Federal authorities have dealt a major blow to the notorious MS-13 gang with the arrest of Cesar Humberto Lopez-Larios, a high-ranking leader and founding member of the “Twelve Apostles of the Devil,” at the George Bush Airport in Houston, Texas. Lopez-Larios had been on the run for three years before being apprehended by the FBI and Homeland Security.

Prosecutors have charged Lopez-Larios with a litany of offenses, including conspiracy to provide and conceal material support to terrorists, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to finance terrorism, and narco-terrorism conspiracy. He is alleged to have played a key role in operating the criminal organization in El Salvador, Mexico, and the United States, alongside 13 other co-defendants who ordered acts of violence and murder.

U.S. Attorney Breon Peace hailed the arrest as a “significant achievement for law enforcement” and a vital step in dismantling the international criminal enterprise. “The defendant will soon face a reckoning in a federal courtroom on Long Island where, acting on his orders, MS-13 has spilled so much blood and turned communities into war zones,” Peace remarked.

MS-13, which originated in Los Angeles, California, during the 1980s as a means of protecting Salvadorian immigrants from other gangs, has since evolved into a transnational crime syndicate with a presence in Latin America. The gang has been implicated in a wide range of heinous crimes, including murder, assault, kidnapping, drug trafficking, extortion, and obstruction of justice.

Authorities are still searching for two gang associates and are offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to their arrest and conviction. The capture of Lopez-Larios represents a significant victory for law enforcement in their ongoing battle against the MS-13 gang and its criminal network.