A Salvadoran man alleged by U.S. Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi to be a prime chief of the MS-13 gang is asking a choose to not dismiss a felony case towards him, regardless of the Justice Division earlier Wednesday looking for to finish the case in favor of deporting him out of the U.S.
Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, who’s alleged to be within the U.S. illegally, is asking a Justice of the Peace choose within the U.S. District Court docket for the Jap District of Virginia to delay the dismissal as a result of he fears the U.S. authorities would instantly transfer to deport him to El Salvador’s CECOT prison with out a possibility for due course of.
Villatoro Santos was arrested at a residence in Virginia on March 27 in a highly-publicized early-morning operation. After he was taken into custody on an impressive immigration administrative warrant, a search of his room turned up weapons and “indicia of MS-13 affiliation,” in keeping with an affidavit from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi, middle, mentioned the U.S. arrested a prime MS-13 gang chief on Thursday, March 27, 2025.
X/@AGPamBondi
Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel had been in attendance through the early morning raid. At a press convention later that day Bondi mentioned the person arrested within the operation was “one of many prime leaders of MS-13” and the “chief of the East Coast” for the gang. “He won’t be dwelling in our nation for much longer,” she added.
Villatoro Santos was charged in federal court docket with unlawful firearm possession and was ordered detained pending trial.
On Wednesday morning, the federal government filed a terse movement looking for to dismiss the case. The reason supplied was easy, however lacked element. “The federal government not needs to pursue the moment prosecution presently,” the movement mentioned.
“As a terrorist, he’ll now face the elimination course of,” Bondi mentioned in an announcement on Wednesday.
On this reserving picture launched by the Alexandria, Virginia Sheriff’s Workplace, Henrry Villatoro Santos is proven.
Alexandria, Virginia Sheriff’s Workplace
That led to the peculiar circumstance of the defendant, Villatoro Santos, asking the court docket to not instantly finish the case.
“The hazard of Mr. Villatoro Santos being unlawfully deported by ICE with out due course of and eliminated to El Salvador, the place he would virtually actually be instantly detained at one of many worst prisons on the planet with none proper to contest his elimination, is substantial, each in mild of the Authorities’s current actions and the very public pronouncements on this specific case,” wrote his lawyer, Muhammad Elsayed, in a movement to delay the dismissal for 2 weeks.
Elsayed famous that he was “keenly conscious of the bizarre nature” of the movement.
“However these are uncommon instances,” he wrote, asking the court docket to delay the entry of any dismissal order for 2 weeks to permit Villatoro Santos ample time to hunt help from immigration counsel.
