Trump Admin Moves Quietly To Drop Charges Against MS-13 Leaders, Cites Other National Security Priorities

President Donald Trump made of law and order a key pillar of his campaign and administration, promising to prosecute and deport undocumented migrants, many of whom are believed to be violent gang members.

However, as he strengthens his relationship with El Salvador's Nayib Bukele, Trump is reportedly willing to drop charges to leaders of one of the most prominent international gangs that hails from the Central American country and has been linked to Bukele.

According to a new report from El Faro, an outlet extremely critical of Bukele, the president has seemingly convinced Trump to drop charges against leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha-13 (MS-13) gang who had been accused of terrorism and ordered to be prosecuted during the first Trump term.

If the charges are dropped, the Republican president would also be tossing the work of Vulcan, a joint task force with great fanfare announced in 2019 as a unit specially designed to combat MS-13, bringing together the Department of Homeland Security, several federal agencies, and ten prosecutors' offices which had operated in five countries.

Notably, the joint task force's work led to the capture of nine leaders of MS-13, all Salvadorans accused of narco-terrorism, human trafficking, murders committed in the U.S., planning the assassination of an FBI agent, and more, El Faro reports.

Though the administration has reportedly operated quietly to drop the charges against the leaders, some moves have already been seen. Most recently, interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, John J. Durham, asked the Eastern District Court in New York to drop the charges against two of the nine MS-13 leaders: Antonio Lopez Larios, alias "Greñas" and Vladimir Antonio Arevalo Chavez, known as "Vampiro."

In both cases, Durham argued before the court that there were more important "geopolitical" and "national security" considerations than holding these gang members accountable for the crimes of which they were accused, according to Los Angeles Press.

New York prosecutors did not explain to the court what considerations had prevailed in the decision, nor how relations with El Salvador would be harmed if Vampiro's deportation were made public. It also remains unclear what "national security" motives the Trump administration had to drop the charges against these leaders.

However, some experts in El Salvador assert that the deals are part of a quid pro quo between Bukele and Trump's government, to avoid forcing those leaders to testify about his power-sharing deals with organized criminal groups, Los Angeles press reports.

Bukele's close relationship with Salvadoran criminals and gang members is an open international secret. Last month, Carlos Caragena Lopez, one of the most recognized gang leaders in El Salvador whose charges were recently dropped in his home country, gave a 41-minute interview to El Faro, where he detailed how his gang, as well as other criminal organizations, allegedly helped the president rise to power.

Oscar Martinez, editor-in-chief of El Faro and co-author of the article, told El Pais that "[this interview] describes how gangs turned Bukele into a relevant politician. It allows us to reach the stark conclusion that it is impossible to understand Bukele's rise to total power without his association with gangs."