MS-13 Gang Member Arrested in Portland, Marking State’s Third Recent High-Profile Migrant Gang Arrest

A Salvadoran national living illegally in United States and whom federal authorities say is a member of the violent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang, a designated foreign terrorist organization, was arrested Tuesday in Portland by Border Patrol agents.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced on Wednesday that the Border Patrol’s Anti-Smuggling Unit (ASU) identified the 27-year-old El Salvadoran national and found that he was illegally present in the United States.

The ASU agents discovered the subject’s suspected gang affiliation to MS-13, and then identified his location as being in Portland, Maine, where Border Patrol agents arrested him on April 15, CBP said.

According to CBP, the Salvadoran man is being detained pending his removal proceedings and will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE-ERO).

“The U.S. Border Patrol is committed to putting dangerous terrorists and violent gang-members behind bars,” said Juan Bernal, Chief of U.S. Border Patrol’s Houlton Sector, whose jurisdiction covers the entire State of Maine.

“They present a real threat to our nation and to the American people, and as such, they remain a top enforcement priority for the Border Patrol,” Bernal said. “Members of the MS-13 terrorist organization should know that our agents will find you, we will work to prosecute you, and if you are not legally present in the United States, we will work to remove you from our country.”

MS-13, along with other gangs and cartels such as Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel, was designated as a foreign terrorist organization on Feb. 6, 2025, following an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office.

CBP said on Wednesday that they have apprehended 218 gang affiliated subject so far this year.

Two Tren de Aragua members have also been apprehended in Maine by federal immigration authorities in recent months — one arrested near Old Orchard Beach in December 2024 who has already been deported to Ecuador, and a second Venezuelan national arrested in Brunswick on March 30.