{"id":250001,"date":"2026-04-03T11:57:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/250001\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T11:57:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:57:23","slug":"ice-agents-in-san-diego-capture-machete-swinging-ms-13-assassin-from-el-salvador-known-as-the-witch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/250001\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE agents in San Diego capture machete-swinging MS-13 assassin from El Salvador known as “the witch”"},"content":{"rendered":"

A machete-wielding MS-13 executioner known as \u201cthe witch\u201d who was wanted for a brtual gang murder in his home country of El Salvador was captured by federal immigration agents<\/a> in San Diego.<\/p>\n

David Antonio Aviles Perez, 35, had been sought on an international warrant for\u00a0aggravated murder\u00a0by authorities in El Salvador and was nabbed by ICE agents on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Aviles Perez was arrested in 2023 for\u00a0assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly swung a machete at a man in Monterey, California, according to Department of Homeland Security officials and police documents. <\/p>\n

Aviles Perez was arrested Thursday in San Diego.<\/p>\n

Aviles Perez, who had been living in the US illegally, was released under California\u2019s sanctuary laws and remained at large until he was arrested last week, DHS officials said.<\/p>\n

He is currently being held as he awaits his return to El Salvador to serve his sentence for a 2014 murder.<\/p>\n

In December, officials in El Salvador sentenced him to 20 years in prison on a charge of aggravated homicide for the execution of an MS-13 adversary, authorities there reported.<\/p>\n

In July 2014, Aviles Perez and an accomplice named Ismael Enrique Mendoza Flores murdered a man in the town of Yucuaiqu\u00edn in El Salvador\u2019s eastern state of La Union, according to the country\u2019s attorney general.<\/p>\n

Aviles Perez was convicted of a 2014 gang killing in his home country of El Salvador. <\/p>\n

Aviles Perez, also known as \u201cla bruja\u201d or \u201cthe witch,\u201d and his fellow gang members followed the victim and shot\u00a0at him during a dispute, according to an alert issued by the country\u2019s attorney general on Dec. 16.<\/p>\n

Later, more henchman arrive \u201cand forced [the victim] to stop and kneel, holding him by the shoulders, while Ismael and David arrived,\u201d the Salvadoran prosecution\u2019s indictment states.<\/p>\n

The pair then \u201cshot the victim in the chest, back, and face,\u201d according to the attorney general\u2019s report, which identified both men as \u201cactive members of MS-13.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how and when Aviles Perez entered the US, but he turned up on California law enforcement\u2019s radar nearly a decade after the El Salvador murder.<\/p>\n

MS-13 gang members in an El Salvador prison. Getty Images<\/p>\n

On Aug. 2, 2023, police in Monterey arrested Aviles Perez after he \u201cswung a machete\u201d at a homeless man following an argument at Laguna Grande Park near Monterey State Beach, according to an incident report obtained by The Post.<\/p>\n

After the attack, Aviles Perez \u201chid the machete which was later recovered in the Holiday Inn parking lot,\u201d the report states. He was identified as a transient at the time of the arrest.<\/p>\n

He was charged and convicted, according to Monterey prosecutors, but ultimately released back on to the streets.<\/p>\n

DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said the state\u2019s sanctuary policies allowed Aviles Perez to walk despite charges of\u00a0assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a controlled substance and petty theft.<\/p>\n

She slammed the law, saying that his release \u201cback into California neighborhoods put American lives at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

MS-13 is known as one of the world\u2019s most brutal gangs. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s sanctuary law, passed in 2017, prohibits state and local law enforcement from using resources for federal immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

It also bars police from asking about immigration status, detaining individuals solely for ICE or sharing information with immigration authorities, with some exceptions for certain criminal convictions.<\/p>\n

Cities including Los Angeles have their own versions of the law.<\/p>\n

US Attorney General Pamela Bondi has said sanctuary laws like those of California \u201cimpede law enforcement and put American citizens at risk by design.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Justice Department in June filed a suit against Los Angeles over its sanctuary city polices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A machete-wielding MS-13 executioner known as \u201cthe witch\u201d who was wanted for a brtual gang murder in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,723,657,2871,4182,28448,74,76,75,3586],"class_list":["post-250001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-california","tag-crime","tag-exclusive","tag-ice","tag-metro","tag-ms-13","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}