Trump Admin Dropped Charges Against MS-13 Leaders Following Pact Between Gang And Bukele Admin: Report

The Trump administration quietly dropped charges against several MS-13 members earlier this year even though the president claimed during the campaign that he would crack down on international criminal organizations, including the Salvador-born one.

A recent New York Times investigation revealed that American prosecutors have amassed substantial evidence of a pact between the Salvadoran government and some high-ranking MS-13 leaders who agreed to drive down violence and bolster Bukele politically in exchange for cash and perks in jail.

"Some who were part of the federal investigation worry that Mr. Bukele wants the gang leaders back to prevent them from revealing damaging information about his government," reads a passage of the article.

Since Bukele became President of El Salvador in 2019, he has positioned himself as a defender of safety in his native country. Due to constant gang violence, he declared a state of emergency, which suspended some constitutional rights, allowing the government to arrest who it suspected of being a gang member with little to no due process. That emergency designation was supposed to last just a few months, but it has now been years.

Investigations of MS-13 leaders began during the first Trump administration, spearheaded by a cross-agency group called Joint Task Force Vulcan. But now, as the administration quietly drops their charges, the investigation could be severely damaged, and other defendants could be less likely to cooperate or testify in court, The Times reports.

It remains unclear how many MS-13 leaders the Trump administration has sent back to El Salvador so far— or how many more it plans to return. At least one of them, Cesar Lopez Larios, was put on a plane to El Salvador in March with other migrants sent to Bukele's maximum-security prison known as CECOT. Lopez had been in U.S. custody for less than a year and was awaiting trial on Long Island on narco-terrorism conspiracy charges.

Trump's reversal against MS-13 leaders comes as the administration struck a deal with Bukele, where the latter agreed to accept more than 200 migrants expelled from the U.S. into CECOT, a prison he built for terrorists. In exchange for helping Trump's deportation plans, the U.S. paid El Salvador millions of dollars, and is now seemingly continuing that payment with the return of the highly-coveted gang members.

The Trump administration has not acknowledged the alleged deal between El Salvador and the international criminal organization. Instead, the White House has pointed to its goals of "making America safe again," which include expelling criminals from the country.

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement that "any suggestion that President Trump isn't successfully eradicating terrorist criminal gangs from the United States is just plain stupid." She said the administration was "grateful for President Bukele's partnership" and the use of his maximum-security prison, adding: "there is no better place for these sick, illegal criminals."

Likewise, a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement to the Times that the agency was "focused on making America safe again, which includes ending the invasion of violent illegal alien criminals."