An illegal immigrant MS-13 gang member was arrested in Nashville this week after allegedly kidnapping and beating a student from a local high school who did not want to become a gang member, according to Fox 17.
Franklin Jefferson Pineda-Caceres, who is 18, continuously tried to get a school student from Glencliff High School to join the infamous gang. Pineda-Caceres started to recruit the student at the beginning of January. However, the student did not want to join MS-13, so Pineda-Caceres and two other men went to the high school and allegedly forced him into his vehicle.
While in the car, the student was allegedly beaten by these three men after still not wanting to join the gang. After allegedly beating up the student, the three gang members dropped the student back off at the high school. Metro School officials launched an investigation into the alleged kidnapping and found nothing had happened, Fox 17 reported.
Three months after the alleged attack, the student came forward because he was experiencing pain in his ribs.
Police tried to arrest Pineda-Caceres in July where he was staying, but he fled the police by driving through his front yard and almost hitting three people. According to NewsChannel 5, a citizen reported to police that he saw a vehicle matching the MS-13 gang member’s vehicle going 100 mph on Briley Parkway.
The 18-year-old was caught by police when he got into a car crash on September 8. In Pineda-Caceres’s car, police found cocaine, marijuana and a scale inside. On Monday, police booked him on “aggravated kidnapping, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon (vehicle), four counts of possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and immigration violation,” according to Fox 17.
Currently, Pineda-Caceres is being held in jail on a $109,000 bond. Also, the DOJ is charging him with re-entering America illegally, which faces up to two years behind bars and a $250,000 fine.
The gang member was deported in 2016 after he was caught illegally entering the United States two years earlier. Previously, Metro police arrested him in 2017 on drug crimes. After being arrested, he was again deported in 2018 but re-entered the country illegally.
Last week, Border Patrol announced it had arrested 933 violent gang members, 445 of which were MS-13 gang members.
This fiscal year through August, Border Patrol agents have encountered & arrested 933 criminal gang members. Some smuggling, some being smuggled, some sneaking in, and some already here. A few:
MS-13: 445
18th Street: 165
Paisas: 82
Surenos: 68
Latin Kings: 21
Tango Blast: 19 pic.twitter.com/LVj8gka4dm— Chief Jason Owens (@USBPChief) September 13, 2019
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Battleground State News. Follow Zachery on Twitter.
