Bayron Wuifredo Santos-Recarte, Retaliating Against a Federal Witness, Tennessee 2023

A Honduran man was arrested in Antioch, Tennessee, after being charged with conspiring to retaliate and retaliating against a federal witness who testified in a federal trial involving the Mara Salvatrucha street gang, commonly known as MS-13.

Bayron Wuifredo Santos-Recarte, 25, and his co-conspirators allegedly agreed to, and did, physically assault Individual A because Individual A testified during a racketeer-influenced and corrupt organization (RICO) conspiracy federal trial in spring 2023.

On Nov. 4, 2023, Santos-Recarte and his co-conspirators allegedly took Individual A by force and at gunpoint and placed him in a truck where they tied his hands together.

They allegedly interrogated Individual A for hours about his trial testimony and repeatedly assaulted him before Individual A was able to escape.

The Honduran man is charged with conspiring to retaliate and retaliating against a federal witness.

If convicted, Santos-Recarte faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for conspiring to retaliate against a federal witness and a maximum penalty of life in prison for retaliating against a federal witness.

Santos-Recarte is currently in federal custody.

The investigation is being led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Nashville Field Division, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Nashville, and the Metropolitan-Nashville Police Department.

This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Santos-Recarte is charged with: Conspiring to Retaliate Against a Federal Witness, and Retaliating Against a Federal Witness.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Matthew Hoff of the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ahmed Safeeullah and Brooke Farzad for the Middle District of Tennessee.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the case is part of an OCDETF operation, which seeks to disrupt and dismantle the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States.

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