Elmer Canales-Rivera, 47, is a high-ranking leader of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), a criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles, California, United States in the 1980s. He is also known as Crook de Hollywood.
Canales-Rivera a founding member of the gang’s leadership body called Twelve Apostles of the Devil, which was later renamed Ranfla Nacional. It was the board of directors that directed the gang’s transnational criminal operations in the U.S., El Salvador, Mexico and other countries.
The members of the board allegedly directed acts of violence, intimidation and material support of terrorists in El Salvador and throughout the U.S. In 2002, Canales-Rivera and his fellow leaders of the gang allegedly started establishing a highly organized, hierarchical command and control structure to effectuate their decisions and enforce their orders even while in prison.
In 2012, Canales-Rivera and other Ranfla Nacional members negotiated with officials from the government of El Salvador and obtained benefits and concessions from the government. To extract those benefits and concessions from the government, the gang leaders allegedly engaged in public displays of violence to threaten and intimidate civilian populations, targeted El Salvador’s law enforcement and military officials, and manipulated the electoral process in the country.
On December 16, 2020, Canales-Rivera and 13 other high-ranking MS-13 leaders were indicted on terrorism offenses relating to their direction of the gang’s transnational criminal organization’s criminal activities. On January 14, 2021, the indictment was unsealed while Canales-Rivera was in custody in El Salvador serving a prison sentence.
In November 2021, Canales-Rivera was released from custody by the government of El Salvador. Upon his released, he unlawfully entered Guatemala.
On November 7, 2023, Canales-Rivera was apprehended by Mexican authorities. On November 9, 2023, he arrived at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, USA where he was arrested by members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Marshals Service.
A federal court in Houston ordered Canales-Rivera to be transferred in custody to the Eastern District of New York. He was charged with conspiracy to provide and conceal material support to terrorists, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to finance terrorism and narco-terrorism conspiracy.
CONAN Daily 