Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Josue Villatoro Santos, the alleged top MS-13 leader arrested on Thursday in Virginia, may have been recruited by the gang over 10 years ago.
Speaking to Fox News' Laura Ingraham, Bondi said "we believe he was recruited in middle school." "He's been living here illegally with friends and family, and the Biden administration did absolutely nothing to deport these people. You know, as the president says, we didn't need new laws, we needed a new president to fix this," she added.
Bondi went on to say that Villatoro Santos was "one of the top leaders" of the gang and touted that "we took one of the worst of the worst off the streets." The FBI said on Thursday that he is one of the top three leaders of the group in the country and the top one for the East Coast.
MS-13 was born in Los Angeles during the 1980s. It was initially formed by Salvadoran immigrants seeking to protect nationals from other gangs in the area, but then evolved into a traditional criminal organization. It is known for extreme violence and a wide array of unlawful activities, including drug trafficking, extortion, and human trafficking.
The group was officially designated a terrorist group by the Trump administration, prohibiting Americans from providing "material support or resources" to these groups and paves the way for stricter law enforcement actions, including the deportation of gang members and affiliates.
"Let's send him home. That's where he belongs," Bondi said during a passage of the interview. "You know, he belongs back in that El Salvador prison, and that's where he should go, but we're going to — you're going to see a lot more charges on him," she added.
The administration's offensive against the group has been ongoing. Just last week the Mexican government extradited Javier Román Bardales, a MS-13 leader and member of the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list.
Bardales, also known as "El Veterano," was wanted by U.S. authorities for his alleged involvement in the direction of MS-13 activity in the U.S., Mexico and El Salvador.
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