They accused him of leading East Coast operations for the transnational gang and one of three top leaders in the U.S. He was living in a garage.

Federal prosecutors in Virginia on Wednesday dropped charges against a man they say is an MS-13 gang leader. Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, 24, was charged with unlawful possession of firearms by someone in the country illegally.

The Justice Department moved to drop charges Wednesday against a man they had alleged to be a “major leader” of the MS-13 gang just weeks after publicly lauding his arrest – a move his lawyer says is the first step towards immediately deporting him to El Salvador.