(The Hill) – The FBI extradited one of the “Ten Most Wanted” list fugitives, an alleged key leader of international criminal gang MS-13, from Mexico.
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FBI Director Kash Patel said Francisco Javier Roman-Bardales, a Salvadoran national, was extradited on Monday night and is being transported to the U.S. The federal law enforcement agency worked with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and “other interagency partners.”
“He was arrested in Mexico and is being transported within the U.S. as we speak, where he will face American justice,” Patel said in a Tuesday morning post on social platform X.
Patel touted the extradition as a “major victory both for our law enforcement partners and for a safer America.”
“Thank you to our brave personnel for executing the mission,” Patel wrote. “And thank you to Mexico’s SSPC and FGE teams for their support of the FBI in this investigation and arrest,” referring to the Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection (SSPC), Mexico’s government agency tasked with supervising public safety and security.
Mexican authorities said they arrested Roman-Bardales, 47, Monday in Veracruz, Mexico, on the Teocelo-Baxtla highway.
In a joint statement from the from the Mexico’s Defense Ministry, Navy, Office of Attorney General, the National Guard and the SSPC, Roman-Bardales was informed of his arrest, his legal rights were read out to him and he was transferred to Mexico City, “where he will be taken to the appropriate authority, where he will subsequently be deported to the United States where he is wanted.”
The fugitive was wanted by the FBI for his alleged involvement with MS-13’s operations in both Mexico and the U.S.
He was charged with “several offenses” over his supposed role in “ordering numerous acts of violence against civilians and rival gang members, as well as his role in drug distribution and extortion schemes in the United States and El Salvador,” according to FBI.
U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York issued an arrest warrant for Roman-Bardales on Sept. 22, 2022 after being charged with “Conspiracy to Provide and Conceal Material Support and Resources to Terrorists; Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy; Racketeering Conspiracy; and Alien Smuggling Conspiracy.”
The FBI was offering up to $250,000 for information leading to Roman-Bardales’ arrest. The agency website was updated to list him as “captured.”
The Trump administration last month designated MS-13, which is believed to have originated in Los Angeles in the 1980s, along with Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and half a dozen Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations.
The Hill has reached out to the DOJ for comment.
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