Previously Deported MS-13 Member Arrested in Alleged Kidnapping of High School Student

A previously deported MS-13 gang member in the U.S. illegally was arrested and charged with allegedly kidnapping a Tennessee high school student and beating him because he refused to join the gang.

A student at Glencliff High School told officers that suspected MS-13 gang member Franklin Jefferson Pineda-Caceres, 18, showed up at his high school with two other men before they forced him into a vehicle, according to a report from WKRN.

Police say they drove the student to an apartment and ordered him to join MS-13. Investigators said that when the victim refused, the three men beat him and dropped him off at a location not too far away from the high school.

Authorities arrested the Honduran national after he was involved in a car accident over the weekend in Nashville, Fox 17 Nashville reported.

Arresting officers said they found a bag full of 49 grams of cocaine and a jar of 5.8 grams of a green leafy substance believed to be marijuana while investigating the wreckage.

Officials then charged Pineda-Caceres on Monday with one count of aggravated kidnapping, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon (vehicle), four counts of possession of a controlled substance, one count of possession of drug paraphernalia, and one count of violating immigration law, according to Fox 17 Nashville.

Tennessee federal prosecutors also charged Pineda-Caceres on Tuesday with illegal re-entry. He first crossed the border into the U.S. illegally in 2014 and was deported in May 2018 after committing several drug-related crimes in 2017.

Pineda-Caceres is currently being held on a federal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer for illegally entering the U.S., meaning that the jail housing him can send him to ICE custody and set him on a path to deportation.