U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in Virginia have reportedly nabbed an MS-13 gang member accused of mass murder in El Salvador.
Fox News on Saturday cited sources within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who identified the suspect as 27-year-old Edwin Antonio Hernandez.
He reportedly claimed to have been involved in five killings and goes by the aliases “Demente” and “Crazy.”
President Donald Trump’s administration in February 2025 designated MS-13 a foreign terrorist organization, along with other similar groups. According to the U.S. Department of State’s website:
MS-13 is a transnational organization that originated in Los Angeles but shifted to Central America as individuals were deported there from the United States. MS-13 actively recruits, organizes, and spreads violence in several countries, primarily in Central America and North America, including El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States. MS-13 has conducted numerous violent attacks, including assassination and the use of IEDs and drones, against El Salvador government officials and facilities. Additionally, MS-13 uses public displays of violence to intimidate civilian populations to obtain and control territory and manipulate the electoral process in El Salvador.
Hernandez claimed that in one of the murders, MS-13 tortured, stabbed, and dismembered an 18th Street gang member while he was still alive, sources told Fox.
The Fox article said he illegally entered the country in 2015 via Hidalgo, Texas, where U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested and released him amid immigration court proceedings. However, he was later nabbed by ICE in Virginia due to being in the country without a proper visa and for entering illegally.
“DHS sources told Fox News Digital he was arrested after USCIS referred him to ICE,” the article stated.
It is important to note that on her first day in office, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) ended the rule requiring law enforcement to cooperate with ICE as the Trump administration works to safeguard American communities from illegal alien crime, per Breitbart News.
Prior to Spanberger taking office, the Trump administration arrested a top MS-13 gang member in her state and MS-13 gang members in the country illegally were accused in May of stabbing Virginia correctional officers at a prison in Big Stone Gap, Virginia.
Breitbart News noted in November that ICE continued arresting illegal alien child sex abusers, rapists, and drug smugglers in Virginia.
