Fugitive Las Vegas MS-13 leader arrested in New York

A “high-ranking” MS-13 member who helped oversee a series of killings as part of the gang’s Las Vegas leadership and who had been a fugitive for close to four years has been arrested in New York, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Joel Vargas-Escobar, who authorities allege is a leader of La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, was arrested in Westbury, New York, for his role in a “conspiracy responsible for 11 murders,” according to the Department of Justice and court records.

Vargas-Escobar, who also goes by the name “Momia,” faces “murder-in-aid of racketeering and associated firearms charges,” a DOJ news release said. A 57-page superseding indictment returned Feb. 25 in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas outlined the allegations against Vargas-Escobar.

“This terrorist entered our country illegally and is accused of orchestrating 11 murders,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the news release. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we will not rest until this terrorist organization is completely dismantled and its members are behind bars.”

Vargas-Escobar made an initial appearance in court in New York on Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge James Wicks. He was ordered detained and was set to be transferred to Nevada for trial.

If convicted, Vargas-Escobar faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Illegally re-entered U.S., prosecutors allege

In 2018, authorities said, Vargas-Escobar, 29, was deported to El Salvador. He later illegally re-entered the United States, authorities said.

His whereabouts had been unknown to law enforcement for nearly four years, according to federal officials and court records.

In August 2021, Vargas-Escobar was among a group of four MS-13 gang members included in a superseding indictment in what authorities at the time described as a racketeering conspiracy involving a number of murders, kidnappings, burglaries and drug trafficking crimes.

The other three gang members who were indicted in 2021 were Luis Reynaldo Reyes-Castillo, David Arturo Perez-Manchame and Alexander De Jesus Figueroa-Torres.

Reyes-Castillo and Perez-Manchame have remained in “continuous custody” after being arrested by Metropolitan Police Department officers in March 2018, according to court documents.

An arrest warrant was issued for Vargas-Escobar and Figueroa-Torres on Aug. 4, 2021, according to court records. In January 2024, Figueroa-Torres “voluntarily re-entered the United States and was arrested in Texas on immigration-related charges,” court records show.

All four defendants are scheduled to go to trial April 21, court records show.

Victims kidnapped, tortured and killed, prosecutors said

“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,” Bondi said.

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, according to the indictment.

The four were known members, the release said, of the “Parkview” clique of MS-13. According to the indictment, some of the victims of the clique were allegedly kidnapped and taken to “remote locations in the mountains and desert,” where they were tortured and killed.

The crimes were allegedly committed during a period that began in March 2017. Vargas-Escobar was the leader of the Parkview clique of MS-13 in Las Vegas and personally ordered two of the charged murders, prosecutors alleged.

In January 2018, Reyes-Castillo and Perez-Manchame, with other MS-13 members, “attempted to kill a group of individuals suspected of being rival gang members near a 7-Eleven store at Sahara Avenue and Arville Street in Las Vegas,” according to the indictment.

In 2018, members of the gang, including Reyes-Castillo and Perez-Manchame, were charged in the death of Arquimidez Sandoval-Martinez, whose body was found in a desert area east of Las Vegas, two weeks after he disappeared.

Authorities at the time said that Sandoval-Martinez, last seen by friends at a club on Fremont Street, was shot and repeatedly stabbed.

FBI Director Kash Patel, a Las Vegas resident, called the arrest a “major win” for law enforcement in the release.

“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,” Patel said.

Over 10,000 MS-13 members, authorities say

Spencer Evans, special agent in charge for the FBI’s Las Vegas Division, said he encouraged the public to provide information that could help lead to arrests of transnational gang members.

“Do not suffer in silence,” Evans said. “Law enforcement is prepared to support victims and promote safer communities for everyone.”

According to court documents and federal law enforcement officials, MS-13 is a national and transnational criminal organization with over 10,000 members. It is composed largely of people from El Salvador or other Central American countries, according to officials.

The gang is believed to be active in at least 10 states and Washington, D.C., the release said.

“No matter where a violent MS-13 fugitive hides or how long it takes our skilled law enforcement partners will find them,” said Sigal Chattah, the newly appointed interim U.S. attorney for Nevada, in the news release. “We will aggressively prosecute this defendant for his alleged role in a racketeering conspiracy involving murders in Nevada and California and seek justice for victims.”

Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BryanHorwath on X.