Top MS-13 leader to stand trial in New York on terrorism charges

A top leader of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang will stand trial in New York on terrorism charges, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday.

El Salvador citizen Elmer Canales, known as “Crook de Hollywood,” was arrested by Mexican authorities last week and sent to Texas, where a federal court on Wednesday ordered him to face trial in New York.

Canales, along with 13 other MS-13 members, was indicted in 2020 on terrorism charges relating to his alleged involvement in organized crime in the U.S., Mexico and El Salvador over the past two decades.

He “bears responsibility for the gang’s efforts over decades to terrorize communities, target law enforcement, and sow violence here in the United States and abroad,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the Justice Department’s statement on Wednesday.

Read more: Reuters