'MS-13 gang member' and FBI's most wanted Walter Yovany Gomez is captured in Virginia

A suspected MS-13 gang member who was on the FBI's ten most wanted list has been apprehended in Virginia after tips from members of the public, authorities have said.

Walter Yovany Gomez was wanted for his alleged part in the murder of Julio Matute in 2011 with another man. The FBI said that Gomez and the other man were both identified as members of Plainfield Locos Salvatrucha, a New Jersey branch of the infamous MS-13 gang.

The other accused man was captured, tried and found guilty of the murder of Matute. Gomez and his accomplice are alleged to have sliced Matute's throat, hit him with a baseball bat and stabbed him in the back 17 times with a screwdriver, the FBI said.

He was placed on the ten most wanted list in April, 2017. Gomez was arrested in Woodbridge Virginia "without incident" and after tips from members of the public and a coordinated investigation, the FBI said.

"The apprehension of Walter Yovany Gomez is a prime example of the close coordination between the vigilant public and the hard working men and women of law enforcement," said Timothy Gallagher, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Newark Division, in a press release. "Gomez will now stand trial for his alleged involvement in a brutal murder which took a young man from his family."

Gomez is originally from Honduras and was living in the US illegally, the FBI said. Authorities also provided three separate birth dates that he is thought to have used.

The two are alleged to have killed Matute on the orders of MS-13 leaders after Matute was thought to have socialised with another gang. Gomez now awaits extradition proceedings to New Jersey.

MS-13 have been a particular rhetoric target of US President Donald Trump, who has vowed to "eradicate" the group from America.