Judge slams DOJ bid to hide motion to drop El Salvador gang leader charges

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (CN) — A federal judge in New York on Wednesday rebuked the government’s request to seal its motion to dismiss charges against a purported leader of international Salvadoran gang MS-13.

“In this case, the government appears to be making inconsistent representations and the public has a right to know about this motion before its resolution,” U.S. District Judge Joan Azrack wrote in the 29-page order explaining her decision to unseal the court records.

Vladimir Antonio Arevalo-Chavez was among 13 co-defendants charged in 2023 with terrorism, narco-terrorism, racketeering and alien smuggling. The U.S. government described a close, corrupt relationship between MS-13 and the Salvadoran government, which rebuffed the U.S.’s attempts to extradite defendants.

In March, Attorney General Pam Bondi touted the arrest of another defendant in the case, Francisco Javier Roman-Bardales, saying he and other MS-13 members would face “swift American justice for their heinous crimes.”

Two weeks later, the Justice Department reversed course in a now-unsealed motion to dismiss charges against Arevalo, also known as “Vampiro de Monserrat Criminales.”

“The United States has determined that sensitive and important foreign policy considerations outweigh the government’s interest in pursuing the prosecution of the defendant,” then-U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York John Durham wrote in the motion declaring that El Salvador should prosecute Arevalo first and requesting that the filing remain under seal until the defendant was returned to El Salvador.

Azrack did not address the dismissal motion itself, but said sealing the motion is “legally impermissible.”

“The public has a right under the First Amendment to know about this motion unless the government has identified an overriding compelling interest that warrants sealing. The government failed to do so here. A desire to avoid public scrutiny of a decision to seek dismissal of criminal charges does not justify sealing,” the Barack Obama appointee wrote.

The agreement to return Arevalo to El Salvador is in line with Trump’s multimillion-dollar agreement with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, under which the U.S. is paying El Salvador to accept and house hundreds of immigrants deported from the U.S., plus — at Bukele’s request — return MS-13 leaders in U.S. custody.

El Salvador publicized that request before the government’s April 1 motion to dismiss was even filed, Azrack noted in Wednesday’s order, taking to the docket to explain her May decision to unseal filings as calls mount against the U.S.’s relationship with El Salvador and its decision to send migrants to the notoriously violent megaprison known as CECOT.

Bukele had also tweeted about the return of another MS-13 defendant, Cesar Humberto Lopez-Larios, and news outlets reported that U.S. officials planned to send additional purported gang leaders back to El Salvador.

Regarding the government’s cited concerns of safety for those transporting MS-13 defendants, Azrack noted that Arevalo previously appeared in court and was safely taken from Texas to New York following a public hearing in the Lone Star State.

“Notably, Arevalo-Chavez and two other defendants appeared at a publicly-noticed status conference on April 1, 2025, only hours before the motion to dismiss was filed,” and after Lopez’s dismissal was unsealed, Azrack said.

In a footnote, the judge added: “With the benefit of hindsight, the court must admit that it erred in sealing the filings concerning Lopez-Larios.”

An attorney for Arevalo did not return requests for comment Wednesday. Neither did the Justice Department.

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