Members of the FBI’s SWAT team busted open the front and back doors and deployed a stun grenade in Thursday morning’s arrest of a 24-year-old Dale City man the Trump administration calls one of the nation’s top leaders of the violent transnational street gang MS-13.
An affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria details the early-morning takedown of Henrry Villatoro Santos at a townhouse he apparently shared with his mother in the 3600 block of Chippendale Circle off Cloverdale Road.
The arrest made national headlines with President Donald Trump, FBI Director Kash Patel and Gov. Glenn Youngkin all publicly hailing the capture. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi first broke the news on X, posting a photo of herself surrounded by federal agents at the raid command post in the parking lot of the At Home store on Dale Boulevard near Interstate 95.
Villatoro is currently charged with possession of a firearm by an alien illegally present in the United States, court records show. He is incarcerated on the federal charges at the Alexandria city jail with an April 1 court date.
A news release on the White House website called Villatoro "one of the top three MS-13 leaders in the United States," and Bondi said he was the gang’s East Coast leader, but court records made public Thursday did not mention Villatoro's position within the gang, only noting "indicia of MS-13 association" in his bedroom in the garage of the 2,200-square-foot, four-bedroom townhouse.
Police surveillance at the home began in August after his mother reported a burglary there, according to the federal affidavit. Throughout this month, agents observed Villatoro entering and exiting the home.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent assigned to investigate narcotics crimes, transnational gangs and other criminal enterprises sought a judge's sign off on Thursday’s arrest warrant, writing that Villatoro is a citizen of El Salvador and that Department of Homeland Security records show he was in the U.S. illegally.
About 4:30 a.m., agents descended on the home, “knocking and announcing their presence to no avail,” the affidavit said.
Members of the FBI’s Special Weapons and Tactics Team then breached the front and rear doors of the townhouse, court records state.
As they did, agents saw Villatoro in an alcove leading to the garage. He ducked behind a small wall out of view and "did not comply with the agents’ demands that he exit the residence," court records state.
After agents deployed a stun grenade, Villatoro eventually came close enough to the front door to be pulled out.
He was originally taken into custody on an outstanding administrative immigration warrant, according to court records, but during a search of the house, agents found a 9 mm handgun in the garage bedroom, along with three additional firearms, ammunition and two suppressors, court records show.
Villatoro's criminal history in Virginia shows two possession of marijuana charges, one in 2018 and another in 2019, and more recent charges of driving without a license, driving without insurance and operating an uninsured vehicle in August, according to court records.
The arrest comes after the Trump administration in February declared MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, and seven other Latin American criminal enterprises as foreign terrorist organizations,the Associated Press reported. The transnational gang has thousands of members in the U.S., including cliques in the D.C. area known for several murders, abductions and robberies over the past decade.
“America is safer today because one of the top domestic terrorists in MS-13, he is off the streets," Bondi said at a Thursday news conference. "This has been an ongoing directive of President Trump. His directive to me when I became Attorney General of the United States was very simple: keep America safe."
"This is what happens when you let good cops be cops, and we're going to continue to let good cops be cops across this country," Patel said at the news conference. "We are returning our communities to safety."
President Donald Trump also chimed in on Truth Social, praising border czar Tom Homan.
"Just captured a major leader of MS13. Tom HOMAN is a superstar!" Trump wrote.
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