Suspected MS-13 gang members charged in NC with Virginia murder
Members of a U.S. Marshals Service task force on Monday detained two suspected MS-13 gang members who are wanted in Virginia for murder.
Denis Ludwin Espinal-Alvares, 19, of Oxon Hill, Md., and Erick Alexander Contreras-Gonzalez, 23, of Hernshaw, W.Va., were both charged with being fugitives from justice under North Carolina law, according to arrest warrants filed Tuesday at the Wake County Magistrate's Office.
The men were arrested at 606 Whitehead Ave. in Wilson, according to records filed with the City County Bureau of Identification. A Raleigh police member of the interagency Violent Fugitive Task Force was listed as the arresting officer.
The two smiled while getting their mug shots taken during processing into the Wake County jail.
Police in Prince William County, Va., have accused the two men with the March 13 shooting death of a man whom police initially could not identify. He was described in the Virginia arrest warrants only as as a "Spanish male."
Investigators say Espinal-Alvares, who is known as "Destino" and Contreras-Gonzalez, who is known as "Callado," abducted the victim from his home in the Woodbridge area at about 4:15 a.m. They say the men took the victim to an unspecified location, shot him five times and then placed him in the trunk of his own car.
They returned two days later and set the vehicle on fire in an attempt to dispose of the victim's body, according to police.
Deputy Bryan Koenig, a spokesman for the marshals' office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, said information had come Monday from marshals in Virginia that the two were thought to be in the Wilson area.
The North Carolina task force narrowed that down to the house where the two were found and went there Tuesday morning, Koenig said.
Contreras-Gonzalez is also known as "Erick Yomar Contreras-Navarr," according to CCBI records.
The two men are described by the National Crime Information Center as MS-13 gang members who should be considered armed and dangerous. MS-13 originated in El Salvador and is considered one of the most violent street gangs in the world.
Espinal-Alvares and Contreras-Gonzalez were both in custody Tuesday at the Wake County jail. They are being held without benefit of bail, according to the warrants.
A federal Department of Homeland Security report requested by Wake County sheriff's deputies during booking showed both men have outstanding deportation orders.
This story was originally published March 20, 2018 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Suspected MS-13 gang members charged in NC with Virginia murder."