11 MS-13 gang members arrested in five brutal murders, two by machete, Texas cops say
Law enforcement officials in the Houston area have announced the arrests of 11 suspected members of the international street gang MS-13.
The arrests come after five bloody slayings in the past three months in and around the largest city in Texas, including one in which a law enforcement informant was hacked to death with a machete, according to the Houston Chronicle.
The body of 25-year-old Victor Castro-Martinez was found in a park in southwest Houston on June 7, according to KPRC, after he was taken there by four of the alleged gang members and slashed.
He sent his handling officer one last text, notifying the officer that he had been taken to Cullinan Park the night of June 6, the station reported, and he was found with a police-issued recording device still in his pocket.
The recording on that device led police and FBI officials to arrest Carlos Elias Henriquez-Torres, 18; Marlon A. Miranda, 19; Wilson J. Ventura-Mejia, 22; and Miguel Aguilar-Ochoa, 33, law enforcement officials told the Chronicle. Their arrests have come over the last two weeks, according to jail records.
That text came just minutes before Castro-Martinez died, KTRK reported.
“Their methods are a little bit more unusual than the other gangs and quite frankly more brutal,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said at a news conference on the arrests Tuesday. “[These suspects] are absolutely the worst of the worst. They have no respect for the sanctity of life.”
Law enforcement officials told the station that about 500 MS-13 members reside in the Houston area, in a gang that counts roughly 20,000 total in its ranks.
Another man was taken into the woods in Liberty County on July 3, where he was beaten with bats and hacked to death, again with machetes, according to a fact sheet released by the Houston Police Department. Walter Mejia, 23, and Jimmy Villalobez-Gomez, 21, have been arrested in connection to that case, according to jail records.
“They’re taking down dozens of gang members,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said of law enforcement efforts during the news conference. Not just the murderers themselves, but their support units. This is going to hurt them.”
Most of the victims in these cases are believed to be MS-13 members or former members who were suspected of disloyalty, according to KTRK.
One who wasn’t, though, was 25-year-old Johnny Paramo Torres, according to a separate report from KTRK. Police told the station that Torres was shot in the face after getting into an argument with three of those arrested in connection with the five slayings outside a restaurant in Alief on Aug. 4.
Jairo Salvador Licona-Cardenas, Elida Lucia Jovel Medrano and another suspect, who is a minor, have been charged in connection with Torres’ killing. A warrant has also been issued for a fourth suspect in that case, according to the fact sheet.
One of the murders, also in June, is being investigated by Galveston police, and two arrests have been made, the fact sheet says.
This story was originally published September 5, 2018 at 9:49 AM.