Top MS-13 leader arrested in Dale City, Virginia after months of surveillance, FBI says

DALE CITY, Va. (7News) — U.S. authorities arrested a top Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, gang leader in Dale City, Virginia Thursday, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin shared details about the operation at the Manassas FBI field office on Thursday morning.

Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, 24, was arrested in Prince William County, an hour outside Washington, D.C. The alleged MS-13 leader is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, the FBI said. The gang is known for brutal violence and extortion.

READ MORE | High-ranking MS-13 leader arrested in Hyattsville, Maryland, ICE says

"America is safer today because of one of the top domestic terrorists in MS-13 is off the streets," said Attorney General Bondi.

The weeks-long operation was a joint effort with state and local agencies, including Virginia State Police, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Corrections.

“We want to make our streets safer,” Bondi told reporters. “We want to make our schools safer. We want to make your neighborhoods safer. This guy was living in a neighborhood right around you, no longer."

According to the affidavit filed in the U.S. District Couty for the Eastern District of Virginia, Villatoro Santos was charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

FBI agents executed a federal search warrant on a Dale City home on March 27 after his mother had reported burglary back in August 2024. Since then FBI agents have conducted surveillance on the home and saw Villatoro Santos coming and going from the home.

On Thursday morning, FBI agents announced their arrival and tried to get someone to open the door before they breached the home and found Villatoro Santos hiding in an alcove leading to the garage. Instead of complying with the agents' commands, he allegedly ducked behind a small wall. Agents deployed a stun grenade and Villatoro Santos ended up close enough to the front door that they could pull him out of the home.

During the search of the home, agents allegedly found a Taurus model G2C 9-millimeter handgun near the bed, three additional firearms, ammunition and two suppressors.

SEE ALSO | Sheriffs' leader praises crackdown after capture of alleged high-ranking MS-13 member

President Donald Trump praised the agencies and authorities involved in the arrest on Truth Social Thursday morning.

"Just captured a major leader of MS13. Tom HOMAN is a superstar!" Trump shared.

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Trump has blamed the violence and gang growth on lax immigration policies. In his first term as president, Trump promised an all-out fight against MS-13, saying he would “dismantle, decimate and eradicate” the gang.

At the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, citing the arrest, called it “a good day for our country.”

In the past decade, the U.S. Justice Department has intensified its focus on MS-13, which originated as a neighborhood street gang in Los Angeles, but grew into a transnational gang based in El Salvador. It has members in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico and thousands of members across the U.S. with numerous branches, or “cliques.”

"MS-13 is one of the most dangerous gangs in our country, and we are going to fight until they are completely dismantled," Attorney General Bondi said.

MS-13 was formed in the 1980s by Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles, California. Some members are trained in guerilla warfare and the use of military weapons, according to the Department of Justice.

Over time, the gang expanded to many parts of the country, and the Justice Department lists the D.C. area as one of the hotbeds for MS-13 outside of Los Angeles.

“There have been a lot of problems up here in Northern Virginia, and certainly as well in Maryland, Montgomery County and other places,” Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman said.

They’re involved in human trafficking. They’re involved in drugs. Anything that they can do to make money is what they’ll do.

MS-13 has been linked to numerous homicides in the D.C. area. A 2017 homicide allegedly committed by the gang involved a victim found in Wheaton Regional Park who had been stabbed more than a hundred times, decapitated, and had had his heart removed from his chest.

The gang operates in at least 42 states and D.C. and has about 6,000 to 10,000 members nationwide, according to a 2008 threat assessment by the FBI.