MS-13 leaders face U.S. terror charges

NEW YORK — U.S. prosecutors announced terrorism charges Thursday against top MS-13 leaders imprisoned in El Salvador, accusing them of ordering killings and other crimes by the notorious street gang from behind bars.

The directives by the 14 defendants — members of an illicit commission known as “Ranfla Nacional” — have resulted in a wave of violence in El Salvador, the United States and elsewhere, prosecutors said. The defendants include Borromeo Enrique Henriquez, considered the leadership’s most powerful member, they said.

The charges brought in New York, part of an ongoing crackdown heavily pushed by President Donald Trump, comprise “the highest-reaching and most sweeping indictment targeting MS-13 and its command and control structure in U.S. history,” acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said in a statement.

An indictment charged the defendants with multiple conspiracy counts alleging they organized drug-trafficking and extortion schemes using MS-13’s members in the U.S. to raise money to support terrorist activities in El Salvador.

According to the federal indictment, Ranfla Nacional ordered an unsuccessful hit — what it called a “green light” — on an FBI agent detailed to El Salvador to investigate the gang. The court papers also said it used $600,000 in profits from criminal activities in the U.S. to buy machine guns, rocket launchers and other weapons for attacks on police and to finance other terrorism activities.

U.S. authorities said they are exploring ways to have the defendants brought to New York to face prosecution.