Authored by T.J. Muscaro via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national returned to the United States after being deported to his home country, pled not guilty to federal human trafficking charges on June 13.

Abrego Garcia entered the United States illegally more than a decade ago. Upon his arrest and deportation to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in March, he was accused of being a member of MS-13, a gang that has been designated a terrorist organization.

However, legal battles ensued to force the U.S. government to return Abrego Garcia to the United States due to a 2019 immigration judge ruling that he could not be deported due to the threat of gang persecution. A judge ruled that the government had to make sure “his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”

Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States from El Salvador’s CECOT mega prison last week. A federal grand jury indicted him on May 21 on charges of smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States and conspiring with others to do so.

“The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said on June 6. “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.”

Among the illegal immigrants smuggled into the nation were MS-13 members, Bondi said, noting that the smuggling ring Abrego Garcia is accused of being part of was responsible for a 2021 tractor-trailer accident in Mexico that resulted in the deaths of more than 50 migrants.

The trafficking charges cite an incident in 2022 involving a traffic stop in Tennessee, where Abrego Garcia is being charged.

In November of 2022, Abrego Garcia was stopped by the Tennessee Highway Patrol. While he was not charged with any traffic violations at that time, body camera footage of the encounter reportedly captured a discussion among officers about their suspicions of human smuggling.

One officer said, “he’s hauling these people for money.” Another said Abrego Garcia had $1,400 in an envelope.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have called the allegations “preposterous.”

The hearing on June 13 will also focus on whether Abrego Garcia should be allowed to stay out of jail while awaiting trial on his smuggling charges. A federal judge in Nashville was set to hear arguments from both Abrego Garcia’s lawyers and government attorneys.

Bill Pan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.