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EXCLUSIVE TO FOX: An alleged mass murderer and member of the notorious MS-13 gang has been apprehended by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Virginia, according to sources within the Department of Homeland Security who spoke with Fox News Digital.
The arrest of 27-year-old Edwin Antonio Hernandez Hernandez, a native of El Salvador, follows Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger’s recent executive decision. Spanberger’s order, which she signed shortly after taking office, removes the obligation for local and state law enforcement to work with ICE, effectively overturning a directive from former Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Fox News Digital sources report that Hernandez confessed to being involved in five murders in El Salvador and is known within the MS-13 community by the nicknames “Demente” and “Crazy.”
Details of two of these murders reveal that Hernandez allegedly executed members of the rival 18th Street gang by shooting them in the chest and head. This gang, also known as Barrio 18, was declared a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) by the U.S. State Department last year.
ICE agents detained Edwin Antonio Hernandez Hernandez in Alexandria, Virginia, as confirmed by DHS sources to Fox News Digital. (Image via Getty/USCIS)
In another murder, Hernandez stated that MS-13 was torturing an 18th Street gang member and stabbed him twice in the chest before MS-13 dismembered the individual while he was still alive, the sources added.
A U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) report obtained by Fox News Digital said Hernandez entered the U.S. illegally near Hidalgo, Texas, in June 2015.
He was then arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol, the report said, before being released from custody during immigration court proceedings.
Abigail Spanberger is sworn in as Virginia’s first woman and the 75th Governor of Virginia on Jan. 17, 2026, in Richmond, Va. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Hernandez eventually was brought back into custody by ICE on Dec. 31 in Alexandria, Va., for remaining in the U.S. without a proper visa and illegal entry, according to the report.
DHS sources told Fox News Digital he was arrested after USCIS referred him to ICE.
On her first day in office, Spanberger, a Democrat, signed an executive order that “rescinded Executive Order 47, which requires and encourages state and local law enforcement to divert their limited resources for use in enforcing federal civil immigration laws.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, along with other federal law enforcement agencies, attend a pre-enforcement meeting in Chicago, Ill., on Jan. 26, 2025. (Getty Images)
“Ensuring public safety in Virginia requires state and local law enforcement to be focused on their core responsibilities of investigating and deterring criminal activity, staffing jails, and community engagement,” her office said at the time.