OAN Staff Blake Wolf
4:44 PM – Friday, June 6, 2025

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national who was previously deported from the U.S. earlier this year, is now back in the United States and facing both human smuggling and conspiracy charges, according to the Department of Justice.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Abrego Garcia’s return following the issuance of an arrest warrant.

“Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice,” Bondi stated. “A grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee returned a sealed indictment charging him with alien smuggling and conspiracy.”

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Abrego Garcia was reportedly sent to El Salvador’s infamous CECOT prison utilized for violent gang members. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele agreed to return Abrego Garcia after U.S. officials notified the Salvadoran government of his arrest warrant.

Abrego Garcia “significantly” contributed to a human smuggling ring for over a decade, where he trafficking women, children, and other gang members across the United States — according to the federal indictment.

“The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring,” Bondi continued. “They found this was his full time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children and women. He made over 100 trips, the grand jury found, smuggling people throughout our country.”

The investigation into Abrego Garcia’s role in the human trafficking ring included an incident in 2022 where Tennessee Highway Patrol pulled him over for speeding.

After being stopped, police became suspicious after finding that his van was full of passengers. He told the officers that all of the passengers were construction workers who were carpooling to a job, when in actuality, he was transporting illegal aliens. Abrego Garcia was also an illegal alien himself.

“He’s hauling these people for money,” a state trooper stated at the time of the traffic stop, according to body cam footage.