13 August, 2017
A New Jersey member of the notorious MS-13 gang, who recently landed himself on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives", has been captured in Virginia.
Walter Yovany Gomez, whom the Federal Bureau of Investigation refers to as a New Jersey gang member, was apprehended in Woodbridge, Virginia, by local law enforcement.
The FBI Washington Field Office's Violent Crimes Task Force, the Fairfax County Police Department's Gang Unit, and the Northern Virginia Gang Task Force coordinated the local search and arrest of Gomez, who will remain in custody pending extradition proceedings, according to the release. The murder was allegedly part of an initiation into the worldwide criminal gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13).
Matute was killed on suspicion that he and members of a rival gang were getting too close. The victim was struck in the head numerous times, had his throat cut, and was stabbed 17 times in the back.
The FBI said Gomez was arrested without incident.
Gomez was added to the most-needed rundown in April of this current year, and was the main figure to have assumed a part in Matute's demise who had not been indicted.
They will now seek to extradite him to New Jersey, where he faces murder and racketeering charges. However, he managed to get away after jumping out of a second story window.
MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, have been named in connection to hundreds of murders across the United States since they first infiltrated Los Angeles in 1980, coming from Central American countries including El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. Trump traveled to Long Island in July, where MS-13 has been connected to a string of violent murders, to speak out against the gang.
President Trump, addressing law enforcement officials on Long Island last month, said the USA would destroy the gang. In a speech, Trump said the gang has "transformed peaceful parks and lovely quiet neighborhoods into bloodstained killing fields".
