A Toronto man ordered out of Canada for being a member of the notorious crime gang MS-13 has won a reprieve — with a judge accepting that his MS-13 gang tattoos could lead people to think he is a member of MS-13.

The decision to grant René Pacheco another hearing to assess the danger of deporting him to his native El Salvador means the same tattoos that prompted his deportation order have now saved him from immediate deportation.

Pacheco’s strange case started when he was arrested in 2016 for several criminal charges and, while he was in jail awaiting trial, Canada Border Services Agency officers interviewed him.

Pacheco, 25, whose nickname is “Machete,” boasted of his ties to MS-13, an international gang also called Mara Salvatrucha that is widely condemned for liberal use of brutal violence.

He showed officers a tattoo of the number 13 on the back of his hand. He also has a teardrop tattoo on his face, a symbol often taken as a sign of serious criminality, and tattoos on his knuckles and back.

He told officers a colourful account of enduring a 13-second beating as an initiation rite and how the 10 to 20 members of his Toronto chapter, known as a clique, controlled territory in the Jane and Sheppard area of the city. His Facebook page featured MS-13 gang graffiti.