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The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alexandria has dropped a criminal charge against a Dale City man dubbed by the Trump administration as the East Coast’s top leader of the MS-13 street gang.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alexandria filed the motion Wednesday to dismiss the charge of possession of a firearm by an alien illegally present in the United States, the only charge brought by federal prosecutors after the dramatic and highly-publicized March 27 arrest of Henrry Villatoro Santos, 24, at his mother’s home in the Cloverdale section of Dale City.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Villatoro’s court-appointed attorney did not immediately return requests for comment late Wednesday afternoon.
The charge was dismissed without prejudice, meaning prosecutors can seek to refile, according to court records.
Members of the FBI’s SWAT team busted open the front and back doors and deployed a stun grenade in Villatoro’s arrest at the townhouse where he lived in his mother’s garage.
The raid made national headlines with President Donald Trump, FBI Director Kash Patel and Gov. Glenn Youngkin all publicly hailing the capture while Trump administration officials posted photos on social media of masked, armed federal agents before and after the arrest.
A news release on the White House website called Villatoro “one of the top three MS-13 leaders in the United States,” and Attorney General Pam Bondi said he was the gang’s East Coast leader, but court records do not mention Villatoro’s position within the gang, only noting “indicia of MS-13 association” in his garage bedroom.
Police surveillance at the home began in August after his mother reported a burglary there, according to a federal affidavit. Throughout March, 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 the 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.
Villatoro 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.
It was unclear Wednesday if the ICE administrative warrant, which is not criminal charge, was still active.
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.
