A high-ranking MS-13 leader, who was added to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives List in February, was arraigned in federal court Wednesday.
Francisco Javier Roman-Bardales, also known as Veterano de Tribus, 47, of Ahuachapán, El Salvador, and Veracruz, Mexico, had been a fugitive for nearly three years and was a leader of La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, had been arrested Tuesday at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego, CA. Roman-Bardales had previously been located and arrested by Mexican authorities in Veracruz, on Monday, March 17. When it was determined that he was El Salvadoran with no valid status in Mexico, he was expelled from that country. He was charged on a four-count indictment for directing the transnational criminal organization’s activities in the United States, El Salvador, Mexico and elsewhere over the pat 20 years.
“MS-13 is a terrorist organization, and this case reflects the Department of Justice’s ironclad commitment to putting terrorists behind bars,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said. “Members of MS-13 and similar groups should live in fear knowing that we will hunt them down, prosecute them, and deliver swift American justice for their heinous crimes.”
Officials said Roman-Bardales, and a group of other MS-13 leaders arrested with him, are part of MS-13’s command and control structure, consisting of the Ranfla Nacional, Ranfla en Las Calles, and Ranfla en Los Penales, and exercise significant control over the organization’s operations in El Salvador, Mexico, the U.S. and around the world.
The U.S. Department of Justice said the defendants have engaged in violent terrorist activities aimed at influencing the policies of the government of El Salvador, targeting El Salvadoran government law enforcement and military officials and employing terrorist tactics, as well as using public displays of violence to intimidate civilian populations.
The DOJ further alleged the defendants authorized and directed violence across the U.S., Mexico and elsewhere as part of an effort to expand the gang’s influence and territorial control. As the leaders of the group, the defendants were an integral part of leadership of a group that engaged in extreme violence, the department said.
“The prosecution in the Eastern District of New York of this international fugitive, who is one of the most senior leaders of the MS-13 in the world, is another momentous step in the dismantling of this evil criminal enterprise, whose bloodshed and reign of terror traverses all boundaries,” stated U.S. Attorney John J. Durham for the Eastern District of New York. “Thanks to the relentless and brave work of U.S. law enforcement, he will soon face reckoning in a courtroom on Long Island where his transnational criminal organization has impacted so many communities.”
Roman-Bardales is charged with racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to provide and conceal material support and resources to terrorists, narco-terrorism conspiracy and alien smuggling conspiracy. U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack ordered Roman-Bardales be detained pending trial in New York. If convicted he faces a maximum of life in prison or the death penalty.