DHS arrests El Salvador’s most wanted MS-13 leader among Virginia fugitives

EXCLUSIVE: Immigration has become a defining issue in Virginia, as voters wonder which candidates will best protect their families after Homeland Security told Fox News Digital that several of the “worst of the worst” offenders were arrested in the state this week.

Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican nominee, attested to being the candidate focused on protecting Virginians, while former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger highlighted her resume as a federal agent when pressed on law and order issues.

In the highest-profile arrest, DHS announced the capture of El Salvador’s most wanted MS-13 leader, who was also among the most wanted fugitives.

Ismael Enrique Mendoza Flores, known as “El Calaco” (The Skeleton), was wanted in El Salvador on charges of aggravated homicide and illicit associations – and he had previously been charged in the United States with unauthorized use of a vehicle.

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Tricia McLaughlin, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, left; ICE agents, that’s right. (EDS; ICE)

ICE arrested Flores in Alexandria, citing an active arrest warrant from San Salvador. He was previously arrested in Virginia for unauthorized use of a vehicle.

Flores reportedly told authorities that he entered the United States during the Obama administration, to which DHS said it would not let the “Democratic government shutdown prevent” law enforcement from securing the border at this point.

“This MS-13 gang member was wanted for murder. These are the types of criminal illegal aliens that Virginia’s sanctuary politicians protect while demonizing law enforcement,” said Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

“President Trump and Secretary Noem will not allow gang members to terrorize American citizens.”

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Speaking about the captures as a whole, McLaughlin added that politicians have for too long allowed violent foreign criminals to victimize innocent Americans through lax border policies.

DHS also secured the detentions of two juveniles whose speeding on northbound I-295 near the Chickahominy River east of Richmond attracted the attention of Hanover County police.

The occupants of the speeding BMW allegedly fired guns as they raced toward the Henrico County line. A Hanover deputy who had stopped another motorist spotted the car and pursued it. Reports indicate the two youths then crashed the car off the Mechanicsville Turnpike, approaching the Richmond city limit.

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Sent to a juvenile detention center in Williamsburg, the youths faced multiple charges when DHS intervened, with McLaughlin telling Fox News Digital that they had been released as “unscreened” migrants by the Biden administration.

“ICE has filed an arrest warrant to ensure these threats to public safety are not released onto Virginia’s roadways,” she said.

A convicted pedophile from Guatemala was also arrested in connection with DHS operations in the Old Dominion.

Rick Martinez-Lopez’s criminal record in the Commonwealth includes sexual assault of a child, failure to register as a sex offender and a probation violation.

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The Richmond City Jail had told DHS it would not honor an inmate placed on Martinez-Lopez in August — and instead released the child predator.

ICE then caught up with him, the department said, with McLaughlin blaming officials in the former capital of the Confederacy for allowing the pedophile to “move freely.”

“(It’s) barbaric,” she said. “It is unconscionable to think that sanctuary politicians and political activists would rather protect this sick man than our own country’s children. Every sanctuary politician in Virginia is endangering the safety of Americans with their dangerous and lawless policies.”

Another violent illegal immigrant, Ricardo Leonel Mejia of El Salvador, was convicted of repeatedly raping an 11-year-old Virginia child.

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He was arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison before DHS stepped in and requested his own detention.

McLaughlin said Mejia had been deemed a “non-enforcement priority” by the Biden administration, allowing him to remain on the streets.

Mejia had been hired to renovate the bathroom of a Virginia Beach home, during which time he raped a young girl three times.

Mejia told the court that he was “going through difficult times” and that he was “sorry for the pain (the girl) is going through.”

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Earle-Sears, who once represented the resort in the House of Delegates in the 2000s, said she was “sickened beyond belief” over the matter.

Fox News Digital has reached out to both campaigns for further comment on the arrests and their significance ahead of the November election.