Another suspected member of the notoriously violent MS-13 gang was arrested in a University City neighborhood Sunday night, after a stand-off with Charlotte-Mecklenburg police that lasted several hours.
Javier Molina, who authorities say is also known as “Big Psycho,” was being held in the Mecklenburg County Jail.
He was among a list of 26 suspects, some of whom were rounded up earlier this month, named in a federal grand jury indictment accusing MS-13 members of being linked to four homicides, drug trafficking and extortion in the Carolinas.
The 86-page indictment said members worked to protect power, territory and profits by extorting drug dealers and intimidating victims and community members with threats of violence. Some in the gang, also known as La Mara Salvatrucha, were accused of selling cocaine and marijuana, committing robberies and illegally possessing firearms, the indictment said. They are accused of collecting fees from dealers who sold drugs in Charlotte nightclubs operated by MS-13.
MS-13 is an abbreviation derived from the word “Mara,” which means gang in El Salvador. Salvatrucha is a combination of “Salva,” an abbreviation for Salvadoran and “trucha,” a slang term for “fear us.”
On Sunday, police, working with federal and state agencies, temporarily evacuated some residents in the 11700 block of Oak Street in the north Charlotte neighborhood where they say Molina, 18, hid before being taken into custody.
Authorities are still looking for three suspects in connection with the investigation. One is thought to be living in the Miami area and the other two were deported previously to Honduras, an FBI spokeswoman said in a statement Sunday night.
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