Federal law enforcement agents arrested another high-ranking MS-13 member, marking the Trump administration’s latest blow to the international criminal syndicate’s stateside operations.
Joel Vargas-Escobar was arrested Tuesday night in New York, according to an announcement from the Department of Justice (DOJ). A previously deported illegal migrant from El Salvador, Vargas-Escobar had been on the run from U.S. authorities for several years on numerous criminal charges, including a racketeering conspiracy involving 11 different murders.
The major bust follows the administration’s March arrest of another MS-13 leader in northern Virginia, who prosecutors say was in charge of the gang’s East Coast operations.
“The arrest of yet another violent and dangerous MS-13 leader is a major win for our FBI agents, law enforcement partners, and safer American streets,” FBI Director Kash Patel said Wednesday in a prepared statement. “Our agents and analysts are continuously coordinating across multiple field offices and investigating with our valued partners to keep this work going — and we will not stop until that work is done.”
Vargas-Escobar was allegedly a leader of the “Parkview clique,” wielding significant control of the gang’s command structure out of California and Las Vegas, according to the DOJ.
Members of the Parkview clique are charged with committing 11 murders in roughly a year in California and Nevada, according to prosecutors. Many of the group’s victims were allegedly kidnapped, taken to remote locations in the desert and mountains, tortured and ultimately killed. As a leader of the Parkview clique in Las Vegas, he allegedly personally ordered two of the charged murders.
Despite being deported back to his home country in 2018, he unlawfully re-entered the U.S. before allegedly going on to orchestrate more crimes.
“The American people are safer following the arrest of yet another MS-13 leader thanks to the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and Joint Task Force Vulcan,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi stated. “This terrorist entered our country illegally and is accused of orchestrating 11 murders — under President Trump’s leadership, we will not rest until this terrorist organization is completely dismantled and its members are behind bars.”
A transnational gang with a presence in numerous countries, MS-13 is largely made of individuals of Salvadoran or other Central American descent, according to the DOJ. There are believed to be more than 10,000 MS-13 members “regularly conducting gang activities” in Washington, D.C., and at least 10 states across the country, with thousands of others working in Mexico and Central America.
The gang is organized by divisions known as “cliques” and leaders of these subsets like Vargas-Escobar are usually referred to as “shot callers.”
The arrest marks a major win in the Trump administration’s war against organized crime. Since re-entering office, Trump has designated MS-13 and other heinous international gangs like Tren de Aragua as foreign terrorist organizations, allowing federal law enforcement officials to better utilize resources against them.
The White House has also made it a top priority for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain and deport criminal illegal migrants, going so far as to secure a deal with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to allow for the transfer of MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gangbangers to his newly-built mega-prison facility.
It’s not likely Vargas-Escobar will have a chance to be set loose on American streets ever again. If convicted, the Salvadoran national faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison, according to the DOJ.
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