(Ken Silva, Headline USA) At least three major media outlets have recently reported that public funds from the now-defunct U.S. Agency for International Development were diverted to the El Salvadoran gang, La Mara Salvatrucha, more commonly known as MS-13.
ProPublica first reported the bombshell revelation in early June, citing sources who alleged that El Salvador President Nayib Bukele struck a secret pact with MS-13—agreeing to provide the gang with money and power in exchange for votes and reduced homicide rates. Some of that money allegedly came from USAID.
According to ProPublica, the Joint Task Force Vulcan, a multiagency law enforcement team created during the first Trump administration to investigate MS-13, suspected in 2021 that top El Salvadorian officials were diverting USAID funds to gang members.
🚨There are numerous credible reports that USAID money was siphoned to MS-13. Why have Trump officials been silent about this? Likely because the USAID money was siphoned by El Salvador's Bukele administration, which has a deal with the US to take deported criminals. pic.twitter.com/Ha09VmW4p1
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) October 20, 2025
“Money was going from us, from USAID, through to this social fabric group,” a former federal law enforcement official reportedly said. “They’re supposed to be building things and getting skills and learning. It was funding the gangs.”
ProPublica’s scoop was followed up later in June by the New York Times, which reported similar facts.
“[Carlos] Marroquín, a close aide to Mr. Bukele, was suspected of funneling to MS-13 resources from the U.S. Agency for International Development that were coordinated on the ground by a Salvadoran aid program he ran called Tejido Social,” the Times reported on June 30, citing three people familiar with the case.
“The aid, which financed community centers outfitted with libraries, computers and other amenities, was believed to have been directed to MS-13 neighborhoods as incentives for gang leaders to cooperate.”
The Times added that USAID terminated its contract with Tejido Social once it learned of the allegations in late 2021.
When shuttering USAID earlier this year, the Trump administration cited numerous instances of waste, fraud and abuse in the agency. However, officials have been silent on USAID funding MS-13 activity—even though it seems to have occurred under the Biden administration.
The Times and ProPublica’s reporting suggests that the Trump administration hasn’t gone after El Salvador’s government because they have a deal with President Bukele to deport criminals to the country’s maximum-security prison
On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that the Trump administration has even agreed to send back confidential informants from MS-13, who’ve provided the Justice Department with information about the gang’s links to Bukele. Like the Times and ProPublica, the Post also reported that USAID money was suspected of having gone to MS-13.
“The deal would give Bukele possession of individuals who threatened to expose the alleged deals his government made with MS-13 to help achieve El Salvador’s historic drop in violence,” the Post reported, citing anonymous officials.
WaPo published an incredible story today about how Marco Rubio agreed to burn MS-13 informants cooperating w/ the DOJ, as part of the administration's deal to deport people to El Salvador. These informants had knowledge of Bukele's dealings with MS-13. pic.twitter.com/HjilLpcMtH
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) October 19, 2025
According to the Post, the U.S. has deported one alleged informant, while at least two others are still in the country.
“One of them — César López Larios, whom U.S. prosecutors charged last year with directing MS-13’s activities in the United States — was sent back to El Salvador … The others remain in the United States, waiting to learn whether they, too, will be handed over to the very government they were cooperating against,” the Post reported.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
