April 10 (UPI) — The U.S. Justice Department wants to drop charges against a man accused of being the leader of the MS-13 gang, nearly two weeks after Attorney General Palm Bondi announced his arrest.
Henrry Villatoro Santos, 24, was charged with unlawful possession of firearms by someone in the country illegally. On March 27, FBI agents appeared at his mother’s home in Dale City and used a stun grenade to take him into custody.
During a news conference that day in Manassas, Va., Bondi called him “one of the top members and head of the East Coast.”
She said Villatoro Santos was responsible for “very violent crimes, anything you can associate with MS-13. He was the leader over it — all of the violent crimes.”
BREAKING: I’m proud to announce that early this morning our brave law enforcement officers conducted a successful operation that captured a top MS-13 national leader
DOJ will not rest until we make America safe again. pic.twitter.com/yKmhas068b— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) March 27, 2025
Virginia Gov. Glenn Younkin appeared with Bondi and referred to Villatoro-Santos as “one of the top operatives in MS-13.”
Erik S. Siebert, the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, in a court filing asked a judge “to dismiss without prejudice the criminal complaint presently pending against the defendant.”
That means they can charge him again.
Instead, the Trump administration reportedly wants to deport him.
“As a terrorist, he will now face the removal process,” Bondi said in a statement to CBS News.
Usually, gang members are convicted and then deported.
“Historically and consistently, if someone truly is a leader of a violent gang, we would always prosecute them first and convict them first — and make sure they can’t get back into the country,” Scott Fredericksen, a former federal prosecutor, told CBS News.
Later Wednesday, defense attorneys for Villatoro Santos asked a judge to delay the dismissal of his case by 14 days.
“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,” his attorneys wrote in Wednesday’s filing.
He cited the ongoing legal battle concerning alleged Venezuelan gang members being sent to a Salvadoran prison, seemingly without due process.
That includes Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man deported to El Salvador. The government has since admitted that it wrongfully deported Garcia due to “an administrative error.” They said they have no obligation to return him to the United States.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, allowed the Trump administration to resume deporting alleged members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang to El Salvador based on the 1798 Allies Enemies Act. But the government must give deportees “reasonable time” to challenge their removal in court in the United States before being deported.
