April 19 (UPI) — The Department of Homeland Security has accused El Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 member who likely engaged in human trafficking while in the United States.

The allegation comes in a report from the DHS Combined Intelligence Unit after an investigation into Garcia’s case after Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported him to El Salvador on March 15, where he is being held in a maximum security prison.

“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a MS-13 gang member, illegal alien from El Salvador, and suspected human trafficker,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin Friday said in a DHS news release.

“The facts reveal he was pulled over with eight individuals in a car on an admitted three-day journey from Texas to Maryland with no luggage,” McLaughlin said.

“The facts speak for themselves, and they reek of human trafficking,” she said. “The media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal [and] illegal gang member has completely fallen apart.”

Maryland senator seeks Garcia’s return

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., flew to El Salvador and met with Garcia on Thursday at the El Salvadoran prison where he is being held for allegedly being a member of MS-13.

“Mr. Abrego Garcia was illegally abducted by the Trump [administration] and, by their own admission, wrongly deported to El Salvador,” Van Hollen said Wednesday in a social media post.

“He shouldn’t have to spend another second away from his family,” Van Hollen said. “I’m flying to El Salvador tomorrow morning to check on his condition and discuss his return.”

A federal judge recently said there was no evidence before his court that connects Garcia to MS-13 or any other criminal organization, Van Hollen said Friday in a post on X.

Van Hollen’s office declined a request for comment made Saturday evening via his Senate website.

2022 Tennessee traffic stop

According to the report, says a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer stopped a vehicle driven by Garcia, 29, and carrying eight other passengers on Dec. 1, 2022.

Garcia was speeding, could not maintain lane integrity and had an expired temporary driving permit issued in Maryland.

Garcia told the officer he was traveling from Houston to Temple Hills, Md., via St. Louis to bring people to do construction work and had been on the road for three days, according to the report.

The officer said the vehicle had no luggage and every person in the vehicle cited the same address provided by Garcia for his home address as their home addresses, which led him to believe Garcia was engaged in human trafficking.

“During the interview, [Garcia] pretended to speak less English than he was capable of and attempted to put [the] encountering officer off-track by responding to questions with questions,” the report says.

Garcia told the officer he was employed by the vehicle’s owner, worked in construction, and the eight passengers were going to work for his employer.

“Encountering officer gathered names of other occupants in [the] vehicle, but could not read their handwriting,” the report says.

The officer did not cite Garcia for the traffic violations and did not pass on the names, ages or IDs of Garcia’s eight passengers.

Alleged MS-13 membership

The report said officers with the Prince George‘s County, Md., Police Gang Unit on Oct. 10, 2019, determined Garcia was a member of the transnational gang MS-13. The unit alleges that Garcia allegedly was a “chequeo” for MS-13 from its “western clique.”

“This information was provided by [a] tested source who has provided truthful [and] accurate information in the past,” the report says.

DHS also provided a redacted copy of its investigative referral dated April 17, which claims that Garcia in October 2022 said he has three children and wanted to move to Houston to be closer to family after living in Maryland for the prior three years.

Garcia illegally was in the United States and had a lawful deportation order issued, DHS officials said Wednesday in a post on X.

He had been arrested and found with rolls of cash and drugs, was arrested with two other members of MS-013, and two judges found he was a member of the transnational gang, the DHS post says.

His wife also petitioned a Maryland court for an “order of protection after instances of domestic violence.”

Garcia’s deportation occurred on March 15 along with other deportees who were flown to El Salvador, where he is a citizen and was placed in the nation’s Terrorism Confinement Center.