Two illegal immigrants from El Salvador, including a murderer with the MS-13 gang, are heading home following a bust that netted five grams of crystal methamphetamine in Sterling Heights last week, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“This is a major win for the U.S. Border Patrol and the safety of our communities,” Detroit Sector Acting Chief Patrol Agent Javier Geronimo Jr. said in a statement cited by WXYZ. “This arrest is a clear example of how agents and our law enforcement partners are protecting our towns by removing violent criminals from our country.”
Police in Sterling Heights contacted CBP on July 6 after holding the men involved in an altercation at a motel, and a records check revealed both were in the country illegally.
One of the men, who has an MS-13 tattoo on his chest, told officials in an interview he served two decades in an El Salvadorian prison for murdering a rival gang member, according to The Detroit News.
MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, is a vicious international gang, designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. government, that “rapes, maims, and tortures Americans and victims for sport,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.
In addition to the arrests, police seized over five grams of crystal meth during the incident. Both men are now being processed for removal amid the largest deportation program in U.S. history, initiated as promised by President Donald Trump on the first day of his second term.
The men are only the latest bad hombres arrested by federal immigration officials in Michigan and beyond in recent months.
Just last week, Lincoln Park police stopped a man for driving without a license and contacted agents with U.S. Border Patrol’s Gibralter Station, who identified the individual as Franh Enrique Yonkaiker Machado-Rivas, a 27-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela.
“Records checks revealed the individual … is wanted by the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, in connection with a homicide investigation in Venezuela,” according to a CBP statement.
In late March, ICE Detroit highlighted on X the arrest of another “illegal alien from Venezuela who is wanted for murder in his home country.”
ICE Detroit, along with our partners @FBIDetroit, @DEADetroitdiv, @ATFDetroit, and @USBPChiefDTM, continues to protect our communities by removing public safety threats, like this illegal alien from Venezuela who is wanted for murder in his home country. @HSIDetroit pic.twitter.com/9Gf1MuchAl
— ICE Detroit (@ERODetroit) March 25, 2025
Other senior MS-13 members in the country illegally were also arrested by ICE in Omaha, Nebraska last week, including two wanted for murder.
Special agents with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations arrested Rene Escobar-Ochoa in Omaha on July 9. Escobar-Ochoa, who faces an Interpol Red Notice from El Salvador for drug trafficking and conspiracy to commit murder, was previously detained by U.S. Border Patrol in 2023, but was allowed to remain in the country, according to a DHS notice.
That same operation netted another unnamed illegal immigrant from El Salvador who appears on the country’s 100 Most Wanted Fugitives list for five counts of murder, and was previously convicted in the U.S. of illegally crossing the border.
Both of the MS-13 members are now being processed for deportation in coordination with El Salvadoran authorities, according to DHS.
“The Biden Administration allowed two ringleaders of MS-13, one of the most violent gangs in the world, straight into our country. One of these depraved aliens is on El Salvador’s 100 Most Wanted Fugitives list and is wanted for five counts of murder. The other has an INTERPOL notice for drug trafficking. These are the kinds of scum-bags sanctuary politicians are protecting and letting walk free on America’s streets,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
