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2mo ago

ICE and FBI Detain Alleged MS-13 Gang Member and Repeat Deportee in Indiana

The two Honduran nationals face charges from first-degree murder to domestic battery, with deportation to Honduras pending

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A member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang (MS-13) stands behind bars in a cell at a detention center on February 20, 2014 in San Salvador, El Salvador. Although the country's two major gangs reached a truce in 2012, the police holding cells currently house more than 3000 inmates, five times the official capacity. Partly because Mara gang members did not break with their criminal activities, partly because Salvadorean police still applies a controversial anti-gang law which allows to detain almost anyone for suspicion of gang membership. Accused young men are held in police detention centers where up to 25 inmates may share a cell of five square metres. In the dark overcrowded cages, under harsh and life-threatening conditions, suspected gang members wait for trial or for to be transported to a regular prison. (Photo by Jan Sochor/LatinContent via Getty Images)

Overview

  • Authorities identified the primary detainee as Jonny Handy Martinez-Barillas, an alleged MS-13 member previously charged with first-degree murder and firearm possession
  • Maryland police declined to enforce an ICE detainer on Martinez-Barillas in 2023, allowing him to remain at large until this week’s operation
  • Agents also arrested Danilo Amilcar-Escobar, who was deported three times since April 2024 and faces pending charges of strangulation, domestic battery and cocaine possession
  • ICE said both men will remain in federal custody through legal proceedings that are expected to conclude with their removal to Honduras
  • The operation follows a 700% increase in assaults on immigration officers and a recent shooting at a U.S. Border Patrol annex that wounded two agents and a police officer