He has been charged for allegedly ordering acts of violence against civilians and law enforcement and for his role in transnational drug distribution schemes.
A high-ranking leader of the international Mara Salvatrucha gang, better known as MS-13, was arrested on narco-terrorism charges at the U.S.–Mexico border in San Diego earlier this month.
Federal authorities arrested Fredy Ivan Jandres-Parada, 48, also known as “Lucky De Park View“ at the San Ysidro Port of Entry March 7.
He has been charged for his alleged role in ordering numerous acts of violence against civilians, law enforcement, and rival gang members and in transnational drug distribution and extortion schemes.
The suspect is one of the senior leaders of MS-13’s Ranfla Nacional leadership council, formerly known as the Twelve Apostles of the Devil, which controls thousands of MS-13 members worldwide, according to the FBI.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued a federal warrant for his arrest in late December 2020, charging him with conspiracy to provide and conceal support and resources to terrorists, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to finance terrorism, and narco-terrorism conspiracy.
An indictment unsealed a month later reveals the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) strategy to target the upper echelon of MS-13 leadership—the Ranfla Nacional—in El Salvador to dismantle its command and ability to direct contingents in the United States.
Such contingents are known to be in various Los Angeles neighborhoods known by an area or street including Hollywood, Park View, Normandie, Francis, Fulton, and Coronado, according to the 31-page indictment.
Trump’s Crackdown
A 2020 DOJ report on the department’s efforts to combat MS-13 estimated the gang had 10,000 members across the U.S. and tens of thousands more worldwide and is “responsible for violent crimes in the United States, including murders, extortion, arms and drug trafficking, assaults, rapes, human trafficking, robberies, and kidnappings.”
Less than a month after he was sworn into office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing “the whole of government” to develop and execute a comprehensive and decisive approach to dismantle transnational criminal organizations, including MS-13, to “restore safety for the American people,” the DOJ report states.
“For decades, MS-13 has exploited weaknesses in U.S. immigration enforcement policies to move its members in and out of the United States and to recruit new members who have arrived in the United States illegally,” the report reads.
By Brad Jones
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