In my year-end column, I spotlighted the rise of MS-13, the violent El Salvadoran gang and predicted on the blog that “you’ll be seeing and hearing a lot more of this savage criminal enterprise in the year to come.”

Yesterday, the Boston Herald ran a much-buzzed-about story on…MS-13 in East Boston.

Today, the Herald has a follow-up on the arrest of an MS-13 thug in Somerville, Mass., on a murder warrant stemming from a fatal stabbing in Washington, D.C.:

Melquis Alvarez-Garcia is a reputed member of the East Boston Loco Salvadorans (EBLS) sect of MS-13, sources said. He was arrested about 7 p.m. after Somerville gang unit Sgt. Steven Carabino spotted a crew of 10 MS-13 members - garbed in their white and blue gang colors - congregating on the corner of McGrath Highway and Broadway.

Washington, D.C., police spokesman Sgt. Joe Gentile said Alvarez-Garcia is wanted for allegedly stabbing 38-year-old Jose Lazo to death April 6, 2002. Alvarez-Garcia was identified as a suspect in the killing a year later, and has been on the run, Gentile said. The motive for the murder was unknown yesterday.

Alvarez-Garcia is expected to be arraigned this morning on a fugitive from justice charge before he is extradicted to the nation’s capital to face a murder rap, prosecutors said.

Alverez-Garcia’s arrest marks the second bust of an East Boston MS-13 member by local investigators this week. On New Year’s Day, Lynn cops arrested Elmer “Tiger” Tejada, 24, after a violent struggle.

Tejada was deported by Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials a year ago after his conviction on a slew of crimes, including hurling a machete at Chelsea cops, but managed to sneak back into the United States. Tejada and another man cops describe as an MS-13 leader who had been deported were spotted on the North Shore days before Christmas.

The second suspect remains at large, officials said yesterday.

Just hurling the machetes no one else will hurl, I guess.

Update: Kevin Aylward of Wizbang alerts me to this latest macheta-wielding MS-13 incident in Fairfax County, Va.:

Merrifield, Va. (AP) - Fairfax County police believe a Latino gang was involved in a Monday night attack by a man wielding a machete.

Investigators say a Fairfax man was walking from a Merrifield movie theater when he was attacked by several men, one of them carrying the machete. In a flurry of blows, the man was hit in the back, head and hands, and three fingers were severed…

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