{"id":289304,"date":"2026-05-12T09:13:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/289304\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T09:13:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:13:20","slug":"latin-kings-gang-member-arrested-in-east-texas-for-alleged-2024-new-jersey-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/289304\/","title":{"rendered":"Latin Kings gang member arrested in East Texas for alleged 2024 New Jersey murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONGVIEW, Texas (KETK<\/a>) \u2014 A wanted fugitive and known Latin Kings gang member was arrested in East Texas on May 7 for his alleged involvement of a 2024 murder in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

\"<em>Mugshot<\/p>\n

Mugshot of Ricky Vargas, courtesy of Gregg County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

According to the FBI, Ricky Vargas was wanted for allegedly stabbing a man to death outside of a bar in Garfield, New Jersey on Feb. 4, 2024.<\/p>\n

A state warrant was issued for his arrest the next day, charging him with first degree murder, causing serious bodily injury, leaving the scene of a crime and two possession of a weapon charges.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 7, 2024, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Vargas in the U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, Newark and New Jersey after additionally being charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.<\/p>\n

While searching for Vargas, the FBI was offering a reward of up to $15,000 for information leading up to his arrest.<\/p>\n

On May 7, Vargas was apprehended by FBI Dallas and FBI Newark in Longview.<\/p>\n

You can now stream KETK and FOX51 News live 24\/7 on your smart TV with KETK+<\/a>,\u00a0our brand-new app! No antenna, cable, or satellite needed\u2014watch for free, anytime. Just download it on your Roku, Apple TV, or Fire TV and start streaming.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KETK.com | FOX51.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONGVIEW, Texas (KETK) \u2014 A wanted fugitive and known Latin Kings gang member was arrested in East Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[105955,3646,105953,2608,105954,7802,9835,105952,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-289304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-district-of-new-jersey","tag-fbi","tag-garfield","tag-ketk","tag-latin-kings-gang","tag-longview","tag-new-jersey","tag-ricky-vargas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}