An MS-13 gang member on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list has been captured in Virginia after a four-year manhunt, authorities announced Saturday.
Walter Yovany Gomez, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, was arrested without incident Friday in Woodbridge, 20 miles south of Washington, as a result of a well-coordinated investigation and tips from the public, the FBI said.
“The apprehension of Walter Yovany Gomez is a prime example of the close coordination between the vigilant public and the hard working men and women of law enforcement,” Timothy Gallagher, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Newark Office, said. “Gomez will now stand trial for his alleged involvement in a brutal murder which took a young man from his family.”
He faces extradition to New Jersey where he was indicted on a charge of committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering. The FBI added his name to its Ten Most Wanted list in April.
Gomez, who goes by the nickname “Cholo,” is accused of killing a fellow MS-13 gang member Julio Matute in Plainfield in 2011.
Prosecutors say that after a night of partying Gomez and an accomplice beat Matute with a baseball bat, stabbed him 17 times with a knife and then slit his throat with a screwdriver.
Matute was killed on suspicion that he and members of a rival gang were getting too close.
When police tried to arrest Gomez he jumped out a second-story window and escaped.
Gomez’ cohort, who was also an MS-13 member, was caught and convicted.
Gomez was featured in an Aug. 1 FoxNews.com story on the most violent MS-13 gang members being sought by the feds.
President Trump condemned MS-13 in an appearance in July on Long Island where 17 murders have been attributed to the gang since Jan. 1, 2016.
“They kidnap. They extort. They rape and they rob,” Trump said. “They stomp on their victims.
They beat them with clubs, they slash them with machetes, and they stab them with knives.
They have transformed peaceful parks and beautiful quiet neighborhoods into bloodstained killing fields. They’re animals.”
