A key leader of the violent gang MS-13 has been charged with terrorism-related offenses for the first time ever.
President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr announced the massive gang bust on Wednesday.
“We just concluded a historic operation leading to the indictment and arrest of dozens of savage MS-13 leaders,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, saying that they were leading an “all out campaign to destroy MS-13.”
“This is probably the meanest, worst gang anywhere in the world, the MS-13 group. … And a big dent was put in them, took place over the last few days and really over the last year,” Trump said.
One of the leaders, Melgar Diaz, was charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and commit acts of terrorism in the Eastern District of Virginia. He was behind crimes in at least 13 states, including personally approving assassinations.
“This is the first time we’ve used terrorism-related charges against a member of MS-13,” Barr said.
The Hill reports that “other members arrested in the operation are facing multiple charges including racketeering related offenses, charges related to multiple murders and attempted murders, kidnapping, narcotics and weapons charges.”
Barr will also be seeking the death penalty against one MS-13 member, Alexi Saenz, who killed seven people in 2016 and 2016, including the brutal murders of two female high school students in New York.
“The person we are seeking a death penalty against was involved in those murders as well as two African Americans who they saw on the street and thought were from a rival gang and just butchered,” Barr said.
The Attorney General also referred to the gang as a “death cult.”
In 2018, Democrats defended the notorious gang after President Donald Trump referred to them as “animals.”
The White House responded to the criticism with a statement explaining the threat the gang poses, stating that “the violent animals of MS-13 have committed heinous, violent attacks in communities across America.”
“At the State of the Union in January 2018, President Trump brought as his guests Elizabeth Alvarado, Robert Mickens, Evelyn Rodriguez, and Freddy Cuevas, the parents of Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas. Police believe these young girls were chased down and brutally murdered by MS-13 gang members on Long Island, New York, in 2016,” the statement read.
It went on to state that Suffolk County Police Commissioner said that the “murders show a level of brutality that is close to unmatched.” Nearly 40 percent of all murders in his county between January 2016 and June 2017 were tied to MS-13.
“In Maryland, MS-13’s animals are accused of stabbing a man more than 100 times and then decapitating him, dismembering him, and ripping his heart out of his body. Police believe MS-13 members in Maryland also savagely beat a 15-year-old human trafficking victim. The MS-13 animals used a bat and took turns beating her nearly 30 times in total,” the statement continued.
The extremely brutal transnational gang’s motto is “aata, roba, viola, controla’”(Kill, steal, rape, control), yet Democratic pundits and politicians feigned outrage that Trump would dare to “dehumanize” them.”
“In January 2017, MS-13 members were charged with killing and hacking up a teenager in Nassau County. MS-13’s animals reportedly saw the murder as a way to boost their standing in the gang. In April 2017, police believe four young men were brutally murdered by MS-13 animals on Long Island. One victim was a young man in town visiting family during an Easter week vacation. Just last month, in April 2018, MS-13 reportedly called for its members on Long Island to kill a cop for the sake of making a statement,” the White House noted.
The White House concluded the statement by asserting that “President Trump’s entire Administration is working tirelessly to bring these violent animals to justice.”
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