ALEXANDRIA, Va. (CN) —U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi told reporters Thursday that Virginia and federal authorities arrested one of MS-13’s top leaders.
“America is safer today because one of the top domestic terrorists in MS-13 — he is off the streets,” Bondi said. “They’re one of the most dangerous gangs in our country, and we are going to fight until they are completely dismantled.”
Bondi credited the work of the newly constructed Virginia Homeland Security Task Force, a collaborative effort between Virginia law enforcement and federal agencies that claims to have arrested 342 individuals, 81 of whom are involved in transnational organized crime.
Authorities are not releasing the name of the 24-year-old Mara Salvatrucha gang leader, but they told reporters that he was involved in overseeing violent crimes. The arrest occurred in Dale City, a part of Prince William County, around 25 miles from Washington. Bondi said the El Salvadoran national was one of the gang’s three leaders and oversaw East Coast operations.
Bondi didn’t go into detail about the suspect but did indicate that he was living in the country illegally.
“He was recruited at a very early age, a very early age, and rose to leadership. You have to be bad; you have to be tough to get there,” Bondi said. “But he is no longer tough because he is behind bars.”
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin thanked President Donald Trump for the resources allotted since the administration took over in January.
“President Trump said, ‘Get the bad guys,'” the Republican said. “I’ve been working on this literally for the first three years of our administration, with little to no help from the senior leadership in the federal government and the Biden administration.”
Interim U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert of the Eastern District of Virginia said the mass arrests are deterring gang activity.
“We’re already hearing in the community that our efforts are having a deterrent effect on these gangs, and so moving forward with the information that we’ve obtained from our arrest and search warrants, we plan to use the task force model to continue to identify these bad actors and prioritize the rest of the most violent transnational criminals,” Siebert said. “We do not plan on stopping till every one of these valid gang members is off the streets.”
The arrest comes after Trump announced an executive order in January authorizing the State Department to designate eight transnational crime organizations, including Venezuelan-based Tren de Aragua and Mexico-based Cártel de Sinaloa, as foreign terrorist organizations.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said earlier in March that it carried out over 28,000 deportations in the first seven weeks of the Trump administration.
Bondi alluded to a technology that helped with the arrest without providing further detail. Virginia’s task force is the first of its kind, but FBI Director Kash Patel indicated that the administration hopes to expand the effort elsewhere.
“This task force is going to go everywhere it is needed across the United States to bring the form of justice and measured security and safety that our American citizens deserve,” Patel, who attended university in Virginia, said. “It is an America First model because we live in the United States of America, and if you are here illegally, you will not be here any longer.”
Youngkin used the opportunity to push for a budget amendment he announced that would pull state funding from so-called sanctuary cities that don’t cooperate with ICE.
“Local jurisdictions that claim sanctuary city status are absolutely unacceptable,” Youngkin said. “Look who’s in your community. Look who’s living around the corner from citizens that are going to work, trying to build their lives in a place that’s the best place in America to live and work and raise a family. And yet, we have one of the top three operatives from the most dangerous gang in America in the world living around the corner, and you sanctuary cities want to give refuge to them.”
Virginia’s Democratic-controlled Legislature will reconvene on April 2 to consider the governor’s amendments. Virginia Senate majority leader Scott Surrovel has rebuffed claims that Virginia has sanctuary cities.
“It’s time for us to recognize that Virginia is not a sanctuary state,” Youngkin said. “We are working to get the bad guys out of here.”