The leader of the El Salvadorian MS-13 gang was arrested by federal law enforcement officers on Thursday, US President Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social platform.
"Just captured a major leader of MS13," Trump wrote.
The 24-year-old suspect, Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, was arrested in Woodbridge, Virginia, just south of Washington DC, local news reported. Officials have confirmed that he is one of the top three leaders of the gang within the United States.
The operation was a joint effort by the FBI, ATF, ICE, Virginia State Police, and the Prince William County Police Department, according to US Attorney-General Pam Bondi. Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel were present for the raid.
Santos was the leader of the gang for the US East Coast, Bondi announced.
"He is an illegal alien from El Salvador, and he will not be living in our country much longer," Bondi said in a press conference.
Santos, originally from El Salvador, was taken into custody Thursday on what CNN described as an "outstanding administrative immigration warrant."
During the raid, federal agents found numerous firearms within the place where Santos was residing. He was charged with illegal possession of a firearm.
"It's time for us to recognize that Virginia is not a sanctuary state," Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said in a statement.
Youngkin had recently threatened to withhold state funding for local government if they did not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Recruited in middle school?
During an interview on "The Ingraham Angle" on Fox News, Bondi explained who Santos is and how he became the leader of MS-13 on the East Coast.
"We believe he was recruited in middle school – in middle school!" she said.
"He's been living here illegally with friends and family, and the Biden administration did absolutely nothing to deport these people. You know, as the president says, we didn't need new laws, we needed a new president to fix this."
A task force that consisted of the Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, US Marshals, and others worked together with ICE to collect and share data to catch Santos, Bondi explained to Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
"He was one of the top leaders, and he was living half an hour from where we're sitting right now, living among us," Bondi said. "We took one of the worst of the worst off the streets today. Americans are safer because of Donald Trump."
Bondi said that the Justice Department will try to deport Santos to the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador.
"Let's send him home. That's where he belongs," she said. "You know, he belongs back in that El Salvador prison, and that's where he should go, but we're going to – you're going to see a lot more charges on him."
What is MS-13?
Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, is an internationally recognized criminal gang and terrorist organization that originated in Los Angeles, California, in the 1980s by El Salvadorian immigrants that came to the US to escape the civil war at the time.
Some of the original members of the group were trained in guerilla warfare and the use of military weapons, the Office of Justice Programs explained.
MS-13 is also known for the use of fear and intimidation to extort payments from legitimate or illegitimate business owners to conduct their businesses in MS-13 territory.
They are also notorious for rapes and witness intimidations.
