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WASHINGTON D.C. (WSAU) – The Department of Justice has formally announced that, in coordination with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, the leader of MS-13 was arrested in the United States.
According to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who spoke to the media on Thursday regarding the operation, the unidentified 24-year-old leader of MS-13, originally from El Salvador, was arrested in Woodbridge, Virginia, on Thursday morning with the assistance of the ATF, ICE, the FBI, and the Virginia State Police.
Bondi stated that agents “executed a clean, safe operation, and the bad guys are in custody. And thanks to the FBI, we got one of the worst of the worst of the MS-13 off the streets this morning. Virginia and the country are a lot safer today.”
FBI Director Kash Patel also spoke about the arrest, saying, “This is what can happen when you put good cops in good places to take on bad guys. And America should be watching this. And we are proud to be here standing with these brave warriors.”
This is the second time in recent years that a terrorist organization has had a leader arrested in the U.S., as federal officials caught the Ranfla Nacional, a group of MS-13’s fourteen highest-ranking officials in New York back in January of 2021, and charged them with conspiracy to provide and conceal material support to terrorists, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to finance terrorism and narco-terrorism which can result in a sentence worth dozens of years behind bars in federal prison.
Back in February, President Trump’s administration formally listed MS-13 and five other cartel organizations, including Tren de Aragua, Cartel de Sinaloa, and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, as terrorist groups due to their continued profiteering and assistance in selling and distributing deadly drugs such as fentanyl into U.S. communities and sex trafficking women and even children around the world.
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