MS-13 gang members sentenced to life for 2019 murder in Md.

By The Associated Press
June 11, 2021 | 8:41 AM

BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore County’s state’s attorney’s office says two reported members of the MS-13 gang have been sentenced to life without parole for their roles in the murder of a 21-year-old man nearly two years ago.

A news release from the office of State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger on Thursday says Hugo Portillo Chavez and Jonathan Escobar Hernandez were convicted Tuesday of first-degree premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

The men were charged in the death of Daniel Alvarado Cuellar, who was found stabbed to death outside of his Parkville home in 2019.

Fentanyl seizures plummet as Trump administration shifts focus to immigration

By Maryland Matters
August 22, 2026 | 8:26 PM

WASHINGTON — Fentanyl seizures decreased by 39% during the first year of the second Trump administration after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shifted the Department of Homeland Security’s criminal investigations arm to conducting immigration enforcement, according to a report government investigators published Friday. Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a subagency of DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reported an “all hands-on deck” environment toward immigration enforcement began in January 2025, according to the DHS Office of Inspector General report. “With ICE dedicating more staff hours to immigration investigations, staffing hours for fentanyl investigations declined,” the report said. The report found that the hours dedicated to fentanyl investigations for fiscal 2025 declined by more than 250,000 hours, or 31%, compared to fiscal 2024.

Related Stories