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August 13, 2025Houston, TX, United StatesEnforcement and Removal

ICE deports leader of 18th Street gang faction wanted for murderous crime spree in Honduras

HOUSTON — ICE deported Yimi Samario Sevilla Leon, a 30-year-old foreign fugitive and the alleged leader of an ultra-violent faction of the18th Street gang known as “El Mango” from the United States Aug. 11.

Sevilla and 24 other El Mango members are wanted in Honduras for a criminal conspiracy that allegedly used connections with corrupt police officers to carry out a murderous crime spree involving armed robbery, kidnapping and theft.

“This individual and his fellow gang members allegedly conducted armed robberies, kidnappings and theft to generate criminal proceeds for the gang, and anyone who dared to oppose them were brutally murdered to set an example,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston acting Field Office Director Gabriel Martinez. “After Honduran authorities uncovered this murderous scheme, Sevilla cowardly fled to the U.S. Working in conjunction with our office in Honduras, we were able to locate and arrest him in East Houston and repatriate him to Honduras to ensure he faces justice for his alleged crimes.”

After fleeing Honduras, Sevilla illegally entered the U.S. Dec. 21, 2023, near Eagle Pass and was immediately arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol. Under the immigration enforcement priorities at the time, he was released into the interior of the U.S. on his own recognizance that same day.

On Feb. 24, 2025, the ICE assistant attaché in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, alerted ERO Houston that Sevilla was wanted in Honduras and believed to be illegally residing in the Houston area. ICE officers tracked down Sevilla and safely took him into custody March 19 during a multiagency operation.

An immigration judge from the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review ordered Sevilla removed from the U.S. May 28. On Aug. 11, Sevilla was flown from the Alexandria Staging Facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, to the Ramon Villeda International Airport in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on a charter flight coordinated by ICE’s Air Operations Unit. Upon arrival, he was transferred into the custody of Honduran authorities.

ERO Honduras and the Security Alliance for Fugitive Enforcement Task Force assisted ERO Houston with the removal. The SAFE Program is a fugitive enforcement and information sharing partnership that facilitates the sharing of information derived from local in-country investigative resources and leads to locate, apprehend, detain and remove individuals residing in the U.S. illegally who are subject to foreign arrest warrants. The SAFE Program operates under the host nation’s assistant attaché for removal, which constructs a SAFE task force comprising relevant foreign law enforcement agencies, immigration authorities, attorneys general and national identification repositories — as well as other regional, national, state and local government agencies.

Members of the public who have information about foreign fugitives are urged to contact ICE by calling the ICE Tip Line at 866-347-2423 or internationally at 001-1802-872-6199. They can also file a tip online by completing ICE’s online tip form.

For more news and information on how the ERO Houston field office carries out its immigration enforcement mission in Southeast Texas, follow us on Twitter at @EROHouston.

Updated: 08/14/2025