A man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration has been returned to the US to face criminal charges.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was charged in an indictment filed in federal court in Tennessee with conspiring to transport illegal immigrants into the US, attorney general Pam Bondi said on Friday.

Court records have shown the indictment was filed on 21 May, more than two months after he was deported from the US under a controversial 18th-century wartime law.

In a statement, Abrego Garcia’s lawyer Andrew Rossman said it would now be up to the US judicial system to ensure he received due process.

“Today’s action proves what we’ve known all along – that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so,” he said.

Salvadoran Abrego Garcia, 29, was deported from Maryland despite an immigration judge’s 2019 order granting him protection after finding he was likely to be persecuted by local gangs if he was returned to his native country.

The indictment alleges Abrego Garcia worked with at least five co-conspirators to bring immigrants to the US illegally and transport them from the border to other destinations in the country.

On Friday, Ms Bondi outlined the charges at a news conference, saying: “The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring.

“He made over 100 trips, the grand jury found – smuggling people throughout our country… MS-13 [international criminal gang] members, violent gang terrorist organisation members… throughout our country.

“He will be prosecuted in our country, sentenced in our country if convicted and then returned after completion of his sentence.”

Ms Bondi said Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele agreed to return Abrego Garcia to the US after American officials presented his government with an arrest warrant.

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Democrat senator Chris Van Hollen travelled to El Salvador in April to meet Abrego Garcia, arguing his constitutional rights to due process were being ignored.

Critics of Donald Trump have pointed to the deportation of Abrego Garcia as an example of the excesses of the Republican president’s aggressive immigration policies.

US District Judge Paula Xinis has opened a probe into what, if anything, Mr Trump’s administration has done to secure his return, after his lawyers accused officials of stonewalling their requests for information.

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Officials responded by alleging that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang – something his lawyers have strongly denied.

In a separate statement, Pam Bondi also attacked what she called the “Fake News Media” and repeated the – yet unproven – allegations against Abrego Garcia.

“The Justice Department’s Grand Jury Indictment against Abrego Garcia proves the unhinged Democrat Party was wrong, and their stenographers in the Fake News Media were once again played like fools.

“Abrego Garcia was never an innocent ‘Maryland Man’- Abrego Garcia is an illegal alien terrorist, gang member, and human trafficker who has spent his entire life abusing innocent people, especially women and the most vulnerable.”

Senior White House officials will meet with a Chinese delegation in London on Monday for the next round of trade talks, US President Donald Trump has said.

The meeting comes after a phone call between Mr Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday, which the US president said was “very positive” – lasting about an hour and a half.

Speaking to reporters on Friday from Air Force One, the president added that it was a “good talk”, describing the deal as “complicated”, but one that “will bring us a lot of money”.

He also said: “I get along well with Xi and China.”

Writing on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said the upcoming London meeting “should go very well” and added that treasury secretary Scott Bessent, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and trade representative Jamieson Greer would represent the US at the talks.

It is unclear who will represent China.

The two countries are at an impasse over tariffs and a dispute involving critical rare earth mineral exports, in which China remains the dominant producer.

On 12 May, China and the US struck a 90-day deal in Geneva to pause retaliatory tariffs placed on each other since Mr Trump was inaugurated in January.

The US president said the move was part of a “total reset” in relations.

The agreement prompted a global surge in stock markets and US indexes that were in, or approaching, bear market levels.

The temporary deal saw the US reduce its 145% tariff to 30% on Chinese goods.

China also agreed to reduce its 125% retaliatory tariffs to 10% on US goods.

However, sector-specific tariffs, such as the 25% tax on cars, aluminium and steel, are still in place.

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The Chinese foreign ministry said the US president initiated the call, and they had asked him to “remove the negative measures” in place against China.

It also said that Mr Trump said “the US loves to have Chinese students coming to study in America”.

This is despite his administration previously saying it will “aggressively” revoke the visas of Chinese students studying in the US.

Since Mr Trump’s re-election, the president has frequently issued threats of punitive trade measures against US partners, only to backtrack at the last minute.

More than 40 people have been arrested after a major drugs raid busted a “narco-boats” gang accused of trafficking cocaine into the EU.

The investigation, dubbed Operation Black Shadow, saw police forces from around the world work together to seize nearly 3,800 kilos of cocaine, 69 vehicles and €100,000 (£84,232) in cash.

A British national was among the 48 arrested during last Tuesday’s raids, the National Crime Agency confirmed to Sky News.

The gang used “mother ships” to transport cocaine from South America to the Canary Islands, with 11 speedboats used to ferry the drugs to shore.

They even turned an abandoned shipwreck into a refuelling platform for the speedboats and boats, according to Spain’s Policia Nacional.

The criminal network used a “complex encrypted communications system” to evade police, including the use of satellite terminals, hard-to-trace phones and a coded language.

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Twenty-nine houses were searched in Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote.

“The criminal network specialised in smuggling large quantities of cocaine from South America into Spanish territory using high-speed boats, said an NCA spokesperson to Sky News.

“Alongside our international partners, we are relentless in our efforts to tackle drug trafficking across borders, ensuring it’s seized before it reaches the UK criminal supply chain.”