High Ranking MS-13 Leader And Fugitive Wanted For Multiple Murders Found And Arrested In Long Island
LAS VEGAS — Last night, a high-ranking leader of La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, was arrested in New York for his alleged role in a conspiracy responsible for 11 murders.
Joel Vargas-Escobar, also known as Momia, was indicted the District of Nevada and charged with racketeering conspiracy that involved 11 murders. Vargas-Escobar is also charged with two counts of murder-in-aid of racketeering and associated firearms charges. Vargas-Escobar – who previously had been deported to El Salvador and illegally reentered the United States – had been a fugitive from justice for nearly four years.
According to court documents, MS-13 is a national and transnational gang composed largely of individuals of Salvadoran or other Central American descent. MS-13 has more than 10,000 members regularly conducting gang activities in at least 10 states and Washington, D.C., with thousands more conducting gang activities in Central America and Mexico. MS-13 operates through the use of intimidation and violence, including murder, and enriching members and associates through criminal activities, including breaking into houses and stealing firearms, jewelry, cash, and other items of value, and selling narcotics. MS-13 is organized by subsets known as “cliques,” and each clique typically has one or more leaders, commonly referred to as “shot callers.”
Vargas-Escobar and his co-defendants are allegedly part of MS-13’s command and control structure in Las Vegas and California and exercised significant leadership roles in the organization’s operations. The indictment charges members of the “Parkview” clique of MS-13 with committing 11 murders over about a year in Nevada and California. According to the indictment, many of the victims were allegedly kidnapped by MS-13 members and taken to remote locations in the mountains and desert where they were tortured and killed.
Vargas-Escobar was the alleged leader of the Parkview clique of MS-13 in Las Vegas and personally ordered two of the charged murders. He was deported to El Salvador in 2018 but illegally reentered the country.
The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Christopher Taylor and Justin Bish from the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Melanee Smith and Steven Rose for the District of Nevada, with substantial assistance from Joint Task Force Vulcan Deputy Director Jeremy Franker, as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-nv/pr/high-ranking-ms-13-leader-and-fugitive-wanted-multiple-murders-found-and-arrested-long