Pictured: Illegal immigrant and MS-13 gang member cleared of killing Chandra Levy being deported a year after murder charges were dropped

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An illegal immigrant and MS-13 gang member who was convicted of murdering DC intern Chandra Levy before all the charges were dropped last year, has been deported.

Ingmar Guandique was sent home to his native El Salvador on Friday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials confirmed.

'Mr. Guandique unlawfully entered the United States, and once here, continued to violate U.S. laws by assaulting innocent victims,' Matthew Munroe of the ICE Washington field office told NBC. 'As a result of his actions, he has been removed to his home country of El Salvador.'

ICE say the 35-year-old is a documented member of the MS-13 gang.

Ingmar Guandique is pictured being escorted by ICE agents on Friday, May 5 in Alexandria, Louisiana

Ingmar Guandique, an MS-13 gang member, is pictured being escorted onto a plane

Ingmar Guandique (left) was sent home to his native El Salvador on Friday after his murder charges over the 2001 death of Chandra Levy (right) were dropped last year

The disappearance of Levy, a 24-year-old California native, in 2001, created a national sensation after she was romantically linked with then-Congressman Gary Condit. 

Her remains were found a year later in Washington's Rock Creek Park. 

Guandique was convicted in 2010 in Levy's death after prosecutors argued her death fitted a pattern of attacks Guandique committed on female joggers. 

At the time, he was serving 10 years in prison for attacking two other women in the park. 

He was found guilty of Levy's murder but was granted a new trial in 2015 after his attorneys argued a key witness gave false or misleading testimony.

That witness was Condit, a former California Congressman who knew the 24-year-old Bureau of Prisons intern but refused to answer questions about the nature of their relationship while under oath during her murder trial, despite the fact that the married father of two had admitted to authorities that he had an affair with the intern. 

Levy's (left) 2001 disappearance created a national sensation after the Modesto, California, native was romantically linked with then-Congressman Gary Condit (center)

Condit (left in 2001) was ruled out as a suspect in the case and  Guandique (in his undated mugshot, right) was charged with Levy's murder although those charges were eventually dropped

In a motion filed last year, Guandique's legal team wrote that Condit had a 'powerful' and 'obvious' motivation for killing Chandra - his affair with the much younger college student.  Guandique's lawyers also argued that the location her bones were found in Rock Creek Park were less than three miles away from Condit's apartment.

However, Condit was later ruled out as a suspect. 

Guandique's conviction was based primarily on the testimony of Guandique's former cellmate Armando Morales, who said Guandique told him he was responsible for Levy's death. 

But during his 2015 retrial, Guandique's defense lawyers argued Morales' testimony was unreliable and that there was no physical evidence linking Guandique to the the murder. 

Attorney Laura E. Hankins said last year that the informant 'was a perjurer who too easily manipulated the prosecutors.'

Chandra was last heard from on May 1, 2001 when she emailed her parents Susan and Robert to inform them about her travel plans as she prepared to head home to California for her graduation.

She had ended her apartment lease and cancelled her gym membership in the area around this time as well according to authorities.

Guandique (left) has now been deported back to El Salvador, after charges for Levy's (right) murder were dropped

Chandra (second right) was last heard from on May 1, 2001 when she emailed her parents Susan and Robert to inform them about her travel plans as she prepared to head home to California for her graduation

Her parents attempted to contact her for three days before reaching out to police on May 5 and filing a missing persons report.

The next day, on May 6, they called Condit, who was their congressman in California, for help locating their daughter.

Condit and Chandra had a friendship according to the congressman, though it was later reported that the two were far closer and that the married politician had been intimate with Chandra while the University of Southern California student was interning in the nation's capitol.

In the months after Chandra's disappearance more and more details were revealed about her relationship with Condit, which led him to hire a criminal defense team while still denying he had anything to do with her disappearance.

A search of the park where the young woman often jogged meanwhile turned up no evidence suggesting that Chandra had been in the area when she went missing.

Authorities announced that July there was a good chance that Chandra's body might never be found, and though Condit was cleared as a suspect his political career never recovered and he was defeated in the California primary the following March.

Two months after that, in May 2002, a man found human bones and a skull in Washington's Rock Creek Park, where police had previously searched for Chandra's body.

The park's administrative office was also one of the last searches on Condit's computer the day that Chandra went missing.

Her death was determined to be a homicide soon after, and a month after her skull and bones were found private investigators hired by her parents also found her shin bones less than 100 feet from where her remains had initially been discovered that May.

It was months before the discovery of Chandra's body however that Guandique was introduced as a suspect, when a prison informant said he had spoke about murdering Chandra.

Guandique had also been accused of assaulting two other female joggers in the park.

He was behind bars at the time on drug charges but was never formally charged in the death of Chandra and her case went cold until 2006 when it was reopened by the city's new police chief.

After a three-year investigation, Guandique was charged with Chandra's murder in 2009 and later indicted on six counts including kidnapping, first-degree murder committed during a kidnapping, attempted first-degree sexual abuse, first-degree murder committed during a sexual offense, attempted robbery, and first-degree murder committed during a robbery.

He was convicted in November 2010 and sentenced to 60 years in prison before the retrial where the charges were dropped.

WHO ARE THE MS-13?

A member of MS-13 shows his tattoos after being arrested by police in San Salvador in 2003

The ultra-violent street gang MS-13 was started nearly 20 years ago in Los Angeles after millions of immigrants from El Salvador came to the US after a violent civil war left more than 100,000 dead.

It was the first to be designated as an international criminal group.

With as many as 20,000 members in 46 states, the gang has expanded far beyond its initial roots. Members are accused of major crimes including murder, kidnapping, prostitution, drug smuggling and human trafficking.

Major roundups of MS-13 members have taken place across the country since the early 2000s.

In Charlotte, North Carolina, 53 gang members were arrested as part of Operation FED Up, which targeted MS-13 members.

In 2016, 58 members of MS-13 were rounded up as part of Operation Mean Streets.

Two of their most notable killings include stabbing to death a federal witness in 2004 and chopping off the hands of a 16-year-old boy in 2005.