Police arrest MS-13 gang member who killed man, burned his body

An MS-13 gang member accused of killing a Texas man and torching his body was arrested in South Carolina Tuesday.

Franklin Platero-Rodriguez, 21, was arrested after being on the run from Walker County police and ICE for nearly four years, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Platero-Rodriguez, “a documented and confirmed MS-13 gang member,” fatally shot a man before putting his body in the trunk of a car, dousing the vehicle with gasoline, and setting it on fire, authorities said.

He was taken into custody at a Subway restaurant in Ladson, The Post and Courier reported.

He was charged with unlawfully carrying a firearm, possessing a stolen pistol, and being a fugitive in possession of a firearm.

It wasn’t immediately clear when the Texas murder took place. His charges as of Friday do not include the killing.

Platero-Rodriguez reportedly entered the country as an unaccompanied alien child.

He had been deported but illegally re-entered the U.S., according to Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis.

ICE arrested nearly 800 MS13 gang members nationwide in 2017 — the highest total number of arrests in nine years.

President Trump referred to MS-13 gang members as “animals” at a roundtable discussion on Long Island Wednesday.

He later doubled down on the comment, saying, “I called them animals the other day and I was met with rebuke. They said, ‘They’re people.’ They are not people, these are animals and we have to be very, very tough.”

He also threatened to withhold aid from countries whose citizens enter the United States illegally.

“They don’t want the people we’re getting in our country.”