Attorney general says Kilmar Abrego Garcia was part of international smuggling ring
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia on April 6, alleging that the immigrant from El Salvador was part of an international smuggling ring and characterizing his behavior as "disturbing."
Bondi made the announcement minutes after a federal court in Tennessee unsealed charges accusing him of transporting "illegal aliens for financial gain" and conspiracy to transport illegal aliens. She said the incidents took place over years and included women, children, and violent gang members.
The charges are the latest twist in the story of the man whose improper deportation to a Salvadoran prison created controversy over deportations without due process under the administration of President Donald Trump. For months, multiple courts had ordered the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. The same day the charges were unsealed, the government brought Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. to face them.
"Over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring," Bondi said. "They found this was his full time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children and women."
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, the lawyer for Abrego Garcia, criticized the Department of Justice for bringing these charges after sending him to a foreign prison in violation of a court order: "Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they’re bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him. Due process means the chance to defend yourself before you're punished, not after. This is an abuse of power, not justice."
The indictment against Abrego Garcia, originally filed under seal May 21, alleges a scheme in which he and unnamed co-conspirators would place after-market seats into their cars, unattached, to fit six to ten undocumented immigrants in the car. Children would be placed on the floorboards to maximize space and profits, the indictment says.
An indictment is a formal accusation of a crime. The U.S. justice system presumes Abrego Garcia is innocent unless prosecutors prove their case in court or the defendant pleads guilty.
Read the indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia
The indictment says Abrego Garcia and co-conspirators were members of the transnational gang MS-13. It says they worked with people in other countries to transport immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, and Mexico, and then took took the people from Houston to Maryland, often varying their routes, and coming up with cover stories about construction if they were pulled over.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol stopped Abrego Garcia, who was driving a large SUV, in 2022. There were nine Hispanic men in the car with him, including some sitting a row of seats in the cargo area, and none had identification, the indictment said. Abrego Garcia told troopers they had been working in construction in St. Louis, but the car had no luggage or construction tools, and license-plate data showed the car hadn't been anywhere near St. Louis, according to the indictment. He had $1,400 in his pocket, the indictment said.
One of Abrego Garcia's alleged co-conspirators, who is not named, was involved in the 2021 transport of more than 150 migrants "that ended when the tractor trailer carrying them overturned in Mexico," killing more than 50 people, according to the indictment.
The indictment also says that Abrego Garcia often purchased guns illegally in Texas and brought them to Maryland, but he was not indicted on weapons charges.
During the press conference, Bondi made additional allegations about Abrego Garcia. She said a co-conspirator of Abrego Garcia's claimed he abused undocumented women, that he solicited nude photographs and videos of a minor, and that he "played a role" in the murder of a rival gang member's mother.
Abrego Garcia and his co-conspirators usually took the cell phones away from the people they transported, the indictment says, so that they could not contact anyone during the trip, and returned the cell phones when they reached their destination.
Abrego Garcia often brought close relatives in the car with him, the indictment says, but on occasions when he did not bring relatives, he "abused some of the female undocumented aliens." His co-conspirators reported the abuse and he was ordered to stop, the indictment says.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem lashed out on social media after the indictment, saying "the media and Democrats have burnt to the ground any last shred of credibility they had left by glorifying Kilmar Abrego Garcia a known MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, and serial domestic abuser."
Abrego Garcia's wife sought a protective order from him in 2020, and said in audio at the time that he had grabbed her hair and slapped her. The incident became public after the Department of Homeland Security released a copy of her 2021 restraining order petition citing multiple incidents of abuse.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, who visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, framed the case around constitutional rights.
“For months the Trump administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution,” Van Hollen said. “Today they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States.”
If he's convicted, the maximum prison sentence for Abrego Garcia's conspiracy charge is 10 years in prison and $250,000.