| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| Authorities arrest member of MS-13 gang |
| 2005-06-29 |
| CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - A member of a violent gang with roots in El Salvador has been arrested as part of a nationwide crackdown, officials announced Wednesday. Giovanni Bermudez-Arevalo, 26, was arrested last week along with 15 other illegal immigrants after the Bee County Sheriff's Department stopped the van they were in during a traffic stop. Agents with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol realized Bermudez-Arevalo was part of the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gang after noticing various tattoos and body markings common among the group's members. Bermudez-Arevalo, from El Salvador, admitted being a member of MS-13 since joining in Los Angeles in 1995. He said he quit the gang after two years of frequent fights with rival gang members, U.S. immigration officials said. Bermudez-Arevalo was convicted on drug charges in October 2002 and ordered deported in July 2004. ICE agents confirmed Bermudez-Arevalo had entered the country in 1988 as a permanent resident, but lost his status after his criminal conviction. He admitted re-entering illegally to visit his mother in New Jersey. Bermudez-Arevalo faces federal charges for illegally re-entering the country after being deported. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. His arrest was part of Operation Community Shield, a national effort launched in January by ICE to target and dismantle violent street gangs across the country. More than 200 members of the MS-13 gang have been arrested since the operation began. |
| Posted by:Steve |