A reputed MS-13 gangbanger who had repeatedly snuck into the US illegally was finally nabbed by federal immigration agents — and could be headed to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison.
Wilmer Alexi Garcia-Manzanarez, who is wanted on terror and homicide charges in his native country, was picked up by ICE agents near Boston and hauled back home on Nov. 3, the feds said this week.
Garcia-Manzarez, who first crossed the US from Canada in 2001, has also amassed a rap sheet here, with convictions for burglary, menacing with a weapon, property damage and drunken driving.
“The removal of Wilmer Alexi Garcia-Manzanarez means that the residents of Massachusetts are exponentially safer,” ICE Boston Field Office Director David Wesling said in a statement.
“Garcia-Manzanarez represents a significant threat to our Massachusetts communities,” Wesling said. “Aside from his significant criminal history in the US, authorities in his home country wanted him to face charges for homicide and terrorist affiliation related to gang membership.”
The feds said the vicious gang leader has been reported several times after he was initially nabbed at the northern border on March 6, 2001 — and defied an immigration judge’s order the following year.
Eventually shipped home, Garcia-Manzanarez snuck into the US at least three times between January 2007 and October 2012 after a series of deportations, the agency said.
In January 2020, the international law enforcement agency, Interpol, issued a “Red Notice” for his arrest for a slew of violent crimes, including in El Salvador.
ICE agents in Boston caught up with him on Feb. 18, 2024, and began deportation proceedings, which led to his removal from the country on Nov. 3.
Although his fate has not been officially revealed, Garcia-Manzarnarez is likely headed to El Salvador’s Center for the Confinement of Terrorism, a controversial mega-prison that is part of the country’s hardline response to rampant gang violence in the region.
Authorities boast it is impossible to escape from its confines.
Inmates at the facility, primarily terrorists and violent gang leaders, are often packed into cells and kept under strict supervision, often berated and kept barefooted, photos show.
