Attorney General Pam Bondi has dropped charges against a man accused of being a major MS-13 leader in the East Coast.
The Justice department said Henrry Villatoro Santos, 24, was arrested in Virginia last month and will likely be deported to his home country of El Salvador.
Prosecutors have only said ‘the government no longer wishes to pursue the instant prosecution at this time,’ as reported by CNN.
Sources told the Washington Post that Bondi is looking to fast-track the alleged gangster’s deportation.
‘As a terrorist, he will now face the removal process,’ Bondi said on Thursday.
Villatoro’s lawyer Muhammad Elsayed has opposed the move, saying his client would face a dark fate if deported to his home country.
‘The danger of Mr. Villatoro Santos being unlawfully deported by ICE without due process and removed to El Salvador, where he would almost certainly be immediately detained at one of the worst prisons in the world without any right to contest his removal, is substantial, both in light of the Government’s recent actions and the very public pronouncements in this particular case,’ Villatoro’s lawyer Elsayed said.
Elsayed added that ‘in its rush to prove to the American public that this administration is tough on crime and immigration enforcement,’ the Trump administration has ‘wrongfully deported.’
Deporting Villatoros without first securing a conviction breaks historical precedent, as noted by CBS News.
It comes just weeks after Bondi lauded Villatoro’s arrest, claiming he was ‘MS-13’s leader for the East Coast’ and calling him a ‘horrible, violent, worst of the worst criminals.’
Villatoro was arrested in Dale City, suburban community half an hour outside of Washington, D.C, last month.
Bondi lauded the the early morning arrest as a major victory in the Trump administration’s effort to crack down on a gang known for brutal violence and extortion.
She accused Villatoro of being responsible for ‘very violent crimes, anything you can associate with MS-13. He was the leader over it — all of the violent crimes.’
Villatoro was charged with illegal gun possession after agents found several firearms during the search of his home. Bondi said he was living in the U.S. illegally.
As previously reported, the FBI said they found a a total of four guns, ammo, and suppressors inside his room.
Bondi said the suspect was ‘very dangerous’ and had been recruited by MS-13 when he was ‘very young’ before rising through the ranks.
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Younkin also said Villatoro was ‘One of the top operatives in MS-13.’
The Trump 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.’