WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – The U.S. Justice Department announced the arrest Thursday of a top leader of the violent MS-13 street gang.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said authorities took the 24-year-old man from El Salvador into custody in Virginia as part of a new task force’s operation.
“He’s very dangerous,” Bondi said. “He should not have been in this country. For certain reasons, we’re not identifying him by name. He was one of the top members, top three in the entire country.”
The Justice Department did not release the man’s information or the charges against him, but FBI Director Kash Patel said his arrest is part of the Trump administration’s broader crack down on transnational gang members.
“If you are here illegally, you will not be here any longer,” Patel said.
MS-13 is based in El Salvador, where the Trump administration said it recently deported hundreds of Venezuelans from a different gang. While their fate is tied up in the courts, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited them in prison.
“Know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people,” Noem said.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress applauded the specific efforts to arrest the alleged MS-13 gang leader.
“I’m cheering them on,” said U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas.).
“If the facts are the facts, deport them,” U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.).
However, Thompson said the Trump administration has to grant due process for anyone the U.S. arrests.
“We need to continue to catch bad people, present them to a court of law,” Thompson said.
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