The “unaccompanied minors” who have surged over the US-Mexico border have been identified as the cause of a 160 percent increase in nonwhite gang crimes in the Washington DC area, official figures show.

Among the crimes committed have been decapitations, murders, stonings, and shootings.

According to Arlington, VA, TV station WJLA, police officials have reported a sharp rise in violent and brutal MS-13 gang related crimes in northern Virginia and the Washington DC area.

David LeValley, special agent in charge at the FBI’s Washington Field Office, said that the violence is “mirrored by what they’re seeing in Central America.”

Authorities say gang leaders in El Salvador and Guatemala are trying to establish a greater presence in Northern Virginia—for profit through drugs, theft, and extortion, the TV station reported.

The mass invasion by “unaccompanied minors” from Central America—supposedly “poor people fleeing conflict”—into the US, which started in 2014, has “created a whole new crop of recruits” to the gangs.

“And these young men, some of them just 14 or 15 years old, are committing horrific crimes, such as decapitation and stoning,” WLJA continued.

In June of 2016, Leesburg Police, along with federal authorities, raided a home suspected of MS-13 members, leading to several arrests. And in Fairfax County MS-13 related incidents in the first 4 months of this year jumped more than 160 percent compared with 2015.

In May of this year prosecutors convicted six MS-13 members for their roles in three murders and one attempted murder in Northern Virginia.

The first six months of 2016 have already seen over 27,754 “unaccompanied minors” apprehended illegally crossing into the US, according to Border Patrol figures.

This is 78 percent higher than the 15,616 unaccompanied minors apprehended over the same timeframe in 2015, and about on par with the 28,579 apprehended in 2014.