"Joel Vargas-Escobar, also known as Momia, was indicted the District of Nevada and charged with racketeering conspiracy that involved 11 murders. Vargas-Escobar is also charged with two counts of murder-in-aid of racketeering and associated firearms charges. Vargas-Escobar – who previously had been deported to El Salvador and illegally reentered the United States – had been a fugitive from justice for nearly four years."

So said the DoJ in its announcement. MS-13 is a national and transnational gang composed largely of individuals of Salvadoran or other Central American descent. It has more than 10,000 members regularly conducting gang activities in at least 10 states and Washington, D.C., with thousands more conducting gang activities in Central America and Mexico. MS-13 operates through the use of intimidation and violence, including murder and enriching members and associates through criminal activities, including breaking into houses and stealing firearms, jewellery, cash and other items of value and selling narcotics. MS-13 is organised by subsets known as “cliques,” and each clique typically has one or more leaders, commonly referred to as “shot callers.”

Vargas-Escobar and his co-defendants are allegedly part of MS-13’s command and control structure in Las Vegas and California and exercised significant leadership roles in the organisation’s operations. The indictment charges members of the “Parkview” clique of MS-13 with committing 11 murders over about a year in Nevada and California. According to the indictment, many of the victims were allegedly kidnapped by MS-13 members and taken to remote locations in the mountains and desert where they were tortured and killed.

Vargas-Escobar was the alleged leader of the Parkview clique of MS-13 in Las Vegas and personally ordered two of the charged murders. He was deported to El Salvador in 2018 but illegally reentered the country.

The US Attorney General Pamela Bondi demonstrated a disturbing use of the term "terrorist" saying “This terrorist entered our country illegally and is accused of orchestrating 11 murders."

If anyone knows her could they please tell her what a terrorist is? What it isn't is a member of the leadership of a violent, organised, crime group such as MS-13.

But the USA is in trouble about its deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia who, several weeks ago, was swept up and deported with "hundreds" of gang members. But his inclusion was a mistake. But instead of simply saying "sorry: here's ticket, come back to your family" it's ended up in a court battle that's making less sense as each hearing goes by.

A report by the BBC says "US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a recent court filing that deporting Mr Garcia was an "administrative error". An immigration judge granted him legal protection from deportation in 2019. Mr Garcia is one of the 238 Venezuelans and 23 Salvadorans whom the Trump administration deported to El Salvador's notorious mega-prison, the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (Cecot), alleging they were gang members."

So, on the basis that he was deported and filed away in jail without, it seems, any due process has led to the odd situation of what might be seen as similar to a writ of habeus corpus in which the respondent is the Venezualan government.

The Department of Homeland Security says it's not their problem any more and in any case the US courts have no jurisdiction. But a Court disagreed and made an order that Garcia be returned to the USA. Venezuala, not unreasonably, is saying, in effect, "just who do you think you are that you imagine we would be subject to a Court in the USA". The Order was made on Friday, requiring is return by Monday. That didn't work so now there's an adjournment while everyone tried to work out what to do next.

In the meantime, the government's lawyer at the hearing on Friday, Erez Reuveni, has apparently been fired not being sufficiently aggressive in his defence of US interests. He told the Court that the deportation has been a mistake.

The White House has its seried ranks making comments most of which can be summed up as "the judge is clueless, thinking she can order a foreign power to send one of its own citizens overseas."

Of course, the US could try to extradite him but that would mean charging with an offence in the USA which would mean his deportation would be at least a little bit correct. Just kidding but the way this case is going, not much would cause surprise.