Senior leader of international criminal organization MS-13 arrested after 4 years on the run, court documents say

(CNN) — After four years on the run, the senior leader of MS-13, one of the largest international criminal organizations, was captured this month in Southern California on terrorism charges, according to court documents.

Freddy Ivan Jandres Parada was charged by federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York in December 2020 with being a member of the board of directors of MS-13, known as Ranfla Nacional, along with a dozen other MS-13 members. His accusation. Federal authorities have been searching for him ever since, offering a reward for his capture on the FBI’s most wanted list.

Jandres-Parada was arrested by the FBI on March 7 in San Diego, according to federal officials. According to the March 8 arrest warrant, he waived his right to bail. CNN is working to identify a defense attorney for Jandres-Parada.

Federal prosecutors charged the alleged gang members with material support for terrorism and narcoterrorism, alleging that the group “runs military-style training camps; weapons, pistols, rifles, grenades, improvised explosive devices (‘IEDs’) and rocket launchers”. , and “directed acts of violence and killing in El Salvador, the United States and elsewhere,” the indictment says.

Freddy Ivan Jandres-Parada appears in an undated photo included on an FBI wanted poster. (Credit: FBI)

Jandres Parda is one of a dozen national RANFL leaders charged with conspiracy to provide and conceal material support and resources to terrorists, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism that cross national borders, conspiracy to finance terrorism, and conspiracy to commit narcoterrorism. Accusation

As a member of Renfla Nacional, Jandres-Parada and others allegedly controlled MS-13 activities, including sanctioning murders, assaults and kidnappings, extortion, drug trafficking, and other criminal activities.

Jandres-Parada is being held at a federal prison in San Diego, according to inmate records, and will be transferred to federal custody in New York, where he was charged, to await trial.

CNN has reached out to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York for comment.

The MS-13 gang was founded in the United States in the 1980s by Central American immigrants in Southern California, according to a 2020 indictment by Jendress-Parada.

A 2008 FBI Threat Assessment says MS-13 members have cut off rivals’ fingers with knives, brutally murdered suspected informants, and committed rape, assault and other crimes.

Members dispersed into local neighborhood groups, or “clicoes,” but many of them were deported to Central American countries where MS-13 membership swelled into the thousands, the indictment says.

Many of those members returned to the United States, often illegally, and rejoined MS-13 “cliques” that expanded into dozens of states, including New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, Texas, California and Nevada.

In New York, at least a dozen alleged MS-13 members were charged in 2017 with seven murders in three years on Long Island, including the deaths of three high school students in 2016, the US attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York said. NY.