'Depraved Violence': MS-13 Leader, 1 Of FBI's Most Wanted, Nabbed: DOJ

LONG ISLAND, NY — A high-ranking MS-13 gang leader was arraigned in Central Islip federal court Wednesday on terrorism and racketeering charges after his arrest in Mexico, the Department of Justice said.

Francisco Javier Roman-Bardales, 47, of Ahuachapán, El Salvador and Veracruz, Mexico — and who is also known as "Veterano de Tribus" — was arraigned on a four-count indictment charging him, along with a dozen other high-ranking MS-13 leaders, with directing the transnational criminal organization’s unlawful activities in the United States, El Salvador, Mexico, and elsewhere over the past two decades, the DOJ said.

Roman-Bardales, who had been a fugitive for nearly three years and was added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's "10 Most Wanted Fugitives" List last month, was arrested by the FBI on March 18 at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego, California, federal officials said. Roman-Bardales had been located and arrested by Mexican authorities in Veracruz on March 17, and after it was determined that he was an El Salvadoran citizen with no valid status in Mexico, he was expelled from Mexico, the DOJ said.

Roman-Bardales was arrested and charged with racketeering conspiracy; conspiracy to provide and conceal material support and resources to terrorists; narco-terrorism conspiracy; and alien smuggling conspiracy, federal officials said.

The proceeding was held before United States District Judge Joan M. Azrack. Roman-Bardales was ordered detained pending trial in the Eastern District of New York.

Pamela Bondi, United States Attorney General, John J. Durham, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and Leslie Backschies, Acting Assistant Director in Charge, FBI, New York Field Office, announced the arraignment.

"MS-13 is a terrorist organization and this case reflects the Department of Justice’s ironclad commitment to putting terrorists behind bars," 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."

Durham added: "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. Thanks to the relentless and brave work of United States law enforcement, he will soon face reckoning in a courtroom on Long Island where his transnational criminal organization has impacted so many communities."

Durham thanked the Suffolk County Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, San Diego, the FBI’s San Diego field office and the government of Mexico for their assistance.

"FBI 10 Most Wanted Fugitive Roman-Bardales has been extradited to the United States to be held accountable for the extreme and depraved violence and terror his leadership of MS-13 allegedly brought to the streets of the United States and across North America," Backschies said. "The FBI, along with our law enforcement partners, are committed to eradicating MS-13 and all violent transnational criminal organizations wherever they operate as we protect our nation."

As set forth in court filings, Roman-Bardales and his co-defendants are part of MS-13’s command and control structure, consisting of the Ranfla Nacional, Ranfla en Las Calles, and Ranfla en Los Penales, the DOJ said. They exercise "significant leadership roles" in the organization’s operations in El Salvador, Mexico, the United States, and throughout the world, the DOJ said.

Roman-Bardales was himself a founding member of the Ranfla en las Calles and oversaw the "western zone" of MS-13 in El Salvador, the DOJ said.

In the related case of United States v. Henriquez, et al., a grand jury in the Eastern District of New York previously indicted 14 members of the Ranfla Nacional, who functioned as MS-13’s "board of directors," the DOJ said.

Formal extradition requests have been submitted by the United States and remain pending for 11 of those defendants who either are or were in custody in El Salvador, the DOJ said.

As further alleged, the defendants have engaged in a "litany of violent terrorist activities" aimed at influencing the policies of the government of El Salvador (GOES) and at obtaining benefits and concessions from GOES; targeting GOES law enforcement and military officials; employing terrorist tactics such as the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and grenades; operating military-style training camps for firearms and explosives; using public displays of violence to intimidate civilian populations; using violence to obtain and control territory; and manipulating the electoral process in El Salvador, the DOJ said.

Further, the defendants authorized and directed violence in the United States, Mexico, and elsewhere as part of a concerted effort to expand MS-13’s influence and territorial control, the DOJ said. As the leaders of the MS-13 transnational criminal organization, thy were an "integral part of the leadership chain" responsible for supervising MS-13 cliques in the United States that engaged in extreme violence, including "countless murders, attempted murders, assaults, and related offenses," the DOJ said.

For example, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York has prosecuted hundreds of MS-13 leaders, members, and associates for carrying out more than 80 murders in the Eastern District of New York between 2009 and today, the DOJ said.

Several of the defendants, including Roman-Bardales, coordinated MS13’s expansion into Mexico (the Mexico Program), at the direction of the Ranfla Nacional, which was a coordinated effort to maintain MS-13’s continuity of operations in response to law enforcement pressure previously exerted by the United States and GOES, the DOJ said.

Additionally, Roman-Bardales and the Mexico Program forged alliances with Mexican cartels, and engaged in narcotics trafficking, immigrant smuggling, extortion, kidnappings, and weapons trafficking, the DOJ said.

As alleged in the indictment, the MS-13's Mexico Program murdered some migrants bound for the United States, including suspected members of the rival 18th Street gang and MS-13 members attempting to flee MS-13 in El Salvador without permission, the DOJ said. "Drug trafficking was an important part of MS-13’s moneymaking operation, especially in Mexico, and the defendants used MS-13’s large membership in the United States to generate financial support for MS-13’s terrorist activities in El Salvador," the DOJ said.

If convicted of the charges, Roman-Bardales faces up to life in prison or the possibility of the death penalty, the DOJ said.