Twice-deported, MS-13 gang suspect on El Salvador’s most wanted list arrested in Virginia

A fugitive listed as one of El Salvador’s top 100 most wanted criminals was arrested in Virginia earlier this month despite being deported to his home country twice before. 

Herberth Bonilla-Garcia, 40, was taken into custody on Dec. 1 by officers with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s department of Enforcement and Removal Operations.

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“Herberth Bonilla-Garcia has a history of unlawfully entering the U.S. and this time he apparently did so to escape justice in his home country,” said Assistant Field Office Director Erik Weiss of ERO Washington, D.C. “The United States is not a safe haven for the world’s criminals.”

The Central American nation issued arrest warrants in January and April 2015 for Bonilla-Garcia on suspicion of illicit association and aggravated extortion. Crime Stoppers El Salvador said Bonilla-Garcia is a member of the MS-13 street gang. 

Immigration authorities received a tip from the FBI on Oct. 14 that Bonilla-Garcia was possibly in Virginia. He is being held in ICE custody pending deportation to El Salvador. 

He was previously deported from the U.S. in 2006 and 2012. 

Street gangs in El Salvador have become one of the country’s biggest crime problems as members engage in murder and extortion, charging protection money from businesses, taxi cab and bus drivers and store owners. 

Lawmakers recently extended President Nayib Bukele’s emergency powers to crack down on gangs for the ninth straight month. The crackdown began in March following a surge in murders.