Gang and Organized Crime

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in San Diego have arrested 35‑year‑old David Antonio Aviles Perez, an accused MS‑13 member known as “la bruja” (“the witch”) who is wanted in El Salvador for aggravated murder and had previously been arrested and released in California in 2023. According to DHS, Aviles Perez was sentenced in El Salvador to 20 years in prison for a 2014 gang killing in which prosecutors say he shot a victim in the chest, back and face, but he later surfaced in California, where he was arrested in Monterey on charges including assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly swinging a machete at a homeless man, as well as drug and petty‑theft counts. He was convicted on the California charges and then released, with DHS officials now blaming Gov. Gavin Newsom’s sanctuary policies for preventing local authorities from transferring him to immigration custody at that time. Acting Assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis called him a “dangerous criminal illegal alien and MS‑13 gang member” and said he is now being held pending removal to El Salvador, contrasting the current Trump‑era detention with what officials characterize as a Biden‑era catch‑and‑release. The case is being used in partisan debate as an example of how sanctuary limits on cooperation with ICE can allow violent offenders with foreign murder warrants to be released back into U.S. communities, even as critics note the article relies heavily on DHS characterizations and leaves questions about when and how Aviles Perez re‑entered the country.

Federal prosecutors in Las Vegas have begun trying three alleged MS-13 members and associates — Jose Luis Reynaldo Reyes-Castillo, David Arturo Perez-Manchame and Joel Vargas-Escobar — on a 34-count racketeering indictment tied to at least 11 killings in California and Nevada. In opening statements before U.S. District Judge Gloria M. Navarro, Assistant U.S. Attorney Melanee Smith told jurors the defendants "went out hunting" for people to kill, describing a years-long pattern of extreme violence aimed at boosting status within the gang. The charges include murder, attempted murder, kidnapping in aid of racketeering, use of firearms during crimes of violence, and causing death with a firearm, with victims allegedly targeted on little more than suspicion of rival-gang ties. Prosecutors highlighted especially brutal attacks, including the stabbing deaths of 19-year-old Abel Rodriguez, 21-year-old Arquimidez Sandoval-Martinez and Izaak Towery, who was abducted and stabbed 235 times after being mistakenly identified as a rival. The FBI-led case, which began with 2018 arrests after weapons were found in a vehicle linked to the suspects, is expected to last up to three months and underscores ongoing concerns about transnational gang violence and cross-state racketeering in the western U.S.