MS-13 thug and known abuser Kilmar Abrego Garcia appeared in a Nashville federal courtroom Friday, pleading not guilty to human trafficking charges—despite overwhelming evidence tying him to a nearly decade-long illegal smuggling operation.
Decked out in a red jumpsuit, the career criminal stood before the judge as he begged for pre-trial release, even while facing serious federal charges for transporting undocumented migrants across the U.S.—a human trafficking pipeline that stretched from Central America into American communities.
Abrego Garcia was indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Tennessee on one count of conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants and another count of unlawful transportation of undocumented migrants.
According to the unsealed indictment, he and his co-conspirators—spanning El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and the U.S.—ran the smuggling operation from 2016 through 2025.
The scale of the crime is jaw-dropping. If convicted, Abrego Garcia could face up to 10 years in federal prison for every single person he trafficked. And there may be dozens—if not hundreds—of victims.
But the human trafficking charges are just the start for Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
According to a federal motion for detention, one of Garcia’s co-conspirators told investigators that the MS-13 member was involved in the