FD24P00235 - [2025] EWHC 952 (Fam)

The threats alleged by the mother with respect to the accounts she gave regarding the parents’ marriage form part of her wider contention that the father is a high level member of a notorious criminal gang, MS13, involved in the trafficking and selling of narcotics in Bolivia and the United States and able to himself and by his criminal associates intimidate the mother into submission. Once again, the allegations are grounded in diametrically opposed accounts from the parents.

The mother implies that the father had criminal dealings in Bolivia, she alleging that it first became apparent to her on arrival in that country that the father was involved in trafficking drugs. There is no corroborating evidence to support those allegations. The father states it was necessary for the parties to live in Bolivia in order to obtain a civil marriage certificate so as to enable the mother to obtain a spousal visa to move to the United States, the marriage certificate from the East London Mosque being a religious document only. The highest Mr Setright was able to put these matters when cross-examining the father was that his travel to and from Miami on three or four occasions in or around 2011 and 2012 was in itself evidence of his involvement in criminal activity. The father denied this and stated that he made these trips as part of the process of becoming an American citizen, having to attend in person for his interview and to take the Oath of Allegiance.

The mother maintains that the father was also heavily involved in criminal activity once in the United States. Again, the mother’s account has evolved over time. When in the United States, the mother suggested to the Assistant DA in August 2020 that an associate of the father told her the father knew “MS something”. However, by the time the mother was giving an account, and whilst in her asylum interview she stated she did not know the father’s position in the organisation, she told the local authority in June 2021 that the father was the “leader” of a prolific criminal gang in the United States associated with murder, drug dealing, sexual assault and human trafficking. The mother further alleged that the father’s membership of the criminal gang had allowed him to bribe the US authorities to avoid the consequences of the two specific incidents of alleged domestic abuse I shall come to. In her statements to this court, the mother deposes that the father himself told her that he is a member of MS13, and that he has been a gang member for many years. The mother further relied on the father’s tattoos as being probative of his gang membership. In her oral evidence to this court, and by reference to one of his tattoos, the mother continued to assert that the father is a high ranking member of MS13. The mother further alleges that the father was a drug user as a result of his criminal associations.

One of the most striking allegations made by the mother regarding the father’s alleged criminal associations concern what she alleges were the father’s attempts to intimidate her both in the United States and following her arrival in this jurisdiction.

The mother alleges that, shortly after Q was born in 2014 (although in another version of the account she contends it was after she and the children had fled to Colorado in 2017) the father took the family to Key West and threatened them that if they ever stepped out of line, he would throw them to the “crocodiles”. During this occasion, the mother alleges the father took a black bag out of his boot and threw it in a canal, demonstrating what he would do to his family. She further alleges that there was something in the bag, that she could initially not tell whether it was a human or an animal, and if a human a child or an adult, and that she believed she saw something that looked like a hand after the father threw the bag into the canal and the “water became bloody” as she “saw the crocodiles coming to grab it”. There is no corroborating evidence in support of this allegation, although in her application for a restraining order in April 2017 the mother alleged that the father “has threatened the [mother’s] life by telling her that ‘he will dump her body in Key West’”.

Within the foregoing context, it is notable that the findings pleaded by the mother in respect of these matters are limited. As I have noted, the mother seeks the following findings as set out in the Schedule:

The father emphatically denies that he is a member of MS13 or any other criminal gang, whether in Bolivia, the United States or anywhere else in the world. He further denies any involvement with drug dealing or any other criminal activity. With respect to his tattoos, the father does have a number of tattoos, including an image of an Uzi submachine gun and an image on his back of woman holding a knife but contends these were done when he was approximately 15 or 16 years old as a misguided youth and do not “mean” anything, especially not that he is a member MS13 or any other criminal organisation. The court has no evidence before it, expert or otherwise, to suggest that the father’s tattoos should be given that particular meaning.

Despite the father having been arrested on two occasions in the United States as a result of allegations of violence made by the mother, there is likewise no evidence before the court from US law enforcement agencies suggesting that the father is a member of MS13 of another criminal gang. Disclosure from the FBI completed on 17 August 2023 revealed that the father had been convicted for traffic violations, including knowingly driving without a license between 2004 and 2006. There was no evidence, however, of the FBI recording any gang or drug-related convictions, notwithstanding that in her oral evidence the mother implied for the first time, by producing an article, that the FBI had “created a task force” in response to her allegations about MS13. The father asserts that he has never taken non-prescription drugs and has not drunk alcohol since he converted to Islam. He points to the fact that he is a commercial truck driver subjected to random drug tests, which he has never failed. The father denies ever throwing a body into a canal in Key West or engaging members of MS13 to intimidate the mother in the United States and in this jurisdiction.

I am satisfied that the mother has failed to prove on the balance of probabilities that the father is a member of MS13 or any other criminal gang. There is no evidence to support the mother’s allegations in this regard, and ample evidence that undermines such allegations. The highest the case could be put to the father was that his air travel to and from Miami was in itself evidence of his involvement in criminal activity. Beyond the mother’s allegation, there is no evidence to support that contention. The father does have a number of tattoos, but the court has no evidence before it to suggest that they evidence membership of MS13 or another criminal gang. As I have noted, disclosure from the FBI completed on 17 August 2023 revealed no gang associations or involvement in drug or people trafficking.

I am further satisfied having regard to the matters summarised above, that the mother has fabricated her account of the father being a member of MS13, including her implication that the FBI had “created a task force” in response to her allegations about MS13, her account of the father throwing a corpse to alligators in Key West. There is no independent evidence to corroborate the mother’s allegations of MS13 membership, of an FBI “task force” created in response to her allegations or of the father throwing a corpse to alligators, which is an inherently unlikely event. That lack of corroborative evidence falls to be considered in the context of the mother’s predilection for telling lies.