AG Pam Bondi and FBI Dir. Kash Patel announce the arrest of a top MS-13 leader in Manassas, Virginia.
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00:00Good morning. Thank you for being here. We have been out since about 4.30 this morning.
00:27The great men and women of law enforcement have been working on this operation for days
00:32and days, and probably weeks. This morning, early this morning, one of the top leaders
00:41of MS-13 was apprehended. He was the leader for the East Coast, one of the top three in
00:47the entire country. Right here in Virginia, living half an hour outside of Washington
00:54D.C. He is an illegal alien from El Salvador, and he will not be living in our country much
01:01longer. He's in custody this morning. One of the top leaders right here near our nation's
01:10capital. I just cannot thank Governor Yunkin enough for his leadership in this effort.
01:18This has been a joint effort with state and local agencies. FBI Director Patel, thank
01:25you so much. Terry Cole, Virginia Secretary of Public Safety. Our U.S. Attorney, Eric
01:32Siebert. DHS Secretary Nome, of course, who is in El Salvador, the home country currently
01:40of our illegal alien. DEA Acting Director Maltz, thank you. Our U.S. Marshals Service,
01:47ATF, all of the members of our task force who have been working tirelessly. We were
01:53out at that scene this morning, and what we saw was second to none. Teamwork, everyone
01:59working together. You know, someone made a great point. No egos. It was a team. You could
02:05not tell who was with what agency. Everyone was working as a team. And the most important
02:13thing, all of our agents were safe this morning, all of our law enforcement officers, and the
02:18bad guy is in jail. That's what matters. That's what happened. America is safer today because
02:25of one of the top domestic terrorists, an MS-13. He is off the streets. This has been
02:32an ongoing directive of President Trump. His directive to me when I became Attorney
02:37General of the United States was very simple. Keep America safe. Make America safe again.
02:44And that's what these men and women have been doing tirelessly every single day since
02:50Donald Trump took office. We want to make our streets safer. We want to make our schools
02:56safer. We want to make your neighborhoods safer. This guy was living in a neighborhood
03:00right around you, no longer, thanks to the great men and women of law enforcement. This
03:07task force that we have created is remarkable, using incredible technology that we will not
03:14discuss to catch and apprehend these horrible, violent, worst of the worst criminals. MS-13,
03:24they are organized. They are violent. They are committing homicides throughout our country.
03:32They are one of the most dangerous gangs in our country, and we are going to fight until
03:38they are completely dismantled. What I want to do, I want to have other governors, other
03:46law enforcement officers come here to Virginia and see this amazing task force, Governor,
03:54that is led by our agencies and Governor Yunkin, and what's happening here in Virginia.
04:00Arrests have increased 468% from the same period last year. We didn't need new laws,
04:10as President Trump always said. We needed a new president. And we have great leadership
04:16standing behind him to fight to keep America safe and make America safe again. We will
04:23keep your community safe, and we will continue to do that. It is my honor to introduce to
04:28you your governor, Glenn Yunkin.
04:31GOVERNOR YUNKIN Thank you so much. Thank you, and welcome to Virginia. What this task force
04:40over the course of the last four weeks represents is the model, the model of federal resources,
04:49state resources, and local resources coming together in order to eradicate the drug and
04:56terrorist networks that exist. And I use the word terrorist because the illegal drug gangs,
05:02MS-13, Tren de Aragua, they are international terrorist organizations, and they are resident
05:09right here. They are resident across the country, and it requires this kind of task force, this
05:14collaboration of Virginia resources, our great Virginia State Police, led by Colonel Hanley,
05:21our Department of Corrections, led by Judge Chad Dotson, along with our leadership at the
05:28administration level, led by Secretary Terry Cole and our Attorney General, Jason Miyares,
05:34to come together with tremendous resources from the federal government. And systematically over
05:40the last four weeks, we have gone to work, gone to work untangling, gone to work putting together
05:47the cases and arresting these horrific criminals, these criminals that live in our neighborhoods.
05:55The arrest this morning was in Dale City in Prince William County, right here in northern Virginia,
06:01one of the best areas in America. And it was one of the top leaders of MS-13 living here,
06:09an illegal immigrant, and that illegal immigrant's going to go back to where he came from.
06:14But most importantly, it's this effort that has been enabled by the Trump administration.
06:20President Trump said, get the bad guys. I've been working on this literally for the first three
06:26years of our administration with little to no help from the senior leadership in the federal
06:31government and the Biden administration. On day one, we went to work signing a 287G memorandum.
06:37It took us 20 hours to get it done. I was able to deputize our state police and our Department
06:41of Correction members to go to work in this task force. I want to thank General Bondi.
06:48From the second she assumed her position, she was here with us. I want to thank Director Patel.
06:53From the second he assumed his position, he was here with us. Resources, capabilities.
06:59But I most importantly want to thank the men and women who every day put their lives on the line.
07:06These folks go to work with a bulletproof vest on, and they so rarely have anyone say,
07:10thank you. And today, they deserve a huge thank you. But they deserve a thank you every single
07:16day. Over the last four weeks, 340 horrific criminals have been arrested here in Northern
07:22Virginia. And that allows me to make one last comment. Local jurisdictions that claim sanctuary
07:28city status are absolutely unacceptable. Look who's in your community. Look who's living around
07:35the corner from citizens that are going to work trying to build their lives in a place that's the
07:40best place in America to live and work and raise a family. And yet we have one of the top three
07:46operatives from one of the most dangerous gang in America and the world living around the corner.
07:51And you sanctuary cities want to give refuge to them. Listen, it's time for us to recognize
07:57that Virginia is not a sanctuary state. We are working to get the bad guys out of here.
08:03And if you are a local jurisdiction and not helping us and not cooperating with us,
08:08you are working against the safety of all of those men and women that call your jurisdiction home.
08:15This task force is a sustainable effort, not a one and done. And that is the most impactful part
08:21of it. We get to continue to work together to, yes, General Bondi, make America safe again and
08:28make Virginia the safest state in America. I just want to thank everyone for their tremendous
08:33efforts. And now I want to hand it over to the U.S. Attorney of Virginia's Eastern District, Eric Siebert.
08:43Thank you, Governor. On March 3rd, we officially launched the operations as part of this homeland
08:49security task force. And this is the first of its kind in the nation. It's interagency, which
08:54makes it unique. And it combines federal, state and local resources to identify and arrest the
09:00most violent gang offenders in the Eastern District of Virginia. So working with our
09:04partners of all four divisions in the Eastern District of Virginia, we have created an intelligence
09:08based model. And that's the focus is intelligence base that drives this moving forward. So we can
09:14focus our attention on the transnational organized groups such as MS-13 that have
09:20long plagued our communities. So in less than a month, we have identified 575 targets. We've
09:26arrested 342 of those targets, many of them with illegal status. And of the 342 arrested,
09:34we've identified 81 individuals with gang or transnational crime of affiliation. The Eastern
09:41District of Virginia U.S. Attorney's Office has already done 73 federal criminal complaints
09:46charging these individuals. And between federal and state partners, we've obtained and executed 39
09:52search warrants. We're already hearing in the community that our efforts are having a deterrent
09:57effect on these gangs. And so moving forward with the information that we've obtained from our
10:03arrests and search warrants, we plan to use the task force model to continue to identify these
10:08bad actors and prioritize the rest of the most violent transnational criminals. I want to thank
10:16Attorney General Bondi, Governor Youngkin, FBI Director Patel, DA Administrator Waltz,
10:22and Secretary Cole for your trust on this and support of this Virginia task force. And I also
10:28want to thank the hard work of the agents and the special agents of Virginia State Police and the
10:33federal agents and also the AUSAs. My prosecutors have been working around the clock to support
10:40this task force. And despite the tremendous success of this task force, I want the public to know this
10:46is just the beginning of our efforts. We have a sense of urgency on this and we do not plan on
10:53stopping until every one of these violent gang members is off the streets. And to the criminals,
10:58I just have to say we're coming. So at this time, I'd like to turn this over to FBI Director Patel.
11:10This is what happens when you let good cops be cops. And we're going to continue to let good
11:14cops be cops across this country. President Trump gave us the executive decision to go after and
11:19safeguard our communities. General Bondi is our warrior of justice leading that charge.
11:23Governor Yunkin, it's an honor to be a partner in this operation with you and U.S. Attorney Siebert.
11:29This is the mandate we have. Right now, we have an American dying every seven minutes from a drug
11:34overdose. That is a national security crisis we have not seen ever before. We have a woman or
11:40child being raped every six and a half minutes in this country. We have a homicide twice an hour.
11:47No part of that metric is a safe and secure America. But thanks to the brave leadership
11:51of this administration and the folks that you see here, we are returning our communities to safety.
11:57As you heard, we took down this morning a top leader of MS-13. That is not done easily. That
12:04is done with brilliant law enforcement. And right here, I'm proud, and I think the governor knows
12:08I'm biased, having graduated from the University of Richmond, to have this here in the state of
12:12Virginia, here in our Northern Virginia Resident Agency, with our partnership with our Washington
12:17field office, and our special agents, our SOS folks, our intel analysts, and our support staff.
12:22My priority has been law enforcement across the country, and that will not change. But law
12:27enforcement across the country cannot be done just by Washington, D.C., and the federal government
12:32alone. This task force was stood up one month ago. In one month, the brave men and women on this
12:38task force from state, local, and federal authorities have arrested 342 criminals in the state of
12:44Virginia alone. We wanted this to be a successful model. It is a successful model because of you,
12:51because of your men and women on the streets. We have the easy job in Washington, D.C. You take it
12:58to the max every single day. You put your safety on the line. You put your selfless desires ahead
13:05of going home and seeing your families at night, because you care more about safeguarding our
13:10schools and our community than you do your own safety. So we will always have the backs of good
13:16cops because you have the backs of the American people. And this task force is going to go
13:21everywhere it is needed across the United States to bring the form of justice and measured security
13:26and safety that our American citizens deserve. It is an America First model because we live in the
13:33United States of America. And if you are here illegally, you will not be here any longer.
13:38And if you are going to continue to commit acts of violent crime,
13:41you will meet the same fate that this individual did this morning.
13:45And I just want to reiterate what our partners said behind us. This is not possible without
13:52the folks that do the job every single day. And as director of the FBI, it is a privilege
13:58to lead some of these brave men and women. And the only ask that I have of you in the community
14:03is the next time you see a cop, thank them. The next time you see someone safeguarding our
14:08schools, shake their hand. The next time you see our brave men and women of the FBI and the local
14:14and federal state police take down a violent terrorist, maybe give them a hug because those
14:20guys, those gals are the ones that are going to keep continue to keep our city safe. And we will
14:26not stop until this national security crisis is recognized, brought into check and eliminated.
14:33Thank you. Questions.
14:39Thanks. My question is, how long was this individual living in the United States illegally
14:45and operating as a leader of MS-13? And then two, MS-13 has been a huge problem in Virginia for
14:51several years now. How many members of that gang do you believe are currently operating in the state?
15:02The bottom line is for far too long. And because of operational security, we won't get into many
15:08of the details about this individual. But if you're here for a minute, a day, a month or a
15:12year, you've been here far too long. And General Bondi has made it a priority at this FBI that we
15:19manhunt every single person committing an act of violent crime.
15:23And it should speak volumes that the leader for the entire East Coast was living right here in
15:29Virginia, right among us. Question. Oh, did you want to add something? Governor wants to add something.
15:36Sorry. I just want to reiterate that, first of all, President Trump's executive order declaring
15:43the drug gangs and cartels international terrorists is critical underpinning to the
15:48work today. Second of all, the collaboration now that's available because we have a 287G
15:56memorandum in place is critical. And it allows us then to bring the intelligence together to go
16:03pursue and arrest someone like this. And I just want to reiterate again, this is new.
16:09And the capabilities that are being displayed right now are capabilities that are now available
16:14not just to Virginia, but to the rest of the country because of the administration's forward
16:20leaning vision on how to use state and federal resources in collaboration in a way that has
16:25not been done. I have to say, Terry Cole has been leading our efforts in the Commonwealth
16:31brilliantly. But until we were able to bring in the federal resources in this way,
16:37bringing down somebody like this would not really have been possible.
16:40And Governor Yunkin and I, once again, are going to offer this to every governor
16:44in our country. Let's see who takes us up on this to keep their state safe. Questions?
16:50Hi. I mean, there's hundreds of these arrests happening so quickly.
16:57Have these individuals been identified under the Biden administration? I mean,
17:00was there a paper trail of these people? Were they all identified and targeted with the Trump
17:05administration in place? And then I also wanted to hear from the governor, too,
17:09on Fairfax County. We have heard in recent years issues about the sanctuary policies there,
17:15people who are dangerous, illegal aliens suspected, being set free in the communities
17:21and then committing other crimes. I'm curious what we do from there.
17:25So first, many had been identified. They had been living here. Many had been identified
17:30living here. They were let...