Federal authorities announced Thursday the arrest in Virginia of a person they described as one of the top three MS-13 gang leaders in the United States.

Justice Department officials declined to name the 24-year-old suspect, specify the charge against him or provide details about the circumstances that led to his apprehension. Instead, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) touted the arrest as a major milestone in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

The arrest — hailed on social media by Trump and in public remarks by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt — stood out for both the attention it drew from top officials and the scant details that were released.

“America is safer today because one of the top domestic terrorists in MS-13 is off the streets,” Bondi said from a podium, with Youngkin, FBI Director Kash Patel and state and local law enforcement officials standing behind her.

“This has been an ongoing directive of Donald Trump,” she continued, before adding an apparent reference to Trump’s successful effort while a presidential candidate last summer to torpedo a border bill that would have toughened enforcement.

“We didn’t need new laws, as President Trump always said. We needed a new president,” Bondi said.

A Justice Department spokesperson, speaking on the condition of anonymity to provide nonpublic details about the case, said the man would be prosecuted in federal court in Virginia but that his name and other details were being withheld to protect “law enforcement priorities” and ongoing criminal investigations.

Authorities took the man into custody without incident around 4:30 a.m., Bondi said. The Justice Department spokesman said the arrest occurred in Woodbridge, Virginia, a suburb about 23 miles southwest of Washington. Bondi, Patel and other top Justice Department leaders watched the operation on video screens from a nearby command center, the spokesman said.

Peter Newsham — chief of the Prince William County police department, which was involved in the case — said the investigation began before Trump took office and was driven by a detective in his agency who specializes in criminal gangs.

“Our guy was the one who started the investigation,” Newsham said. He described the operation as “typical collaboration between locals and feds in a criminal case.”

“This appears to be a significant arrest,” Newsham continued. “To get someone in a leadership position, regardless of the administration, shows how local and federal officers work together to get violent offenders off the street.”

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

That office, in Alexandria, Virginia, has prosecuted hundreds of MS-13 members in recent years, including dozens of gang leaders and foot soldiers who were convicted of racketeering, murder, drug-dealing, human trafficking and firearms offenses during the Biden administration.

Efforts by that office, the FBI and several local police agencies have defanged the leadership of at least three of the gang’s most violent cells operating in Virginia in recent years.

Five members of one unit received life sentences in 2022 after being convicted of murdering two teenagers they lured into the woods. Members of another MS-13 cell were convicted in 2024 for a spree of random murders committed in 2019.

The second-in-command of an MS-13 cell that claims Reston, Virginia, as its turf was sentenced to life in prison last year after being convicted of participating in six murders — in what prosecutors then called Virginia’s biggest murder trial in years.

The leader of that unit, called the Uniones Locos Salvatrucha, was indicted in June and is scheduled for trial in January.

The Trump administration has been trying to dramatically increase immigration arrests and deportations, an effort that Trump campaigned on and that he and his top officials say is needed to keep the country safe and remove violent gang members from communities.

The administration has heavily promoted its arrests of immigrants accused of violent crimes, while refusing to release details about the tens of thousands of others arrested.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.