Alleged leader of MS-13 street gang on the East Coast is arrested in Virginia

MANASSAS, Virginia (AP) — The alleged leader of the violent MS-13 street gang on the East Coast has been arrested in Virginia, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday.

Bondi lauded the the early morning arrest of the 24-year-old man from El Salvador, who was described as one of MS-13’s top three leaders in the United States, as a major victory in the Trump administration’s effort to crack down on a gang known for brutal violence and extortion.

The Justice Department did not immediately release his name or detail the charges against him. Bondi said he was living in the U.S. illegally in northern Virginia, outside of Washington. It was unclear whether he was facing federal criminal charges or had been taken into custody by immigration officials.

The administration promoted the arrest as part of its effort to fulfill campaign promises to quash illegal immigration and eliminate gangs. MS-13 gang, or Mara Salvatrucha, was one of eight Latin American criminal organizations declared foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration last month.

“We want to make our streets safer,” Bondi told reporters. “We want to make our schools safer. We want to make your neighborhoods safer. This guy was living in a neighborhood right around you, no longer.”

At the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, citing the arrest, called it “a good day for our country.”

In the past decade, the U.S. Justice Department has intensified its focus on MS-13, which originated as a neighborhood street gang in Los Angeles, but grew into a transnational gang based in El Salvador. It has members in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico and thousands of members across the U.S. with numerous branches, or “cliques.”

The 2016 killings of two high school girls, who were hacked and beaten to death as they walked through their neighborhood on New York’s Long Island, focused national attention on the gang. Nisa Mickens, 15, and Kayla Cuevas, 16, friends and classmates at Brentwood High School, were killed with a machete and a baseball bat by a group of young men and teenage boys who had stalked them from a car. More killings followed in the coming months.

President Donald Trump has blamed the violence and gang growth on lax immigration policies. In his first term as president, Trump promised an all-out fight against MS-13, saying he would “dismantle, decimate and eradicate” the gang.

Leavitt is one of three Trump administration officials who face a lawsuit from The Associated Press on First and Fifth Amendment grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

EastIdahoNews.com comment boards are a place for open, honest, and civil communication between readers regarding the news of the day and issues facing our communities. We encourage commenters to stay on topic, use positive and constructive language, and be empathetic to the feelings of other commenters. THINK BEFORE YOU POST. Click here for more details on our commenting rules.