YUMA — Border Patrol agents in southwestern Arizona say they've arrested a member of a violent gang, who remains in federal custody.
Yuma Sector agents say 47-year-old Luis Romero-Alfredo of Honduras was found to be in the U.S. illegally and arrested Tuesday night.
While conducting a records check, agents learned Romero-Alfredo was a member of the MS-13 gang and removed twice from the country — through Los Angeles in 1997 and the following year out of Laredo, Texas.
Authorities say Romero-Alfredo has multiple convictions for assault and theft and making a false claim to U.S. citizenship.
The MS-13 gang is believed to have been founded in Los Angeles in the 1980s by immigrants fleeing El Salvador's bloody civil war and has grown into one of the largest street gangs in the U.S.
