Feds file unprecedented terrorism charges against MS-13 leader

Federal prosecutors announced groundbreaking terrorism charges against a leader of MS-13 on Wednesday, saying the man, who was an undocumented immigrant in the U.S. before being deported twice back to El Salvador, ran the violent gang’s Eastern U.S. operations.

Armando Eliu Melgar Diaz, 30, oversaw 20 MS-13 cliques stretching from Louisiana to New York, ordering assassinations and facilitating the gang’s extortion and drug trafficking activities, the Justice Department said.

He becomes the first MS-13 leader to face terrorism charges in the U.S.

“We’re using ’terrorism,’ which gives us extra strength,” President Trump said at the White House as he touted the new actions, which also included takedowns of dozens of other members of La Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, ranging from Las Vegas to New York.

One of those New York targets, Alexi Saenz, could face the death penalty, Attorney General William Barr said.

The gang has been a particular focus for Mr. Trump, who in 2017 ordered the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security to go to war on the organization.

Mr. Barr said MS-13 is unique among criminal organizations, calling it a “death cult” because of its savagery, but also pointing to its sophistication and reach, with an hierarchy and tentacles spanning multiple countries.

“It’s about honor of being the most savage, bloodthirsty person you can be and building up a reputation as a killer,” he said.

Mr. Melgar Diaz came to the U.S. as a teen in 2003, settling in Virginia and linking up with the Gangsters Locos Salvatruchas, a clique of MS-13. He was deported by the Obama administration in 2013 but sneaked back later that year, before being deported again in 2016.

Since then, he’s been running a large swath of the gang’s U.S. operations from El Salvador, according to the indictment handed up in federal district court in Virginia in May and unsealed this week.

Mr. Melgar Diaz is in custody in El Salvador, facing drug trafficking and murder conspiracy charges.

MS-13 is closely linked to illegal immigration into the U.S.

Mr. Barr said they’re “virtually all illegal aliens.”

Security analysts say the gang’s numbers have been aided in recent years by the surge of undocumented immigrant children, and spiked again from 2018 to 2019.

In some cases, already active MS-13 members tried to sneak into the U.S., claiming to be children deserving of lenient treatment under U.S. policies. In other cases, children arrived — sometimes with family, other times on their own — and quickly became targets for gang recruitment at school or in their neighborhood.

Among the charges Mr. Melgar Diaz faces are conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, conspiring to commit acts of terrorism and conspiring to finance terrorism.

MS-13 originated in Los Angeles in the 1980s, but it is particularly active in the Washington region, thanks largely to the high number of immigrants from Central America who have settled in the area. The Gangsters Locos Salvatruchas clique Mr. Melgar Diaz was part of is based in Northern Virginia.

New York is also a hot spot, with charges announced Wednesday against eight people in connection with six murders, two attempted murders and kidnapping and drug crimes. Those charged are accused of being part of the Hollywood and Sailors, two other MS-13 cliques.

Prosecutors said two other gang members are also being charged, but they were juveniles at the time of the crimes and their cases are sealed.

Among the murders the gang stands accused of is the slaying of a member of the rival 18th Street gang, who was beaten unconscious with tree limbs, then stabbed and slashed to death with a machete. Machetes were also used in four of the other five murders included in the charges, New York prosecutors said.

New charges announced also included 17 arrests of alleged gang members in California and Nevada. Prosecutors said they are part of the Hollywood Locos clique, which operates out of the Southwest.