FBI extradites ‘10 Most Wanted’ list fugitive from Mexico: Patel

The FBI extradited one of the “Ten Most Wanted” list fugitives, an alleged key leader of international criminal gang MS-13, from Mexico.

FBI Director Kash Patel said Francisco Javier Roman-Bardales, a Salvadoran national, was extradited on Monday night and is being transported to the U.S. The federal law enforcement agency worked with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and “other interagency partners.”

“He was arrested in Mexico and is being transported within the U.S. as we speak, where he will face American justice,” Patel said in a Tuesday morning post on the social platform X. 

Patel touted the extradition as a “major victory both for our law enforcement partners and for a safer America.” 

“Thank you to our brave personnel for executing the mission. And thank you to Mexico’s SSPC and FGE teams for their support of the FBI in this investigation and arrest,” Patel wrote, referring to the Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection (SSPC), Mexico’s government agency tasked with supervising public safety and security. 

Mexican authorities said they arrested Roman-Bardales, 47, Monday in Veracruz, Mexico, on the Teocelo-Baxtla highway.

According to a joint statement from the Mexican Defense Ministry, Navy, Office of Attorney General, the National Guard and SSPC, Roman-Bardales was informed of his arrest, his legal rights were read out to him and he was transferred to Mexico City, “where he will be taken to the appropriate authority, where he will subsequently be deported to the United States where he is wanted.” 

The fugitive was wanted by the FBI for his alleged involvement with MS-13’s operations in both Mexico and the U.S. 

He was charged with “several offenses” over his supposed role in “ordering numerous acts of violence against civilians and rival gang members, as well as his role in drug distribution and extortion schemes in the United States and El Salvador,” according to the FBI. 

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued an arrest warrant for Roman-Bardales on Sept. 22, 2022, after he was charged with “conspiracy to provide and conceal material support and resources to terrorists; narco-terrorism conspiracy; racketeering conspiracy; and alien smuggling conspiracy.”  

The FBI was offering up to $250,000 for information leading to Roman-Bardales’s arrest. The agency website was updated to list him as “captured.” 

The Trump administration last month designated MS-13, which is believed to have originated in Los Angeles in the 1980s; the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua; and half a dozen Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York stated that Roman-Bardales was being transported to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon in federal court on Long Island.

Updated at 5:22 p.m. EST