Baltimore County police announced last week that six out of seven suspects arrested in a gruesome gang related murder of a 21-year-old Maryland man were illegal immigrants.
Fox News reports that Daniel Alejandro Alvarado Cuella was stabbed to death in July by members of the Mara-Salvatrucha gang, aka MS-13. Cuella's body was found in a Towson apartment with multiple wounds on July 31.
"We know this group of individuals was conducting surveillance on him, they were watching him, following him. We know they watched as he left the laundromat and went back across the street to the apartment complex and that is where some of those individuals accosted him,” Baltimore County Police Officer Jennifer Peach told local media. "We know they used knives and multiple people stabbed him multiple times."
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that the federal agency has issued six immigration detainers in this case, but did not divulge the suspects' names related to their requests.
According to Fox, all suspects currently reside in Maryland:
They have been identified as Jonathan Escobar-Hernandez, 20, of Towson, Md.; Marlon Leonardo Fabian-Flores, 20, of Manchester, Md.; Edwin Edgardo Garcia-Martir, 18, of Middle River, Md.; Hugo Portillo-Chavez, 31, of Cockeysville, Md.; Jose Fausto Rivera-Coreas, 19, of Cockeysville, Md.; Odaliz Rosas-Yanez, 20, of Cockeysville, Md.; and Leonel Alexander Velasquez-Hernadez, 16, of Cockeysville, Md.
The Baltimore Sun reports that police believe the victim was killed due to rival gang violence between the 18th Street and MS-13 gangs. Police are investigating whether or not Cuella was a member of the 18th Street gang. Accordingly, all suspects in this case are being held without bail in the Baltimore County Detention Center.
President Donald J. Trump has long called attention to the problem posed by MS-13. In 2017, he promised to deport every MS-13 gang member from the country:
"To any member of MS-13 listening, I have a message for you," the President said at the time. "We will find you, we will arrest you, we will jail you, we will throw you the hell out of the country."