Captured: MS-13 member on El Salvador's top 100 most-wanted list arrested in Alabama

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials captured an MS-13 gang member who is on El Salvador’s Top 100 Most Wanted List last week in Chelsea, Alabama, according to a news release issued on Monday. 

On August 11, officials from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in New Orleans arrested MS-13 gang member Juan Carlos Portillo, 29. 

Portillo is also known as Juan Alberto Zamora-Zamora, Jose Adalberto Lopez-Lopez, and by his MS-13 member name Pirana. He is on El Salvador’s top 100 Most Wanted list.

An arrest warrant was issued for Portillo in El Salvador on March 11, 2014. He is wanted for aggravated kidnapping, attempted homicide, aggravated extortion, terrorist organization, deprivation of liberty, and aggravated homicide. 

Portillo had previously been deported from the U.S. by immigration authorities after being caught by U.S. Border Patrol agents near Hidalgo, Texas on December 7, 2022, reported Fox News. However, he illegally re-entered the country.

ERO New Orleans received notice from ERO El Salvador that Portillo was living in Columbiana, Alabama, prompting an investigation into the criminal’s whereabouts. 

"This MS-13 gang member blatantly ignored laws both in his home country and here in the United States and this arrest sends a message that we will not allow our communities to be safe havens for violent criminals," said ERO New Orleans Field Office Director Mellissa Harper.

"By apprehending and removing dangerous individuals like Portillo who are part of transnational criminal organizations, ERO officers are making our communities safer," she added. 

ICE agents also arrested a violent criminal from Brazil in New Hampshire on Monday. Antonio Jose de Abreu Vidal Filho is a former military police officer convicted of multiple murders and sentenced to more than 200 years in prison for killing 11 people in 2015.