Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel announced Thursday the arrest of a high-ranking MS-13 gang member who had been secretly operating inside the United States “far too long,” with federal authorities confirming the individual was living in Virginia while overseeing East Coast operations of the violent El Salvadoran prison gang.
President Donald Trump first broke the news of the arrest Thursday morning in a post on Truth Social, praising the operation as part of a renewed nationwide crackdown on foreign criminal organizations.
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While officials withheld the identity of the gang leader due to ongoing operational security, Patel emphasized the urgency and seriousness of the threat.
“If you’re here for a minute, a day, a month, or a year—you’ve been here far too long,” said Patel. “Attorney General Bondi has made it a priority at this FBI to manhunt every single person committing violent crime.”
Bondi added that the fact the leader of MS-13’s East Coast operations was found living “right here in Virginia, right among us,” should “speak volumes” about the extent of the problem.
During the joint press conference, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin applauded President Trump’s executive order designating MS-13, Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, and Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations—a classification that empowers law enforcement with enhanced tools to dismantle and prosecute gang networks operating on U.S. soil.
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MS-13, notorious for its brutal tactics and transnational criminal network, has been linked to multiple high-profile homicides and violent crimes across the country.
Bondi made clear this arrest is just the beginning. “Many [gang members] have been identified living here. They were let freely into our country, all of these illegal aliens,” she said. “This is the result of Joe Biden’s open border policy. What our country has been plagued with.”
Bondi, who visited the southern border last September, described chaotic scenes of “passports stacked everywhere” and “fighting-age men” crossing into the U.S. unchecked, underscoring what she views as a direct consequence of lax immigration enforcement under the previous administration.
Department of Homeland Security data indicates millions of illegal border crossings during the Biden presidency. Earlier this year, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem estimated that “hundreds of thousands of criminals” were allowed to enter the country during that time.
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“From the second Donald Trump took office, he said he is going to make America safe,” Bondi declared. “He shut down our borders and now it’s our job to get these people out of our country as fast as we can.”
She concluded with a solemn warning: “We will not have another Laken Riley. We are going to catch them, we are going to apprehend them, and they are not going to like where they are going.”
The arrest was part of a larger, coordinated effort by a new federal task force focused on tracking, arresting, and deporting violent gang members and foreign criminals residing in the United States.
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