The Trump administration’s decision to return a high-profile gang boss facing terrorism charges to El Salvador as part of a controversial effort to deport hundreds of Venezuelan citizens could signal the US government’s willingness to compromise its longstanding MS13 crackdown in favor of mass deportation.
César Humberto López Larios, alias “Greñas,” a veteran leader of the MS13 street gang, was flown to El Salvador on March 15 alongside other suspected Salvadoran gang members and more than 200 Venezuelans accused by US officials of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang.
López Larios was among a group of 14 members of the MS13’s historic leadership ring charged with terrorism in a landmark case initiated during Trump’s first administration. At the time, authorities called it the “highest-reaching and most sweeping indictment” to ever target the gang.
The expulsion flights began after the Trump administration invoked an obscure wartime law from the 18th century to loosen restrictions on deporting suspected members of the Venezuelan gang, which was recently declared a terrorist organization by the US State Department alongside the MS13 and several Mexican crime groups.
The El Salvador government has agreed to house the deported Venezuelans in a maximum security prison for a reported fee of $6 million, despite the US authorities’ own admission that they have no clear evidence of their gang affiliation. The trade also included the return of López Larios and 22 alleged MS13 members wanted by Salvadoran authorities.
The move came after Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele publicly offered to house convicted criminals from the United States in return for a fee. In private, he also requested that the Trump administration return top MS13 leaders to El Salvador as part of the exchange, according to the Salvadoran ambassador to the United States.
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A video posted by Bukele showed a shackled López Larios being dragged off an airplane and bundled into an armored vehicle by Salvadoran security forces. A hefty security convoy transported the suspected MS13 members and the Venezuelan nationals to the Terrorist Confinement Center (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo – CECOT), a maximum security prison built to house Salvadoran gang members.
Removing López Larios from US soil required the Justice Department to drop the terrorism-related charges against the gang leader. Prosecutors cited “geopolitical and national security concerns” as justification for doing so.
A seasoned gang boss, López Larios was previously deported from the United States to El Salvador in 2017. He later escaped prison there and fled to Mexico, where he joined the MS13’s operations on Mexican soil. Authorities later arrested him in Chiapas in June 2024 and transferred him to US custody.
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The decision to dismiss the charges against López Larios runs counter to the US government’s goal of prosecuting MS13 leaders on home soil – long a pillar of its fight against transnational gangs.
US authorities have hounded fugitive MS13 leaders since the government announced their indictment during the first Trump administration. This included the formation of a joint task force in 2019 between the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). The unit was charged with “disrupting, dismantling, and ultimately, destroying [the] MS13.”
During the Biden administration, the US State Department pressured Salvadoran authorities to extradite top MS13 leaders jailed in El Salvador and arrested a string of others embroiled in the terrorism case.
SEE ALSO:US Advances MS13 ‘Terrorism’ Case With Arrest of Sixth Top Leader
But the return of López Larios suggests the US government may now be willing to sacrifice parts of its MS13 investigation to facilitate mass deportations. It also raises questions about whether the Trump administration could use the six MS13 leaders that remain in US custody as a bargaining chip to secure further deportations to El Salvador.
This type of trade-off suits Bukele, whose government has stubbornly refused to extradite indicted MS13 leaders. Many of them were privy to secret talks with top Bukele officials, in which gang members offered to lower the country’s homicide rate in exchange for prison benefits and protection from extradition, according to US prosecutors.
That list includes Élmer Canales Rivera, alias “Crook,” a gang leader Salvadoran officials freed from jail. He was later arrested in Mexico and is now facing trial in New York. Prosecutors say he “played one of the most prominent roles in the MS13’s negotiations and agreements” with the Salvadoran government.
The return of MS13 leaders to El Salvador would almost certainly prevent the full details of those negotiations from coming to light.