Federal immigration officers in San Diego have apprehended a notorious MS-13 enforcer, known by the chilling moniker “the witch,” who was wanted for a horrific gang-related homicide in El Salvador.
David Antonio Aviles Perez, aged 35, was on the run under an international warrant for aggravated murder issued by Salvadoran authorities. His capture was executed by ICE agents last Thursday.
In 2023, Aviles Perez faced legal troubles in Monterey, California, when he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly attacking a man with a machete, as reported by the Department of Homeland Security and police records.
Despite residing illegally in the United States, Aviles Perez was released under California’s sanctuary policies and evaded capture until his recent arrest, according to DHS officials.
He is now detained pending extradition to El Salvador, where he is due to serve a 20-year prison term for a murder committed in 2014.
Last December, Salvadoran authorities convicted him to two decades behind bars for the aggravated homicide of a rival MS-13 member, as reported by officials there.
In July 2014, Aviles Perez and an accomplice named Ismael Enrique Mendoza Flores murdered a man in the town of Yucuaiquín in El Salvador’s eastern state of La Union, according to the country’s attorney general.
Aviles Perez, also known as “la bruja” or “the witch,” and his fellow gang members followed the victim and shot at him during a dispute, according to an alert issued by the country’s attorney general on Dec. 16.
Later, more henchman arrive “and forced [the victim] to stop and kneel, holding him by the shoulders, while Ismael and David arrived,” the Salvadoran prosecution’s indictment states.
The pair then “shot the victim in the chest, back, and face,” according to the attorney general’s report, which identified both men as “active members of MS-13.”
It’s unclear how and when Aviles Perez entered the US, but he turned up on California law enforcement’s radar nearly a decade after the El Salvador murder.
On Aug. 2, 2023, police in Monterey arrested Aviles Perez after he “swung a machete” at a homeless man following an argument at Laguna Grande Park near Monterey State Beach, according to a incident report obtained by The Post.
After the attack, Aviles Perez “hid the machete which was later recovered in the Holiday Inn parking lot,” the report states. He was identified as a transient at the time of the arrest.
He was charged and convicted, according to Monterey prosecutors, but ultimately released back on to the streets.
DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said the state’s sanctuary policies allowed Aviles Perez to walk despite charges of assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a controlled substance and petty theft.
She slammed the law, saying that his release “back into California neighborhoods put American lives at risk.”
The state’s sanctuary law, passed in 2017, prohibits state and local law enforcement from using resources for federal immigration enforcement.
It also bars police from asking about immigration status, detaining individuals solely for ICE or sharing information with immigration authorities, with some exceptions for certain criminal convictions.
Cities including Los Angeles have their own versions of the law.
US Attorney General Pamela Bondi has said sanctuary laws like those of California “impede law enforcement and put American citizens at risk by design.”
The Justice Department in June filed a suit against Los Angeles over its sanctuary city polices.
