DOJ seeks to drop charges against man it said was “East Coast leader” of MS-13 gang

The Justice Department seeks to drop its criminal case against a Virginia man accused of being the “East Coast leader” of the MS-13 gang, weeks after Attorney General Pam Bondi announced his arrest in a nationally televised press conference last month.   

Bondi referred to Henrry Villatoro Santos as “one of the top members and head of the East Coast” of the violent MS-13 gang during a March 27 news conference in Manassas, Virginia. She also accused Villatoro Santos of being responsible for “very violent crimes, anything you can associate with MS-13. He was the leader over it — all of the violent crimes.”

In a court filing Wednesday in Alexandria, Virginia, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia asked a judge “to dismiss without prejudice the criminal complaint presently pending against the defendant.” When asked why the government was moving to drop the case, a spokesperson for Bondi responded with a clip of Bondi saying on March 27 that Villatoro Santos “won’t be in this country much longer.”

Two sources familiar with the matter told CBS News the department is likely to seek to deport Villatoro Santos.

“As a terrorist, he will now face the removal process,” Bondi said in a statement following CBS News’ reporting.

Any decision to deport Villatoro-Santos without first securing a criminal conviction on the crimes alleged by Bondi would break historical precedent, according to two former Justice Department officials who spoke with CBS News.

Scott Fredericksen, a former federal prosecutor, told CBS News, “Historically and consistently, if someone truly is a leader of a violent gang, we would always prosecute them first and convict them first — and make sure they can’t get back into the country.”

Later Wednesday, in an unusual move, defense attorneys for Villatoro Santos asked a judge to delay the dismissal of his case, accusing the Justice Department, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and others of creating a media circus with “breathless pronouncements” about the allegations against Villatoro Santos.

“The danger of Mr. Villatoro Santos being unlawfully deported by ICE without due process and removed to El Salvador, where he would almost certainly be immediately detained at one of the worst prisons in the world without any right to contest his removal, is substantial, both in light of the Government’s recent actions and the very public pronouncements in this particular case,” his attorneys wrote in Wednesday’s filing, citing the ongoing legal battle concerning alleged Venezuelan gang members who were sent to a Salvadoran prison, seemingly without due process.

His attorneys said they feared the same fate would befall their client if the judge agreed to drop the case immediately.

Villatoro Santos also noted they were “keenly aware of the unusual nature of this motion. But these are unusual times.”

Charging documents filed against Villatoro Santos last month made only a fleeting reference to his alleged affiliation to MS-13. The charging documents said, “FBI agents and (task force officers) also observed indicia of MS-13 association in the garage bedroom” of Villatoro Santos’ home. He was charged with one count of unlawful possession of a firearm and was ordered detained by a magistrate judge, pending future hearings.

At the March 27 news conference, Virginia Gov. Glenn Younkin also appeared and referred to Villatoro-Santos as “One of the top operatives in MS-13.”

A defense lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment.

Scott MacFarlane

Scott MacFarlane is CBS News’ Justice correspondent. He has covered Washington for two decades, earning 20 Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards. His reporting has resulted directly in the passage of five new laws.