-13’s legal actions within the U.S., El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico for practically twenty years, in response to federal courtroom paperwork.
He’s a member of MS-13 ’s management council, initially often known as the Twelve Apostles of the Satan and later renamed Ranfla Nacional, which controls 1000’s of MS-13 members worldwide, authorities stated.
He and 13 different MS-13 leaders have been indicted within the Japanese District of New York for his or her roles in dozens of killings, varied different acts of violence, intimidation and materials help of terrorists in El Salvador and all through the USA, in response to federal courtroom paperwork.
The Ranfla Nacional “managed the method for recruitment of recent members and development to greater ranks.” It additionally points “‘inexperienced lights’ to execute law enforcement officials, rivals, disloyal gang members or anybody it considers a snitch,” in response to the indictment.
MS-13 killings are sometimes carried out with machetes, the gang’s weapon of alternative, with a purpose to ship intimidating messages to enemies and people deemed to be disloyal.
Jandres-Parada’s rise in management mirrors the rise of MS-13, often known as La Mara Salvatrucha. Born in Jiquilisco, El Salvador, he turned a part of MS-13 because it advanced from a road gang within the Westlake space close to downtown Los Angeles within the Nineteen Eighties. He was convicted in 1994 of trafficking narcotics in L.A. County and despatched to state jail for 3 years, in response to courtroom paperwork.
In L.A., greater than a dozen MS-13 cliques are based mostly in traditionally immigrant neighborhoods corresponding to Westlake, Pico-Union, Koreatown and Hollywood, authorities stated.
Quickly after he was launched, Jandres-Parada was arrested once more, for possession of a firearm, and sentenced to a few years in jail, authorities stated. Like many in MS-13, he was despatched again to El Salvador, the place the gang grew into a large pressure with political energy.
As MS-13 gang members have been returned to Central America, their numbers expanded throughout that area, even taking management of native prisons. A few of those that immigrated to the U.S. arrange new cliques, from Virginia to Tennessee to Nevada, in response to the courtroom paperwork. The gang construction is fueled by money from drug trafficking, extortion and kidnappings, prosecutors stated.
When Jandres-Parada returned to the U.S., he was apprehended once more and served time for unlawful reentry earlier than being deported once more to El Salvador. There, authorities say, he continued to run MS-13’s intensive transnational operations.
Beneath the gang’s energy construction, bottom-rung cliques function in regional tiers and zones, whose leaders report back to road and jail bosses, who then report back to the Ranfla Nacional. In accordance with the indictment, greater than 200 cliques exist within the U.S., El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, and the gang has even expanded into Mexico, working with varied drug cartels.
In New York, Jandres-Parada faces costs of conspiracy to offer and conceal materials help and assets to terrorists, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending nationwide boundaries and conspiracy to finance terrorism.
In accordance with the indictment, the MS-13 hierarchy carries political affect throughout Central America and for a time even reached a truce with El Salvador’s political leaders. By 2016, the gang was conducting militarized coaching operations for its members that included the usage of improvised explosive gadgets, in response to authorities.
In the meantime, Jandres-Parada is just not the one MS-13 chief who has been caught in current months. In November of 2023, Elmer Canales-Rivera, often known as Criminal de Hollywood, was arrested at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.
“We allege that Elmer Canales-Rivera, a founding member of MS-13’s ‘Twelve Apostles of the Satan,’ bears accountability for the gang’s efforts over a long time to terrorize communities, goal legislation enforcement, and sow violence right here in the USA and overseas,” U.S. Atty. Gen. Merrick B. Garland stated in an announcement after his arrest.
Almost all MS-13 inmates in federal custody are being held for their very own safety at a single penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pa., in response to sources who weren’t licensed to debate jail safety preparations and requested anonymity.