Trump’s team captures MS-13 leader Biden couldn’t be bothered chasing

2 CommentsImmigration, News

MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, is a transnational criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles in the 1980s, primarily composed of Salvadoran immigrants. The gang is notorious for its extreme violence, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and extortion activities, operating across the United States, Central America, and beyond.

On March 27, 2025, a major breakthrough rocked Woodbridge, Virginia, as authorities captured a top MS-13 leader, a 24-year-old Salvadoran ranked among the gang’s top three East Coast figures. The early-morning raid in Dale City—a sleepy suburb south of Washington, D.C.—was a masterstroke of coordination between the FBI, ATF, ICE, Prince William County Police, and Virginia State Police. Governor Glenn Youngkin hailed the Trump administration’s relentless push to “get the bad guys,” a mission he’d championed for three years with scant assistance from an indifferent Biden administration, which appeared unbothered by the gang’s menace.

The operation reached its climax with Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel personally on the scene, their presence underscoring the gravity of the takedown. Bondi directed DOJ efforts with steely resolve, while Patel, a tenacious law enforcement veteran, coordinated the multi-agency strike team that stormed the suspect’s hideout. Their hands-on leadership electrified the operation, with Bondi vowing, “The DOJ will not rest until we make America safe again,” and Patel adding that MS-13’s days of terrorizing communities were numbered.

MS-13’s reign of terror in Prince William County has included grisly murders, drug trafficking, and extortion, leaving residents in fear. This leader’s arrest disrupts the gang’s brutal hierarchy, a direct hit to its East Coast stronghold. President Trump took to social media, praising Border Czar Tom Homan’s “superstar” team, while Youngkin credited weeks of painstaking task force work to unravel the gang’s network.

As the Governor explains, Biden administration’s apathy had left Virginia to fend for itself, but Trump’s return to power shifted the tide. With Bondi and Patel at the helm, and deportations of MS-13 members to El Salvador accelerating, this takedown offers hope to communities battered by the gang’s savagery—a clear signal that the “bad guys” are finally running out of shadows to hide in.