{"id":157038,"date":"2025-03-28T11:32:30","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T10:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/top-ms-13-leader-captured-in-us"},"modified":"2025-04-04T14:13:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T13:13:33","slug":"top-ms-13-leader-captured-in-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/top-ms-13-leader-captured-in-us","title":{"rendered":"Top MS-13 leader captured in US"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Federal authorities in the United States have arrested Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, a top leader of the Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old Salvadoran national, who led the gang on the U.S. East Coast, was captured in Woodbridge, Virginia, south of Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n<p>Santos is charged with being an illegal alien in possession of firearms, as shown in photos taken during the raid on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>According to court documents, agents found a 9mm handgun, along with three other firearms, ammunition, and two suppressors in his bedroom.<\/p>\n<p>The affidavit also disclosed that officers deployed a stun grenade when Villatoro failed to comply with orders to exit the apartment.<\/p>\n<p>Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche monitored the arrest from a nearby tactical centre.<\/p>\n<p>Bondi said the capture was executed in a \u201cclean\u201d and \u201csafe\u201d manner, describing Santos as \u201cone of the worst of the worst of MS-13.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Attorney General added that Santos was \u201cresponsible for heinous acts, and he should never have been in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was the leader for the East Coast, one of the top three in the entire country,\u201d she said. \u201cHe will not be living in our country much longer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is what happens when you let good cops be cops,\u201d Patel asserted at a press conference in Manassas, Virginia.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI operation included the Prince William County Police Department, the Virginia State Police, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.<\/p>\n<p>MS-13 was founded in Los Angeles in the 1980s by Salvadoran immigrants and has been involved in high-profile killings, kidnappings, and drug-related crimes across America.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Federal authorities in the United States have arrested Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, a top leader of the Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13. The 24-year-old Salvadoran national, who led the gang on the U.S. East Coast, was captured in Woodbridge, Virginia, south of Washington, D.C. Santos is charged with being an illegal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":157037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30],"tags":[254,373],"class_list":["post-157038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-nigeria","tag-us"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Top MS-13 leader captured in US - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Federal authorities in the United States have arrested Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, a top leader of the Mara Salvatruc ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/top-ms-13-leader-captured-in-us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Top MS-13 leader captured in US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Federal authorities in the United States have arrested Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, a top leader of the Mara Salvatruc ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/top-ms-13-leader-captured-in-us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-28T10:32:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-04T13:13:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1743152990.732048.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"845\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/top-ms-13-leader-captured-in-us#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/top-ms-13-leader-captured-in-us\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Top MS-13 leader captured in US\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-28T10:32:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-04T13:13:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/top-ms-13-leader-captured-in-us\"},\"wordCount\":296,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/top-ms-13-leader-captured-in-us#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1743152990.732048.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\",\"US\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/top-ms-13-leader-captured-in-us#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/top-ms-13-leader-captured-in-us\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/top-ms-13-leader-captured-in-us\",\"name\":\"Top MS-13 leader captured in US - 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