ICE agents arrest MS-13 member on El Salvador's Top 100 most-wanted

From Fox News.com (Aug. 17, 2023):

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents captured two violent criminals this week wanted in El Salvador and Brazil. One is an MS-13 gang member on El Salvador's Top 100 Most Wanted list, and the other is a former military police officer who participated in a 2015 Brazilian massacre.

Immigration authorities had previously deported the MS-13 member, but he illegally reentered the United States, officials said. The Brazilian former military officer was arrested in New Hampshire on Monday, but no further details were provided on how he came to be in the country.

On Aug. 11, officials from ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) New Orleans office arrested MS-13 member Juan Carlos Portillo, 29, in Chelsea, Alabama, officials said in a news release Monday.

Portillo, also known as Juan Alberto Zamora-Zamora, Jose Adalberto Lopez-Lopez, and by his MS-13 name Pirana, is on El Salvador's Top 100 Most Wanted List. He is the subject of an arrest warrant issued in El Salvador on March 11, 2014, ICE said.

Portillo is wanted in El Salvador for aggravated kidnapping, attempted aggravated homicide, aggravated extortion, terrorist organization, deprivation of liberty and aggravated homicide.

On Dec. 7, 2022, Portillo was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol near Hidalgo, Texas, and was deported to El Salvador on Dec. 23. However, ICE said he managed to illegally reenter the country without having been admitted or paroled by an immigration officer.

ERO New Orleans' Birmingham sub-office received information from ERO San Salvador on July 5, 2023, that Portillo was residing in Columbiana, Alabama. After further investigation, ERO officials made the arrest in Chelsea on Aug. 11. 

"This MS-13 gang member blatantly ignored laws both in his home country and here in the United States and this arrest sends a message that we will not allow our communities to be safe havens for violent criminals," said ERO New Orleans Field Office Director Mellissa Harper. "By apprehending and removing dangerous individuals like Portillo who are part of transnational criminal organizations, ERO officers are making our communities safer." [read more]

It's good the wanted man was captured, but how many wanted got-aways slip pass the ICE agents? The Briben regime didn’t really know. And that's the problem. It’s good that we have a competent America first border czar and competent DHS secretary that cares about our borders.