FBI Director Kash Patel announced that a member of the “Ten Most Wanted” list and suspected leader of MS-13 is being extradited from Mexico to the United States.
“I can now confirm that last night, working with [the Department of Justice] and other interagency partners, the FBI has extradited one of our ‘Ten Most Wanted’ from Mexico — one we believe to be a key senior leader of MS-13, Francisco Javier Roman-Bardales,” Patel announced on X.
“He was arrested in Mexico and is being transported within the US as we speak, where he will face American justice,” he said. “This is 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.”
Roman-Bardales was charged with “several offenses for his alleged 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,” an FBI bulletin says.
A federal arrest warrant was issued for the MS-13 leader in September 2022 upon his being charged with “Conspiracy to Provide and Conceal Material Support and Resources to Terrorists; Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy; Racketeering Conspiracy; and Alien Smuggling Conspiracy.”
American Faith reported that the FBI recently added former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan “El Jefe” Wedding to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, offering a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
Wedding, 43, is accused of leading a transnational drug trafficking network that transported large quantities of cocaine from Colombia to Canada via California and Mexico. He is also charged with orchestrating multiple murders, including the retaliation killing of a family in Ontario and a murder over a drug debt.
