One of the "Most Wanted" MS-13 criminals was captured in Virginia on two homicide warrants.
The federal government has made the gang, MS-13, a law enforcement priority. Made up mostly of Central American immigrants, the gang's brutality has left a mark on communities all the way from Long Island, New York, to Los Angeles, California. In a speech last week before law enforcement, President Donald Trump promised that his administration is "going to destroy" the MS-13 gang. So far in 2017, federal and local law enforcement agents have arrested more than 1,000 MS-13 gang members. One of those arrests came this past weekend. Arlington Police, with the help of federal agents, arrested 20-year-old Douglas Alexander Herrera-Hernandez. The Salvadoran national went by the name "Terror" and was one of ICE's most wanted fugitives in Texas.
ICE first came into contact with Herrera in 2014 when he was captured by U.S. Border Patrol agents after entering the United States illegally. A judge ordered the illegal immigrant deported in June of 2015, however, Herrera skipped out on his court date.
Herrera resurfaced in 2016 when he became the chief suspect in a Texas murder investigation. Police also connected him to a second homicide in the Houston, Texas, area on June 9, 2017.
On July 26, the Texas Department of Public Safety issued an all-points bulletin (APB) for Douglas Herrera's arrest. Federal and local law enforcement in Virginia received notice that Herrera was likely in the state and Arlington Police were able to arrest Herrera while he was walking down Four Mile Run Drive.
Herrera is currently being held by Arlington PD. ICE has formally filed an immigration detainer to request possession of the suspect as soon as he is released from local custody. Arlington is not one of Virginia's "sanctuary cities," meaning that the local police tend to honor federal immigration detainers. However, because he is wanted on homicide charges in Texas, he will be extradited there first and ICE will have to file another immigration detainer in order to begin deportation proceedings.
