High-ranking MS-13 leader, a fugitive for nearly four years, arrested on Long Island, prosecutors say

A high-ranking member of MS-13 wanted in Nevada for his alleged role in a conspiracy responsible for 11 murders was arrested in New York on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James M. Wicks ordered Joel Vargas-Escobar held without bail during his initial court appearance in Central Islip federal court Wednesday morning. Vargas-Escobar will be transferred to the District of Nevada for trial, authorities said in a news release.

"The American people are safer following the arrest of yet another MS-13 leader," U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the release.

Vargas-Escobar, also known as "Momia," was indicted in the District of Nevada and charged with a racketeering conspiracy that involved 11 murders. He was also charged with two counts of murder in aid of racketeering and associated firearms charges.

Vargas-Escobar was the leader of the MS-13 Parkview clique in Las Vegas and ordered two of the charged murders, officials said. He had been deported to El Salvador in 2018 but illegally reentered the United States. Authorities said Vargas-Escobar had been a fugitive for nearly four years.

The defendant and others charged in the indictment were part of MS-13’s command structure in Las Vegas and California. The indictment said members of the Parkview clique committed the 11 murders over the course of a year. Many of the victims, court papers said, were taken to remote locations in the mountains and desert, where they were tortured and killed.

It was not clear from court papers Wednesday evening if Vargas-Escobar was represented by an attorney. The U.S. Justice Department’s Washington office did not immediately respond to requests for additional information.

If convicted, he may be sentenced to life in prison.

MS-13 became notorious on Long Island because of the dozens of high-profile killings ordered or sanctioned by leaders from 2013 to 2017.

Many of those murders were committed with machetes, baseball bats and axes. MS-13 members killed Brentwood High School students Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas in 2016, shocking murders that focused national attention on Long Island’s gang violence and on Cuevas’ mother, Evelyn Rodriguez, who became an anti-gang activist after her daughter's death.

Rodriguez, who was the guest of President Donald Trump during his 2018 State of the Union, also met with Trump again later that year, when he visited Brentwood to discuss gang violence with Long Island leaders. Rodriguez was killed in September 2018 — two years to the day her daughter’s remains were discovered — during a confrontation with a motorist.

Officials with the Eastern District of New York, which includes Nassau and Suffolk, last month announced the creation of the Transnational Criminal Organization Strike Force to dismantle MS-13 and other organizations responsible for homicides, fatal drug overdoses and other crimes.