The Donald Trump administration intends to secretly drop charges against leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha-13 (MS-13) accused of acts of terrorism, whom the U.S. president ordered to be prosecuted during his first term, and whose capture was the priority objective of the Joint Task Force Vulcan.
Vulcan was created and announced with great fanfare by Trump in 2019 as a unit specially designed to combat MS-13, bringing together the Department of Homeland Security, several federal agencies, and ten prosecutors’ offices which had operated in five countries. One of the most publicized results of this unit was the capture of nine leaders of that gang, all Salvadorans accused of narco-terrorism, human trafficking, murders committed in the United States, and planning the assassination of an FBI agent, among other alleged crimes.
The U.S. government, through the Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, John J. Durham, has already asked the Eastern District Court of New York to drop the charges against two of the nine MS-13 leaders: Antonio López Larios, alias “Greñas”, and Vladimir Antonio Arévalo Chávez, known as “Vampiro”. In both cases, Durham argued before the court that there were more important “geopolitical” and “national security” considerations than holding these gang members accountable for the crimes of which they were accused.
Durham invoked Rule 48 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which states that “the government may, with leave of court, dismiss an indictment, information, or complaint” provided that it is not contrary to the public interest.
Greñas had the charges against him dropped in March 2025 and was immediately deported to El Salvador. In Vampiro’s case, his lawyers are fighting a fierce battle against the prosecution to prevent his deportation to El Salvador. Prosecutor Durham sought to have the charges against Vampiro dropped and his deportation carried out in secret, arguing that “public disclosure of this motion before the operation is complete could cause harm to the government’s relationship with a foreign ally,” referring to the Bukele government.
Offering US His Torture Prisons, Bukele Wants MS-13 Leaders Back
New York prosecutors did not explain to the court what geopolitical considerations had prevailed in the decision, nor how relations with El Salvador would be harmed if Vampiro’s deportation were made public. In this regard, the Salvadoran ambassador to the United States, Milena Mayorga, said publicly on television in February that Bukele demanded a “point of honor” from Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the negotiations in which El Salvador agreed to receive Venezuelans deported from the United States: According to the ambassador, Bukele reportedly told Rubio: “I want you to send me the gang leaders who are in the United States.”
Furthermore, according to CNN, the negotiations to receive Venezuelans at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) were carried out by President Nayib Bukele’s brother, Ibrajim Bukele —who holds no official position in the Salvadoran government— and Michael Needham, chief of staff to the secretary of state, where he offered to receive up to 300 alleged members of Tren de Aragua in the CECOT for one year in exchange for $6 million, as well as a 50 percent discount for the second year if Trump returned the nine MS-13 leaders that Vulcan had captured.
From the beginning of his term in 2019 until March 2022, the Bukele administration maintained a secret pact with the three main gangs operating in El Salvador, including MS-13. The agreement meant that the gangs would mobilize votes for Bukele, intimidate supporters of other political parties to prevent them from going to the polls, and reduce homicides so that the government could claim it as its own achievement.
In exchange, the government promised to improve prison conditions for gang members, allow illegal visits by free gang members to their leaders in maximum-security prisons, extend the stay of imprisoned leaders in private hospitals, where they could receive visitors, and even release Élmer Canales Rivera, alias “Crook”, one of the top leaders of MS-13, who had a 40-year sentence pending in El Salvador and was wanted for extradition by the United States. Vulcan agents managed to capture Crook in Chiapas in November 2023, a year after he was illegally released by the Bukele government, and he was then transferred to U.S. custody.
El Faro spoke with Daniel Brunner, a retired FBI agent and former member of Vulcan, who is convinced that Vampiro will be deported to El Salvador sooner or later: “Eventually, Vampiro is going to leave,” he said, adding, “I wouldn't be surprised to see if those same papers you saw for Vampiro also exist for Crook. I wouldn't be surprised for a minute. You know what? I’d be surprised if those papers weren’t there," he said, predicting a move to deport the man, another who is living proof of the pacts between Bukele and Mara Salvatrucha-13, for which the United States has already sanctioned two of Bukele’s government officials.
In one of the briefs that Vampiro’s defense sent to the court, his lawyer argues that the deportations of gang leaders —including his client— are intended to prevent them from testifying in a U.S. court about their negotiations with the Bukele government, thus offering impunity in the United States to the Salvadoran president.
These government actions seem to go against the grain of the State Department’s designation of the Mara Salvatrucha-13 as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on Feb. 20, 2025.
Efforts to delay Vampiro’s removal
According to the indictment against Vampiro, he stands accused in the United States of being a mid-level gang leader, participating in negotiations with the Salvadoran government, and arriving in Mexico to consolidate the Mexico Program, an extension of MS-13 that sought to strengthen ties with Mexican drug cartels. A former MS-13 gang member based in Mexico claims that Vampiro rose through the ranks of the gang’s criminal hierarchy to become a member of its leadership structure, known as Ranfla Nacional, thanks to the respect he commanded and the large amount of money generated by the cell he led.
Another former gang member claims that Vampiro lived in Celaya, Guanajuato, before his capture on Feb. 22, 2023. Immediately afterward, he was sent to the United States by Mexican authorities. He was formally arrested and held in solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where most of the other MS-13 leaders are being held. Two years after his capture, in February 2025, the prosecution requested that he receive the death penalty.
Two months later, on Apr. 1, 2025, Interim U.S. Attorney John J. Durham requested that the judge in the case, Joan M. Azrack, dismiss the charges against Vampiro, citing Rule 48. Such a dismissal is usually made “without prejudice” to allow the person to be charged again for the same crime. However, the court may decide to dismiss a case “with prejudice” to prevent a similar new indictment if it finds that the prosecutor acted in “bad faith.”
The prosecutor’s request, almost identical to the one made to remove the charges against Greñas fifteen days earlier, alleged “sensitive and important foreign policy considerations” and “U.S. geopolitical and national security concerns” “so that El Salvador can proceed first with its criminal charges against the defendant under Salvadoran law.”
As he had previously argued with Greñas, Durham requested that the letter be kept confidential for the sake of the safety and security of those involved in the transfer because “public disclosure of this motion before the operation is complete could harm the government's relationship with a foreign ally.”
The next day, April 2, defense attorney Louis M. Freeman sent a confidential letter asking the judge not to decide on the dismissal of charges without Vampiro being able to defend himself. He requested an extension until April 9 to respond, arguing that he needed to meet with his client in the Special Confinement Unit of the prison, which is difficult to access. The judge granted the time and the lawyer demanded that marshals and prison officials not remove him from the prison while his case was being resolved.
On April 9, Freeman requested another extension until April 23, in an effort to prevent the Trump administration from taking immediate action against Vampiro.
The following day, prosecutor Durham expressed his opposition to the deadline, arguing once again that the dismissal was based on “foreign policy” grounds and reminding the judge that only on “rare occasions” is a request such as this granted and that the Court cannot order a case to continue once dismissal has been requested. He also pointed out that the defendant’s consent is not required.
Freeman responded on April 10 that the extension was for two reasons: First, because he finds it “unusual” and “in bad faith” that the Trump administration wants to dismiss the charges against Vampiro on the grounds that he must first be prosecuted in El Salvador under a judicial and prison system known for violating human rights and denying due process. Second, to avoid being returned, Vampiro has the right to challenge his deportation under the Immigration and Nationality Act or the Convention Against Torture.
The defense recalled that the Supreme Court had recently suspended the use of the Alien Enemies Act as a legal instrument to deport foreigners without due process, adding that he planned to prepare a habeas corpus petition to determine Vampiro’s location and ensure that he is not immediately deported. Once again, the judge granted an extension.
“Help Bukele suppress the truth”
In the midst of this battle over legal deadlines, the judge asked the U.S. government and Vampiro’s defense to justify why court records should be kept secret, and why any filing related to the withdrawal of charges should not be included in the public record or heard in open court. The prosecution explained, once again, that this was due to geopolitical and national security concerns and that early disclosure of the documents could have a dangerous and disruptive effect on the operational security of the officers who would be transferring Vampiro.
For its part, the gang member’s defense team, which had been joined by attorney Thomas H. Nooter, argued that the prosecutor’s letter “does not accurately explain” or provide “convincing arguments” for the alleged geopolitical and national security concerns, nor does it explain why officials would be in danger if the documents were disclosed.
On April 23, the extension requested by Vampiro’s defense team expired and the defense sent a 17-page letter requesting a hearing so that, once and for all, the Trump administration would provide “legitimate reasons” and a “factual basis” for dismissing the charges against Vampiro, as to know whether there was bad faith on the part of the prosecutor in his “urgency” to return him to a country where he would have no due-process rights or a fair trial in Salvadoran courts.
The defense attorneys considered that his return to this political and judicial situation in El Salvador “smacks of bad faith, and is, at the least, precisely the type of evil against which [Rule 48] seeks to protect,” they wrote. In that letter, the lawyers presume that the U.S. government’s actions may not be “actually valid” and raise questions: How will the court determine whether the government is acting in bad faith or contrary to the public interest if the government does not disclose its reasons? How will the court exercise its discretion based solely on a “brief statement” of geopolitical and national security reasons?
Finally, they asked the judge that if she were to grant the government’s motion to dismiss, that she do so “with prejudice” to prevent a similar indictment. They also requested a seven-day delay in the final dismissal order to allow for a habeas corpus proceeding to oversee his possible deportation. The lawyers concluded by saying that they do not know whether the Trump administration intends to return him under the Immigration and Nationality Act or the Alien Enemies Act, the latter having been prohibited by a federal judge on May 1, 2025, as an instrument for expelling migrants.
US Deports MS-13 Leader to El Salvador with Alleged Members of Tren de Aragua
A week later, on April 30, the U.S. government opposed the defense’s requests, without mentioning the statute it intends to use to deport Vampiro. In response, defense attorney Nooter sent a new letter to the judge, arguing that Trump is plotting a legal maneuver “to help Bukele suppress the truth about a secret negotiation with MS-13 leaders.”
Citing press reports, Nooter wrote that it appeared that “the reason the Government has been moving to dismiss the indictments against alleged MS-13 members and leaders is that there is some sort of arrangement between the President of El Salvador and the President of the United States (or at least his Administration) to return these alleged MS-13 gang members to El Salvador in return for an agreement by President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador to receive and incarcerate U.S. deportees from countries other than El Salvador without providing them with their full due process rights.” The defense also cited journalistic revelations of Bukele’s gang negotiations as “a political liability for Bukele that he wished to silence by taking control of those gang leaders before this fact would become public in trials in the United States.”
“If that is correct,” the attorney concluded, “it suggests that there is no real intention to provide trials to the alleged gang leaders who have knowledge of the secret negotiations.”
El Faro first revealed the negotiation between Bukele and MS-13 in September 2020. A follow-up investigation in August 2021 showed that the talks also included both factions of 18th Street, and that the Bukele administration had tried to hide the evidence from Salvadoran prosecutors. Under U.S. President Joe Biden, the Justice, State, and Treasury Departments considered it a fact that the Bukele administration had negotiated with gangs, sanctioning the top Salvadoran officials involved and accusing the Bukele administration in a DOJ indictment of shielding gang leaders from extradition as part of the terms. El Faro also demonstrated how the collapse of Bukele’s gang pact in March 2022 led to the installation of the state of exception in effect today, under which due process has been dismantled in El Salvador.
A recent investigation by ProPublica revealed that Bukele not only came under investigation by U.S. authorities for his alleged negotiations with the gangs, but that U.S. investigators believed his close associates had diverted funds granted by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to MS-13 in exchange for votes and a reduction in homicides.
Nooter asserted that the Trump administration had acted in bad faith for the second time —the first being the previous deportation of Greñas— by limiting gang members’ right to due process. “In fact,” he wrote, “the ‘geopolitical and national security concerns’ appear to be an effort by the Government to support a ‘deal’ with El Salvador to assist Bukele in suppressing the truth about a secret negotiation he had with MS-13 leaders in return for our government using El Salvador prisons, including the infamous ‘CECOT’ terrorism prison, for removal of gang members without giving them due process of law.”
In the same document, Vampiro’s defense requested that the judge grant more than three days to petition for habeas corpus, as they have no guarantee that the gang member will be transferred to an immigration detention center like any other person, as required by law.
In late May, the judge declassified all the documents presented in this investigation, revealing an excerpt from the Interpol Red Notice against Vampiro, issued by El Salvador, and two arrest warrants signed by Specialized Court B in May 2018, and by the Fifth Court Against Organized Crime in January 2025, which note that he was sentenced to 39 years in prison for unlawful association and aggravated homicide.
It is noteworthy that the Salvadoran Attorney General’s Office and Police cooperated with the U.S. authorities after years of Salvadoran officials hindering the transfer of information on gang members to the DOJ, according to an FBI collaborator who spoke with El Faro.
The 2025 arrest warrant provided by the Bukele government fueled the defense attorneys’ enthusiasm. On June 13, they responded once again that the action was being taken in “bad faith” and “with prejudice,” arguing that Vampiro “had already been tried and convicted in absentia” without being notified to appear in court and defend himself or of the sentence.
The defense also presented reports from human rights organizations and the press and official U.S. government documents denouncing the tainted judicial processes, torture in the prison system, and an agreement between Bukele and Trump to receive Venezuelans in exchange for deporting gang members captured by Vulcan.
An example is the 2023 Country Report on Human Rights in El Salvador, produced by the State Department: The defense emphasizes that the U.S. government acknowledged the suspension of “the right to be informed promptly of the charges and the right to defense” under the state of exception. The real reason for the motion to dismiss and deport Vampiro, like in the case of Greñas, they concluded, “has nothing to do with justice, either for the United States or for our client, and has everything to do with politics.”
Ten days later, the government counterattacked by accusing the defense lawyers of “contaminating” the case with the reports presented and of prematurely denouncing the deportation process with arguments they consider “irrelevant” and a distraction for the Court. Durham insists that he is not acting in “bad faith” because, thanks to the government, the defense was aware of the charges against Vampiro in El Salvador. He also insisted that Rule 48 allows for discretion for that country to try him in an “independent” proceeding.
“As the [U.S.] government has previously noted, the country of El Salvador has an independent judiciary and Supreme Court, as well as an appellate process, by which the defendant can challenge his charges and convictions,” Durham claimed.
The letter complains that 10 weeks have passed since the request and remarks that further postponement would be unfounded. Durham wants the charges dropped “as soon as possible.”
At the time of publication, Vampiro's whereabouts are unknown, and he cannot be located under his name on the federal prisoner location website. El Faro attempted to contact the defense via email, but no response was received.
On July 15, 2020, Durham watches from the Oval Office of the White House as Trump designates Armando Eliu Melgar Díaz, “Blue,” as the first member of MS-13 to be charged with terrorism. This photo is available on Alamy.
Durham, the contradictory prosecutor
Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, John J. Durham, who has insisted on returning Vampiro and Greñas to El Salvador, has a long history of fighting the Mara Salvatrucha-13. He was a prosecutor in Long Island, where New York’s MS-13 began to gain prominence after Trump first became president. In October 2018, after President Donald Trump had already declared war on the gang, he was appointed director of the MS-13 Subcommittee of the Attorney General’s Transnational Organized Crime Task Force.
By executive order, that group became Joint Task Force Vulcan, tasked with leading investigations against MS-13 between the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. agencies, and ten different prosecutors’ offices. The group that Durham began leading on Aug. 16, 2019, also worked with anti-gang forces in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico.
Vulcan is the team that has investigated and requested the capture and extradition of 27 members of the MS-13 leadership, known as the Ranfla Nacional, most of whom are imprisoned in El Salvador. Durham was present at the White House on July 15, 2020, when the Department of Justice first charged a member of MS-13 with terrorism and requested his extradition. The first extradition request was against Armando Eliu Melgar Diaz, alias “Blue,” a gang member who was not handed over to U.S. authorities, prompting them to suspect negotiations between Bukele and MS-13. His non-extradition created diplomatic tensions between El Salvador and the Biden administration.
This group, which began its work to strike at the transnational leadership of MS-13, quickly expanded its efforts to investigate Bukele’s negotiations with the gangs, looking into the possible siphoning of USAID funds to gang leaders, according to the investigation by ProPublica.
Vulcan has invested several million dollars of U.S. taxpayer money in the pursuit of gang members over nearly six years of operations, but the exact amounts spent by this group are unclear. The Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for combating terrorism and oversees Vulcan, requested $117.2 million for fiscal year 2026, according to the Department of Justice’s budget proposal.
The Department of Justice has praised on its website the crucial work Durham undertook in dismantling MS-13 with “significant indictments against MS-13’s command and control structure across the United States, Central America and Mexico, including the first use of national security charges against MS-13 leaders.”In February 2023, when Vampiro’s capture was announced, Durham said he was betting that the U.S. justice system would take care of him, adding: “Only by combating MS-13’s command and control structure, and bringing the transnational criminal organization’s highest-ranking leaders to justice in the United States will we be able to break the persistent cycles of violence that have plagued our communities.”
The indictments show that Durham was responsible for presenting a large amount of evidence against the 27 MS-13 leaders, including an incident report from the Marin County Sheriff’s Office; internal written messages obtained in November 2020 by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security of El Salvador (MJSP) and others obtained in the United States in September 2022; transcripts of calls and text messages from an FBI witness; translations of calls intercepted by the Salvadoran Attorney General’s Office; reports prepared by the MJSP and delivered to the FBI in February 2021; March 2021 FBI lab reports; 21 boxes of court documents and audio recordings provided by Salvadoran prosecutors; DHS reports summarizing intercepted communications from 2016; information from a tablet and cell phone belonging to Miguel Ángel Serrano Medina, or “Cabro,” and Juan Manuel Chávez Aguilar, “Saymon.”
In May 2025, even twelve days before requesting the dismissal of charges against Vampiro, Durham still seemed intent on prosecuting MS-13 leaders in the United States when he commented on the capture in Mexico of Francisco Javier Román Bardales, alias “Veterano”: “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.” But his stance soon changed.
Brunner, the retired FBI agent and former member of Vulcan, speaks angrily about what is happening with the dismissal of charges, although he defends his former boss Durham. He insists that Durham is a man of “great honor,” but that he may be bowing to pressure from Trump. “I’m sure John made that decision so he could stay in a position of power and do something important for Brooklyn,” he said.
Brunner said that all the agents who were originally part of Vulcan and participated in Vampiro's capture no longer work there; “only the name remains” of the group, he said. Since March 6, 2025, the Vulcan Group has transformed and is no longer exclusively dedicated to the pursuit of MS-13, but is now also responsible for attacking Tren de Aragua, under the new leadership of Christopher A. Eason and Jacob Warren.
Greñas: the first test
The Greñas case provides insight into the possible fate of Vampiro. On March 11, 19 days after MS-13 was designated a Terrorist Organization, Durham asked Judge Joan M. Azrack to dismiss the charges against him under Rule 48, citing sensitive foreign-policy concerns. That same day, the judge ordered the dismissal of the charges, so his lawyers did not have time to defend him or file a habeas corpus petition. Five days later, he was flown with 238 Venezuelans to El Salvador and locked up in the CECOT.
Documents released in the Vampiro case reveal that Greñas was expelled without being brought before an immigration judge and returned to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law that was used to send the 238 Venezuelans who traveled with him to El Salvador.