Slaying of 13-year-old boy devastates L.A. immigrant community: ‘We can't trust anyone'
For years, the bright green turf of Whitsett Fields Park has served as a joyous hub for Los Angeles youth soccer — particularly for thousands of immigrant families in the San Fernando Valley.
On most weekends, the sprawling North Hollywood complex echoes with the shouts of hundreds of boys and girls, as vendors hawk aguas frescas, balloons and candy along the sidelines.
But recently, immense grief and worry have settled over this close, Latin American community.
Just last week, a well-known coach and Salvadoran national was charged with murder in the killing of 13-year-old soccer player Oscar Omar Hernandez during a lewd or attempted lewd act and then dumping the boy's body in a roadside ditch in Ventura County. The coach, who has not yet entered a plea, has also been charged with sexually assaulting another teen and investigators say there are probably more victims who have yet to come forward.
The teen's slaying has left many in the youth soccer community profoundly shaken. Some say their faith in a long-trusted institution has been broken, and they question why the coach wasn't scrutinized more carefully before he was allowed to work so closely with children.
'We have never seen anything of this magnitude,' said José Torres, president of the Proyecto 2000 Soccer League in the San Fernando Valley.
The allegation comes at a time when many families are feeling increasingly vulnerable to anti-immigrant sentiment and threats of deportation by the Trump administration — a factor that could complicate the reporting of other possible crimes.
The Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department have insisted that immigration status will not be an issue for those who step forward to report alleged sexual assaults.
'We're not going to ask about that,' Sheriff Robert Luna said.
But it wasn't long after authorities charged 43-year-old Mario Edgardo Garcia Aquino with the crimes that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seized on his immigration status.
'13 year-old Oscar 'Omar' Hernandez was an innocent child who was exploited and killed by this depraved illegal alien who should have never been in this country,' the DHS said on X. 'Child predators, pedophiles and murderers will be hunted down and removed from America's communities.'
On a recent Saturday, a flier with a photo of the victim hung from a Whitsett Fields lamppost as parents spoke to a Los Angeles Times reporter in hushed tones, so that their children would not overhear.
One mother, who declined to give her name, said she tells her children not to talk to strangers — but if the charges are true, what good is that if the person they have to fear is someone they know and trust?
Iris Rodriguez, who sells bacon-wrapped hot dogs at the park, said she had met Omar when he first arrived in California, and that she soon became close to his parents and siblings. His killing feels like a death in the family for so many immigrants in the North Hollywood community, Rodriguez said.
'Everyone that is a mother is horrified about what happened, because how could a person do that?'
During a memorial service at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in East Hollywood earlier that Saturday, mourners wore black T-shirts emblazoned with the boy's photo, the words 'Forever 13' and the letters LLO — Long Live Omar.Many recalled him as a quiet, thoughtful and trusting boy.
He and his mother arrived in Los Angeles from the small town of Marcala in Honduras three years ago while his father and the rest of his siblings had already established themselves in the Sun Valley neighborhood.
The boy's older sister, Alejandra Hernandez, said she sometimes chided her brother for being so trusting, and told her brother that he didn't always have to talk to people if they greeted him.
'He came from Honduras and we grew up there in the countryside, so we don't have people like that there, people who are so bad, so crazy,' she said.
An avid soccer player who adored Real Madrid and Lionel Messi, Omar played for Huracan Valley Soccer Club, where he met his accused killer.
In the wake of Omar's death, authorities and youth soccer officials have revealed a history of complaints and concerns involving Garcia Aquino, who two people said managed to avoid background checks and criminal charges.
The lapses have unsettled those who knew both the victim and the accused.
'We have to support one another at this time,' said Arcelia Martinez, family friend and parent of a student at Sun Valley Magnet School where Omar was a seventh-grader. She said there are no words to describe his death and how it has wounded immigrants from Central, South and North America.
'We're all just the same people and only God can take away a life,' Martinez said Saturday.
Classmates described Omar as someone who wanted to support his family as soon as he could start working.
'He was like my brother because he usually told me that I was like his sister,' said his friend Magavi Davila, 12.
The students sobbed as Omar's family carried his gray casket out of the church.
His mother, Gladys Hernandez, appeared to collapse within sight of the hearse. His siblings and father wailed together on the sidewalk as they said goodbye.
His older brother, Josué Hernandez, gripped Omar's blue soccer jersey in his hands as the hearse pulled away.
Omar's family last saw the boy boarding a Metrolink train to meet with Garcia Aquino at the coach's home in Lancaster. He planned to help the older man make soccer jerseys, according to his family. When he did not come home, his family reported him missing on March 30.
When his brother tried to phone him later that day, the coach answered the boy's cellphone and said Omar was busy and could not talk, according to police.
According to the family and investigators, Daniel Hernandez, the boy's father, later called the coach and insisted he drop the teen off near the family's home. Investigators used data from cellular devices, cellphone towers and other tracking systems to determine that the suspect visited the Oxnard area near McGrath State Beach and the Santa Clara River, according to law enforcement sources, who were not authorized to discuss the probe.
Omar's parents have received an outpouring of support following his death, but they've also seen numerous videos criticizing them for letting their son travel alone, according to Omar's sister.
''You just have to focus. You don't know people, you don't know how evil people can really be,'' Alejandra Hernandez said she told her mother. 'I tell her, 'We come from a village, maybe we are not the kind of people who see the wrong in people.''
The family were unaware of prior complaints against Garcia Aquino and how he managed to skirt background checks as a traveling soccer coach playing with independent leagues, according to two other youth soccer officials. Independent leagues are seen as being more informal than those affiliated with the U.S. Soccer Federation, the primary governing body for American soccer.
Shortly after he was charged with Omar's killing, prosecutors also charged Garcia Aquino with assault and performing a lewd act on a 14-year-old boy in December 2022 at his then-home in Sylmar.
Some officials who lead and coordinate soccer leagues say they had their suspicions about Garcia Aquino and that he refused to submit to background verifications.
'We can't trust anyone,' said Marco Carballo, president of the Naciones Unidas Soccer League, who has spent more than 30 years working in local soccer, many of them at Whitsett Fields Park.
In three decades working in the San Fernando Valley, Carballo said he had never seen anything like Omar's slaying.
'There are a lot of people in fear,' acknowledged Carballo, who said that Garcia Aquino's team was not affiliated with Naciones Unidas.
'About eight years ago, he wanted to join my club, but he never wanted to submit to his fingerprints,' recalled Álvaro Chávez, director and president of the U.S. Soccer affiliated Spartans FC. After Garcia Aquino failed to submit to the requirements, Chávez barred him from his club.
Chávez believes that Garcia Aquino remained in independent leagues because he was unwilling to submit to the paperwork required by youth associations affiliated with U.S. Soccer.
According to Chávez, Garcia Aquino acted as a team sports director, but would direct a team coach to fill out the registration forms. Although Garcia Aquino's name would not appear on the paperwork, he would still travel to competitions and coach from the sidelines.
The vast majority of independent leagues have their own rules and don't follow the requirements of official associations, so they don't have to subject their coaches or managers to a background check, Chavez said.
'The local leagues need to require fingerprints, the coach's record,' he said.
Jorge Rodriguez, president of the California State Soccer League, said Garcia Aquino was affiliated with his league but had to be disaffiliated in 2022 because of an alert in its registration system.
The alert was triggered by an LAPD investigation into accusations of sexual assault on a minor, but the coach was not charged at the time because the alleged victim refused to testify against him, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
'I told him, 'You can't be with the boys, not even near, not from far, you have to stay away from them until you solve this problem,'' Rodriguez said. Garcia Aquino denied the allegations, and was never again involved in any tournaments organized by Rodriguez.
Torres, president of the Proyecto 2000 Soccer League, said he dealt with Garcia Aquino on several occasions. Although he always considered him an 'ordinary and normal' person, he clarified that he was not affiliated with his competitions either.
Cal South Soccer, which is affiliated with U.S. Soccer, had once included Huracan Valley in its organization, but that arrangement appears to have ended several years ago. Cal South declined to answer questions from The Times about its oversight of Huracan Valley, but did release the following statement:
'Our deepest sympathies go out to his family, teammates, and friends during this incredibly difficult time. We take player safety very seriously and will support law enforcement in any way we can,' the statement said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
4 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Trump, Bukele and MS-13: uncovering the secrets of a controversial deal
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up During their meeting at the White House, Trump praised his guest as 'one hell of a president.' He shook Bukele's hand, saying, 'We appreciate working with you because you want to stop crime and so do we.' Advertisement A long-running U.S. investigation of MS-13 has uncovered evidence at odds with Bukele's reputation as a crime fighter. The inquiry, which began as an effort to dismantle the gang's leadership, expanded to focus on whether the Bukele government cut a secret deal with MS-13 in the early years of his presidency. New reporting on that investigation by ProPublica shows that senior officials in Bukele's government repeatedly impeded the work of a U.S. task force as it pursued evidence of possible wrongdoing by the Salvadoran president and his inner circle. Advertisement Bukele's allies secretly blocked extraditions of gang leaders whom U.S. agents viewed as potential witnesses to the negotiations and persecuted Salvadoran law enforcement officials who helped the task force, according to exclusive interviews with current and former U.S. and Salvadoran officials, newly obtained internal documents and court records from both countries. In a previously unreported development, federal agents came to suspect that Bukele and members of his inner circle had diverted U.S. aid funds to the gang as part of the alleged deal to provide it with money and power in exchange for votes and reduced homicide rates. In 2021, agents drew up a request to review U.S. bank accounts held by Salvadoran political figures to look for evidence of money laundering related to the suspected diversion of U.S. funds. The list of names assembled by the agents included Bukele, senior officials and their relatives, according to documents viewed by ProPublica. 'Information obtained through investigation has revealed that the individuals contained within this submission are heavily engaged with MS-13 and are laundering funds from illicit business where MS-13 are involved,' the agents wrote. The people on the list 'are also believed to have been funding MS-13 to support political campaigns and MS-13 have received political funds.' The outcome of the request is not known, but its existence shows that the U.S. investigation had widened to examine suspected corruption at high levels of the Bukele government. The investigation was led by Joint Task Force Vulcan, a multiagency law enforcement team created at Trump's request in 2019. Agents found evidence that the Bukele government tried to cover up the pact by preventing the extraditions of gang leaders who faced U.S. charges that include ordering the murders of U.S. citizens and plotting to assassinate an FBI agent. Advertisement In addition, U.S. officials helped at least eight of their counterparts in Salvadoran law enforcement flee the country and resettle in the United States or elsewhere because they feared retaliation by their own government, current and former U.S. officials said. It has been clear from the beginning what Trump wants from El Salvador: an ally who would accept, and even imprison, deportees. Less clear has been what Bukele might want from the United States. In striking the deal with the Salvadoran president, Trump has effectively undercut the Vulcan investigation and shielded Bukele from further scrutiny, current and former U.S. officials said. Veterans of the Vulcan team are 'concerned that all their work, the millions of dollars that were spent, going all over the United States, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, that it will be weakened for political reasons,' said a U.S. official familiar with the investigation. The task force worked closely with the Salvadoran attorney general's office, whose prosecutors shared evidence from their own investigation of the gang negotiations and suspected graft in the Bukele government, according to current and former U.S. and Salvadoran officials. 'There was good information on corruption between the gang and the Bukele administration,' Christopher Musto, a former senior official at Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, who worked on Vulcan, said about the Salvadoran investigation. 'It was a great case.' In May 2021, Bukele's legislative majority in Congress ousted the attorney general and justices of the Supreme Court, which oversees extradition requests. Within seven months, newly installed justices reversed or halted six requests for senior gang leaders wanted in the U.S., according to interviews and documents. Advertisement 'Bukele's people were coming to the Supreme Court and saying under no circumstances are we extraditing the MS-13 leaders,' said the U.S. official familiar with the investigation. ''Delay, interfere, undermine, do what you have to do.'' Senior Bukele officials helped an MS-13 leader with a pending extradition order escape from prison, according to court records, U.S. officials and Salvadoran news reports. At least three other top gang leaders were released from Salvadoran custody after the U.S. filed extradition requests for them, according to Justice Department documents. The Justice Department declined to comment in response to questions sent by ProPublica. The State Department referred questions to the Justice Department. A White House spokesperson did not respond to detailed questions. 'President Trump is committed to keeping his promises to the American people and removing dangerous criminals and terrorist illegals who pose a threat to the American public,' said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson. 'We are grateful for President Bukele's partnership.' Bukele, the Salvadoran Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Salvadoran Supreme Court did not respond to lists of questions. Bukele has repeatedly denied making any agreement with MS-13. The Trump administration's deportation of MS-13 members to El Salvador, Advertisement 'This will help us finalize intelligence gathering and go after the last remnants of MS-13, including its former and new members, money, weapons, drugs, hideouts, collaborators, and sponsors,' the post said. 'Just Fear' Bukele was elected president of El Salvador in February 2019, promising to fight the country's ingrained political corruption and pervasive gang violence, which he called 'one of the greatest challenges' facing the nation. During his first term, Trump also made MS-13 a high-profile foe, calling it 'probably the meanest, worst gang in the world.' In August 2019, Attorney General William P. Barr created the Vulcan task force, teaming federal prosecutors with agents of the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies. The goal: Eradicate MS-13. For decades, MS-13 has bedeviled law enforcement in the Americas with its vast reach, extreme violence and complex culture. The initials stand for 'Mara Salvatrucha.' 'Mara' means a swarm, while 'salvatrucha' has been said to refer to a clever Salvadoran, according to interviews and an MS-13 emerged in the 1980s in Los Angeles among Salvadoran youths whose families had fled a bloody civil war. The gang expanded throughout the diaspora and, as the U.S. deported planeloads of ex-convicts starting in the 1990s, took root in El Salvador. Although most of the leaders were serving sentences in El Salvador, a jailhouse council of 14 bosses, known as the 'Ranfla,' used cellphones to micromanage criminal activities in U.S. cities thousands of miles away. Advertisement The gang developed a reputation for torturing, brutalizing and dismembering its victims. Barr has called it 'a death cult' in which violence is more important than riches. 'It was like a very violent mom-and-pop operation where the cousins and second cousins all want to be a part of it,' said Carlos Ortiz, who served as the HSI attaché in El Salvador from 2018 to 2024. 'Minimal money, compared to others. Even though it's an organization, a lot of it is just fear. Fear of the high-ranking bosses among the rest of the gang, that's what drives it.' Trained with military weapons, MS-13 warred with security forces in El Salvador, took over neighborhoods and generated one of the world's worst homicide rates, driving an exodus of immigrants reminiscent of the 1980s. The Salvadoran Supreme Court designated the gang as a terrorist organization in 2015. The Vulcan task force had about 30 members, including prosecutors, agents and analysts. Its director, John J. Durham, was a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York who had spent a decade pursuing MS-13 cliques on Long Island. Members of the task force worked from bases around the country and traveled to Mexico and Central America. One of the founding investigators, Newark FBI agent Daniel Brunner, spoke fluent Spanish and had worked gangs for seven years. He became a roving specialist providing expertise, communications intelligence and court transcripts, sometimes in person and sometimes from a distance. 'Our idea was that Vulcan was like a SEAL Team 6, going in to help the different districts build cases,' Brunner, who is now retired, said in an interview. Vulcan built on the longtime U.S. presence and extensive influence in El Salvador, where the embassy has long funded and trained law enforcement agencies. FBI agents and others were embedded as advisers in police anti-gang and homicide units and worked with prosecution teams led by Attorney General Raúl Melara. The U.S. task force modeled its strategy on the ones used against Mexican cartels and Colombian narcoguerrillas: Break the power of the MS-13 bosses by extraditing them to face trial and prison in the United States. On Jan. 14, 2021, six days before the end of the Trump administration, Durham and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray joined acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen when Prosecutors charged the 14 members of the leadership council with major crimes including conspiracy to support and finance narcoterrorism. For more than two decades, the Ranfla ran a criminal network in the United States, Mexico and Central America that sanctioned the murders of Americans and trafficked drugs and arms, the indictment alleged. The indictment contained a stunning charge: MS-13 bosses had taken the extraordinary step of giving an order, or 'green light,' to assassinate an FBI agent working with local investigators in El Salvador. Embassy officials learned of the threat and evacuated the agent, according to interviews. It is highly unusual for Latin American criminal groups to target a U.S. agent — they have learned that it invites an overwhelming law enforcement response. The assassination plot was a sign that the U.S. crackdown had rattled the gang chiefs, current and former officials said. Vulcan on the Hunt In conversations with American officials as president-elect, Bukele promised cooperation and welcomed their support against gangs and graft, even in his own Nuevas Ideas party, according to current and former U.S. officials. At a Already, though, there had been For more than a decade, MS-13's control of the streets had made it a political force. It could deliver votes, ignite mayhem or impose order. A series of politicians had held talks with gang leaders to seek electoral support and reductions in violence in return for improved prison conditions and perks such as prostitutes and big-screen televisions. The Bukele government adopted a more sophisticated bargaining strategy, according to current and former U.S. and Salvadoran officials. During secret meetings in prisons and other sites, the president's emissaries offered MS-13 leaders political power and financial incentives if they lowered the homicide rate and marshaled support for the Nuevas Ideas party, according to current and former U.S. and Salvadoran officials and court documents. The chief negotiator was Carlos Marroquín, a former rap artist and confidant of the president. Bukele had appointed him the director of a new Justice Ministry program known as 'Reconstruction of the Social Fabric' that operated in impoverished communities. Marroquín promised the Ranfla a central role in developing the program, control of neighborhood youth centers, power over urban turf and other financial and political benefits, according to current and former U.S. officials, court documents and Treasury Department sanctions. Informants and communications intercepts indicated that some of the resources going to MS-13 came from U.S. government aid, a violation of U.S. law, according to interviews and documents. 'Money was going from us, from USAID, through to this social fabric group,' a former federal law enforcement official said. 'They're supposed to be building things and getting skills and learning. It was funding the gangs.' Vulcan also gained information from two highly placed Salvadoran officials involved in the talks with MS-13. The officials provided inside information to U.S. agents about the negotiations, which they said Bukele directed, according to interviews. The accumulating evidence about the gang pact and the suspected misuse of U.S. funds spurred the task force to broaden its initial focus and target alleged corruption in the Bukele government, current and former U.S. officials said. In April 2021, federal agents prepared a list of powerful Salvadorans for a financial review by the U.S. Treasury Department. Bukele was one of the 15 names. So were Marroquín; Osiris Luna, the director of the national prison system and another alleged organizer of the gang talks; Martha Carolina Recinos, the president's chief of staff; and other political figures and their relatives. The request asked the Treasury Department to search for possible illicit transactions in any bank accounts held in the United States by those on the list, according to documents seen by ProPublica. The Vulcan task force was seeking evidence in U.S. banks of money laundering tied to the diversion of USAID funding through the gang pact, the documents showed. Agents explained that the task force had 'uncovered information that MS-13 members are in close contact with politically exposed persons in El Salvador,' referring to prominent government figures. 'The USAID funding is believed to have been laundered by the individuals submitted in this request,' who were suspected of 'facilitating, supporting and promoting MS-13 through their official positions,' said the request, which was viewed by ProPublica. Made under section 314A of the USA Patriot Act, the request for a canvass of U.S. banks requires that investigators show reasonable suspicion rather than probable cause, which is a higher standard. The outcome of the request is unknown. The Treasury Department declined to comment. U.S. prosecutors have not publicly accused Bukele and the others of crimes related to USAID funds. As U.S. investigators advanced in this political direction, they gained valuable information from the Salvadoran prosecutors who were pressing their own investigation of the gangs and the Bukele administration. Known in English as April 2021 was also when a delegation led by Attorney General Melara came to Washington to meet with leaders of Vulcan and other senior U.S. officials. The prosecutors laid out their case against prominent figures in the Bukele government. The 'impressive' presentation, a former U.S. federal law enforcement official said, cited videos, phone intercepts and other evidence showing that Marroquín, prisons director Luna and others had clandestinely arranged for government negotiators and gang leaders to enter and leave prisons, smuggled in phones and destroyed logs of prison visits. 'Melara was very nervous because of the very high level of the people he was investigating,' a former U.S. federal law enforcement official said. Melara declined to comment, saying he does not discuss his work as attorney general. Interference On May 1, 2021 — soon after Melara and his team met with U.S. investigators — the Salvadoran Legislature, controlled by Bukele, voted to expel the attorney general and five justices on the Supreme Court. The purge was a decisive step by Bukele to centralize power. It drew international condemnation. In El Salvador, critics denounced the president's actions as a 'self-coup.' On his Twitter page, Bukele began calling himself 'the world's coolest dictator.' For Vulcan, the expulsions marked a dramatic shift in its investigation. The Supreme Court justices had signaled their willingness to sign off on some extraditions. Melara had been a helpful ally who reportedly pledged to do ' 'The next prosecutors were not willing to work with us,' said Musto, the former HSI official. 'We were not closed out, but all these things that we had in place that we were moving to getting people back here slowed down to a snail's pace.' The first clash came over Armando Melgar Diaz, an alleged MS-13 leader who acted as a middleman between gangs in the United States and senior leaders in El Salvador. Melgar, known as 'Blue,' had ordered the The newly constituted Supreme Court The rationale made no sense to Vulcan prosecutors. The Justice Department had already promised that it would not pursue such punishments against Melgar, according to records and interviews. U.S. and Salvadoran officials attributed the sudden reversal to fear that Melgar could link Bukele and his government to the pact with MS-13. 'Melgar Diaz was going to be the test case,' Musto said. 'It was going to be an easy win for Vulcan.' Information obtained by U.S. agents included allegations that Bukele's judicial adviser, Conan Castro-Ramírez, had called one of the new Supreme Court justices and told him to find ways to stop the extradition of Melgar, according to interviews. When the justice objected, saying that the extradition had already been approved, Castro allegedly ordered him to reverse it. 'That's why we put you there,' he said, according to the interviews. The State Department A Salvadoran court 'Bukele and his government are using the entire state apparatus to prevent these people from being extradited,' a person with knowledge of the Salvadoran judicial system said in a recent interview. Miguel Ángel Flores Durel, a newly appointed Supreme Court justice who In July 2022, El Salvador agreed to extradite two lower-ranking MS-13 members charged with the murders of Salvadoran immigrants in Long Island in This was a deliberate strategy, the person said. Flores said that El Salvador needed to continue some extraditions in order to 'calm' U.S. officials, who were complaining about the lack of cooperation with Vulcan, the person said. ( It didn't work. The extradition of other criminals by the Bukele-aligned Supreme Court only emphasized the lack of cooperation on requests for the senior MS-13 leaders. 'We were never told officially that it wouldn't happen, but it became impossible,' said Brunner, the former FBI agent. In October 2022, Bukele's new attorney general announced that criminals would first have to serve their sentence in El Salvador before being sent to the U.S. — an interpretation of the country's extradition treaty that differed from the previous Supreme Court. 'We aren't going to be sending Salvadorans without them first paying for the crimes they have committed' in El Salvador, Rodolfo Delgado Threats and Roadblocks The Bukele government's interference with the U.S. investigation went beyond blocking extraditions, U.S. officials said. Senior Bukele allies also waged a campaign of harassment and intimidation against the Salvadoran officials who had investigated corruption and assisted the Vulcan task force, according to interviews with current and former U.S. and Salvadoran officials. The government threatened officials with arrest and sent police patrols to their homes, according to current and former U.S. and Salvadoran officials. At least eight senior Salvadoran law enforcement and judicial officials fled El Salvador for the United States and elsewhere. Vulcan provided them with travel money, language classes, housing and help gaining legal immigration status and finding jobs. In one instance, a U.S. Embassy official escorted a Salvadoran prosecutor out of the country because American officials believed his life was in danger, according to an official familiar with the incident. The Salvadoran government also weakened special 'vetted units' of the police that had worked with the FBI and other U.S. agencies, according to current and former U.S. officials. Bukele's allies didn't stop there. They allegedly helped the escape or release from prison of at least four members of the MS-13 leadership council sought by Vulcan for alleged crimes in the U.S., according to interviews, court documents and press reports. Elmer Canales-Rivera, alias 'Crook de Hollywood,' was one of the most wanted of the Ranfla members. He had been imprisoned for several murders in El Salvador, including a case in which he In November 2021, Canales escaped from prison. El Faro, a prominent investigative news outlet, and other Salvadoran media published stories that Canales was caught in Mexico and turned over to U.S. authorities. Currently in prison awaiting trial, he has pleaded not guilty. Over the next several months, three other MS-13 leaders disappeared from Salvadoran prisons, causing Durham, the head of the task force, to express his concern in The purge of the Supreme Court and prosecutors, the blocked extraditions and the disappearance of the MS-13 gang members marked a significant deterioration in relations between Bukele and the administration of President Joe Biden. Agencies across the government began looking for ways to push El Salvador to cooperate. Acting U.S. Ambassador Jean Manes announced a ' 'What are we seeing now? It is a decline in democracy,' In December 2021, the Treasury Department Nonetheless, former members of the task force said they felt that the Biden administration treated Vulcan as a lower priority and cut its resources. They said Biden officials saw the task force as a Trump initiative and wanted to focus on other law enforcement targets, such as human trafficking. 'As soon as the Biden administration came in, we were slowed down,' Brunner said. 'There was a lot more red tape we had to go through.' Former Biden officials denied this was the case. Whatever truce had existed between the Salvadoran government and MS-13 collapsed in March 2022. The country descended into chaos. Over one three-day period, some 80 people were killed in gang-related violence. Bukele reacted forcefully. He declared a nationwide 'state of exception' that suspended constitutional protections. Police began rounding up thousands of accused gang members and others. He announced the construction of the megaprison known as CECOT. The policies proved tremendously popular. Murder rates dropped dramatically, though human rights advocates criticized the loss of civil liberties. Bukele dismissed their complaints. 'Some say we have put thousands in prison, but the reality is that we have set millions free,' he has said, an assertion he repeated to Trump in the Oval Office. The Turnaround Despite the harsh treatment of gang members — an estimated 14,500 people are now held in CECOT — one thing did not change: The Bukele government continued to refuse to extradite senior MS-13 leaders to the United States. The reasons for Bukele's alleged protection of the gang leadership versus his relentless pursuit of the rank and file are the subject of speculation in both the United States and El Salvador. One possible explanation, according to current and former U.S. and Salvadoran officials: Bukele is aware that Vulcan was gathering evidence that could lead to criminal charges and political damage. The imprisoned leaders are potential witnesses to his alleged deal with MS-13, while El Salvador's street-level gangsters are not. In February 2023, the Justice Department unsealed an indictment for another group of leaders, most of whom operated a tier below the Ranfla, relaying its directives to gangsters on the streets. The 13 defendants were accused of terrorism and drug smuggling, among other charges. The U.S. announced it would 'explore options for their extradition with the government of El Salvador.' The Justice Department declined to say whether any such requests had been made. In filing the charges, prosecutors made their strongest public accusations yet about deals between the Bukele government and the gangs. Without naming the president or his allies, The gang bosses also 'agreed to reduce the number of public murders in El Salvador, which politically benefited the government of El Salvador, by creating the perception that the government was reducing the murder rate,' the indictment said. As part of the arrangement, the senior MS-13 leaders demanded that the Bukele government refuse to extradite them, the indictment said. The alleged condition appears to be in effect. To date, none of the extradition requests for more than a dozen high-ranking gang members has been approved. In the face of obstacles, Vulcan relied increasingly on the Mexican government for help. During the past four years, Mexican authorities have captured nine of the 27 MS-13 leaders named in the indictments and deported them to the United States, where they were arrested. This year, prosecutors obtained guilty pleas to terrorism charges from two lower-ranking bosses, including one who prosecutors said had helped implement the deal between the Bukele administration and the gang. Sentencing for the men is pending. Since Trump took office this year, his administration has redirected Vulcan's mission to also target Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that the president has put in the spotlight. There has been a remarkable recent development related to MS-13, however. After more than five years leading the Vulcan task force, Durham wrote letters asking the judge overseeing the cases to dismiss charges against two gang leaders in U.S. custody, allowing them to be deported to El Salvador. The letters were dated César Humberto López Larios, a member of the Ranfla known as 'Greñas,' had his charges dismissed and was returned to El Salvador with Then, in April, Durham asked for the dismissal of terrorism charges against a lower-ranking MS-13 prisoner, Vladimir Antonio Arevalo-Chavez, alias 'Vampiro,' according to recently unsealed court records. His defense lawyers are seeking to stall the request to give them time to fight his deportation to El Salvador. He has pleaded not guilty. Durham acknowledged in his letters to the judge that the evidence against the two men is 'strong.' After millions spent on an operation involving investigators and prosecutors from the U.S., El Salvador and other countries, Vulcan had amassed a trove of evidence aimed at incarcerating the MS-13 leaders who had overseen the killings, rapes and beatings of Americans. Prosecutors Durham said prosecutors were dropping their pursuit of the cases 'due to geopolitical and national security concerns.' It was like a reverse extradition. Trump was giving Bukele the kind of high-level criminals that the United States had never received from El Salvador. During the negotiations over the use of El Salvador's prison, Trump officials agreed to pay some $6 million to house the deported men and acceded to an additional demand. Bukele had one specific request, according to Milena Mayorga, his ambassador to the United States. 'I want you to send me the gang leaders who are in the United States,' she quoted Bukele as telling U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. For Bukele, she said in a
New York Post
18 hours ago
- New York Post
Suspected MS-13 gangbanger Kilmar Abrego Garcia possibly earned $100K a year smuggling illegal immigrants across US: witness
Suspected MS-13 gangbanger Kilmar Abrego Garcia was paid up to $1,500 per smuggling trip and may have raked in more than $100,000 annually trafficking humans, including minors, according to witnesses. The new details about Abrego Garcia's alleged 'full-time job' come from co-conspirators and witnesses cooperating with the federal government's human smuggling case against the Salvadoran national who was wrongly deported in March. The allegations were shared by a federal agent during a Friday detention hearing in a Nashville court, where Abrego Garcia entered a plea of not guilty. Advertisement 4 Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in March but brought back to the US earlier this month and charged with human smuggling. via REUTERS 4 The human smuggling charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, where he was pulled over driving a vehicle with nine passengers. Tennessee Highway Patrol As part of the illegal operation, smugglers charged migrants from Central and South America $8,000 for passage into the US — and Abrego Garcia would pick them up in Texas to transport them across the US, Homeland Security Investigations special agent Peter Joseph testified. Advertisement Abrego Garcia was paid between up to $1,500 per trip and made about one to two smuggling trips per week, according to one co-conspirator, Joseph revealed. The trips may have netted the Maryland man more than $100,000 per year in income. The payment structure was corroborated by a second co-conspirator helping federal authorities, who noted $1,000 payments were passed from the trafficker to the driver making the long-haul trips. The co-conspirator also alleged that roughly 30% of the smuggling operation's customers were gang members. Advertisement The human smuggling charges against Abrego Garcia stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, where Abrego Garcia was pulled over driving a vehicle with nine passengers. An envelope stuffed with $1,400 in cash was found on the illegal immigrant during the speeding stop, a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer noted in body camera video of the encounter, which also demonstrates that the officers had suspicions the Maryland man was smuggling the people in the car. 4 Abrego Garcia was paid between up to $1,500 per smuggling trip and made about one to two treks per week, according to one co-conspirator. DHS Joseph testified that the vehicle Abrego Garcia was stopped in was owned by Jose Hernandez-Reyes, a convicted migrant smuggler, and that six of the nine occupants were in the US illegally. Advertisement Witnesses further alleged that children were also transported during the trips and forced to sit on the floorboards. One of Abrego Garcia's co-conspirators told authorities that they witnessed drug and gun smuggling, as well, and that the weapons — which included handguns and semi-automatic rifles — were hidden beneath the children on the trips. Testimony related to allegations that Abrego Garcia had sexual relationships with some of his passengers, including a minor, was limited after his defense team objected. 4 Abrego Garcia may have earned $100,000 a year smuggling migrants, according to witnesses. AP Abrego Garcia is not charged with any sex, drug or gun crimes. The evidence was presented during the hearing to demonstrate that Abrego Garcia presents a danger to the community and should remain behind bars. His lawyers have called the allegations presented by the Justice Department 'preposterous.' The defense team also pressed Joseph on any deals he's cut with the government witnesses, suggesting that their testimony presents a conflict of interest. Abrego Garcia's lawyers noted that one witness had been previously deported and is serving a 30-month prison sentence, but is now living in a halfway house and may receive work authorization. Advertisement A second witness, according to defense lawyers, is a close relative of the first witness and indicated he would cooperate in return for his release from jail. A third had previously been compensated for helping law enforcement. With Post wires
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Yahoo
ICE arrests brother of anti-ICE activist leader in Massachusetts
ICE has arrested the brother of a prominent anti-ICE activist in Massachusetts. Multiple federal sources confirmed to Fox News that Emelio Neftaly Pineda has been arrested by ICE. Pineda, who has been deported two times previously, is a Salvadoran native. Ice Ramps Up Arrests Of Convicted Criminals As Riots Rage In Blue City: 'You Will Not Stop Us' Besides being an illegal alien, Pineda has multiple prior convictions, including Domestic assault and battery, DUI, violating a restraining order and leaving the scene of a crime. Pineda is the brother of Lucy Pineda, who runs an anti-ICE network known as Latinos Unidos en Massachusetts(LUMA). Read On The Fox News App According to ICE, LUMA is known for doxing ICE agents. Immigration Authorities Highlight Criminal History Of Multiple Migrants Arrested In Los Angeles LUMA is also known for chasing down agents and interfering with operations. Throughout the country, anti-ICE protests have been taking place. With the riots, destruction and civil unrest occurring in Los Angeles, President Donald Trump has deployed both the National Guard and Marines to restore order. Other cities like Seattle, New York City, and more have also seen protests that have seen clashes between police and protesters. Fox News has reached out to Lucy Pineda of LUMA for comment. Fox News's Bill Melugin contributed to this article source: ICE arrests brother of anti-ICE activist leader in Massachusetts
