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High Ranking MS-13 Leader and Fugitive Wanted for Multiple Murders Found and Arrested in Long Island
Justice.gov ^ | April 2, 2025 | DOJ

Posted on 04/02/2025 6:15:44 PM PDT by ransomnote

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 re-entered the United States – had been a fugitive from justice for nearly four years.

“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,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “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.”

“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,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “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.”

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 re-entered the country.

The arrest operation was coordinated by the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division in Washington, D.C., with support from the FBI’s Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and New York field offices, the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section (VCRS), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada, and Joint Task Force Vulcan (JTFV).

JTFV, which was created in 2019 to destroy MS-13 and now expanded to target Tren de Aragua, is comprised of U.S. Attorney’s Offices across the country, including the Southern District of New York; the Eastern District of New York; the District of New Jersey; the Northern District of Ohio; the District of Utah; the District of Massachusetts; the Eastern District of Texas; the Southern District of Florida; the Eastern District of Virginia; the Southern District of California; the District of Nevada; the District of Alaska; the Southern District of Texas; and the District of Columbia, as well as the Department of Justice’s National Security Division and the Criminal Division. Additionally, the FBI; DEA; HSI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals Service; and the Federal Bureau of Prisons have been essential law enforcement partners with JTFV.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America and an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) operation. Operation Take Back America is a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

Vargas-Escobar appeared this morning for his initial court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge James M. Wicks of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York – Central Islip. He was ordered detained and will be transferred to the District of Nevada for trial. If convicted, Vargas-Escobar faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

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.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Updated April 2, 2025



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: aliens; arrest; boasbergsbuddy; california; catchandrelease; elsalvador; gwot; joelvargasescobar; jtfv; longisland; momia; ms13; murder; murderer; narcoterrorists; newyork; optakebackamerica; takebackamerica; vargasescobar
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You would think El Savador would like to extradite him back to their country, and introduce Vargas-Escobar to their high security prison. He must know this - how does someone in his position sleep nights now?
1 posted on 04/02/2025 6:15:44 PM PDT by ransomnote
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To: ransomnote

Another fugitive was arrested for littering and they found his long arrest record. What a stupid slob.


2 posted on 04/02/2025 6:16:54 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: ransomnote

RE: He must know this - how does someone in his position sleep nights now?


Series of TV ads with the great Lionel Richie classic “All Night Long.”

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/6NA7/mattress-firm-memorial-day-sale-how-this-fan-sleeps-at-night-song-by-lionel-richie


3 posted on 04/02/2025 6:20:10 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: ransomnote

Send him to Boasberg’s house.


4 posted on 04/02/2025 6:20:17 PM PDT by HYPOCRACY (Long live The Great MAGA Kangz!)
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To: ransomnote

Oh, well wait for Boasberg to screw things up.


5 posted on 04/02/2025 6:21:24 PM PDT by madison10 (God chose President Trump. Satan chose judges and Democrats.)
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To: ransomnote

“Every unpunished murder takes away something from the security of every man’s life.” Daniel Webster


6 posted on 04/02/2025 6:25:39 PM PDT by ryderann
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To: frank ballenger

Just be glad they haven’t figured out how to blend in in a small rural community. Of course they could never blend in with all the facial tattoos.


7 posted on 04/02/2025 6:28:35 PM PDT by eastforker (All in, I'm all Trump,what you got!)
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To: HYPOCRACY

Send him to Boasberg’s house.

Yes or John Roberts’ house. That might wake him up.


8 posted on 04/02/2025 6:38:30 PM PDT by boycott
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To: madison10

“Oh, well wait for Boasberg to screw things up.”

Exactly.


9 posted on 04/02/2025 6:39:02 PM PDT by Parley Baer
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To: ransomnote

Small dingy with a sail launched 10 miles out with him in it.


10 posted on 04/02/2025 6:43:55 PM PDT by kvanbrunt2
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To: ransomnote

Great news!


11 posted on 04/02/2025 6:44:26 PM PDT by Rusty0604 (W looking for new conspiracy theories as all the old ones have come true)
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To: ransomnote

Some traffic judge will order him to be released on his own recognizance..............


12 posted on 04/02/2025 6:45:24 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: ryderann

Love it.

I’ll try to use that in the future.


13 posted on 04/02/2025 6:47:00 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: ransomnote

These so-called journalists are terrible. In the headlines they say he was arrested in Long Island. You have to read an entire page to try to find out where. Even then you read the court was in Islip but never where he was arrested.


14 posted on 04/02/2025 6:49:23 PM PDT by ladyjane
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To: kvanbrunt2
Small dingy with a sail launched 10 miles out with him in it.

Yep, small job. wouldn't take long.

15 posted on 04/02/2025 7:00:01 PM PDT by onona
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To: ladyjane

I read the whole thing to find out where he was arrested. No clue

I saw one of these b yards at the Huntington st pats day parade a few years ago. What are they doing downtown Huntington. Invasion indeed


16 posted on 04/02/2025 7:04:22 PM PDT by stanne (Because they were mesmerized by Obama, the man for whom this was named, whose name they left out of )
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To: ladyjane

He was arrested in Westbury, NY which is in Nassau county. Islip is pronounced like ICE-lip, and is is Suffolk county.


17 posted on 04/02/2025 7:05:05 PM PDT by woodpusher
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To: ladyjane

guessing in the Babylon vicinity where previous brutal murders occurred — ~10 miles west of East Islip


18 posted on 04/02/2025 7:09:02 PM PDT by Gene Eric
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To: ransomnote

Extradite him back to El Salvador and let them deal with him.


19 posted on 04/02/2025 7:11:21 PM PDT by wjcsux (On 3/14/1883 Karl Marx gave humanity his best gift, he died. )
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To: ladyjane

I was wondering the same.

Journalist today are dummies who suck at their jobs.


20 posted on 04/02/2025 7:28:15 PM PDT by AAABEST (That time Washington0 DC became a corrupted, existential threat to us all...)
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