Top gang leaders being sent back to El Salvador were part of a lengthy federal investigation that has amassed evidence of a corrupt pact between the Bukele government and MS-13.
Mr. Bukele, the Salvadoran president, agreed to help the White House carry out one of Mr. Trump’s signature policy agendas — the mass deportation of immigrants — by allowing scores of them to be housed inside his prisons where they would likely be beyond the reach of the U.S. justice system in exchange for millions of dollars and a request for the return of about a dozen senior members of MS-13 who were facing American charges.
Tens of thousands of people were jailed as part of President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on gangs. Some police officers now admit they arrested people on flimsy or nonexistent evidence to meet quotas.
Relatives watched as recently arrested men were transferred to prison in April 2022, early in an anti-gang campaign that has imprisoned about 80,000 people.
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