MS-13 (or Mara Salvatrucha) was formed by Salvadoran, mostly illegal immigrants in the 1980’s, during El Salvador’s civil war. While the gang was originally made up exclusively of Salvadorans, they now accept all Central Americans as well as Mexicans. MS stands for Mara (slang for mob), Salva (El Salvador), Trucha (slang for on-guard).
MS-13 began in Los Angeles and as members moved deeper into the country, more loosely structured gangs or cliques were formed. However, these cliques continued to communicate with one another, and the network was formed.
Over the years, MS-13 has become more well structured, the FBI believes that the gang’s L.A. members have a higher status amongst the group. The gang typically targets high school and even middle school students for recruitment.
Initiation into the gang usually consists of the recruit committing a brutal attack on either a rival gang member or even upon an unsuspecting civilian. On November 26, 2008, Jonathan Retana was convicted of the murder of Miguel Angel Deras, which was part of an MS-13 initiation.
MS-13 has aligned themselves with the Mexican Mafia, which has a large presence not only on U.S. streets, but is widely viewed as the most powerful prison gang. The smaller MS-13 pays the Mexican Mafia for protection, while their members are incarcerated.
According to the FBI, there are at least 70,000 MS-13 gang members operating between Central America and the United States. The FBI also reports that the gang currently operates in 42 states as well as the District of Columbia. The highest concentrations are in California, the District of Columbia, New York, and Virginia.
MS-13 set up shop in Northern Virginia during the 1990s, lured by the region’s fast-growing Salvadoran population, later expanding into the Maryland suburbs of Langley Park and Gaithersburg.
An example of how widespread the gang’s tentacles have become was seen in March 2005, when a nation-wide sting operation targeting MS-13, nabbed 103 gang members. All 103 were in this country illegally. The arrests were made in Baltimore, New York, Newark, Dallas, Los Angeles, as well as the District of Columbia.
The FBI’s National Gang Task Force Director Robert Clifford, said: “The migrant moves and the gang follows. If you follow the construction trade, that is where a lot of these immigrants go.“
MS-13 engages in a wide variety of criminal activities including drug distribution, murder, rape, prostitution, robbery, home invasions, human smuggling, kidnapping, and carjacking.
The gang is infamous for machete and grenade attacks. They have also been known to behead their enemies.
In addition to their other criminal activities, MS-13 also apparently acts as paid assassins, with the target being U.S. law enforcement.
In 2007, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reported that they had obtained a confidential Department of Homeland Security memo. The function of the document was to issue an Officer Safety alert to U.S. Border Patrol agents that human smugglers were bringing MS-13 gang members into the country for the sole purpose of murdering the agents.
The alert reads: “Unidentified Mexican alien smugglers are angry about the increased security along the U.S./Mexican border and have agreed that the best way to deal with U.S. Border Patrol agents is to hire a group of contract killers.”
A Border Patrol agent speaking on the condition of anonymity said: “It’s not just people coming over here to pick lettuce. These gang members, criminals, are endangering American lives.” He went on: “Our vests won’t stop a rifle bullet, and many of us feel like sitting ducks.”
In 2005, Michelle Malkin writing for Human Events said: “Reporting by a reliable Norfolk [VA} source indicates MS-13 members are planning to randomly attack local law enforcement officers in the Tidewater area. Threats of this nature have been termed by gang members as ‘green light’ notices. Green light notices have continued to increase, prompting the Virginia Gang Association to issue warnings to law enforcement in Virginia and the surrounding states. . . . Additional source information indicates local MS-13 members are equipped with weapons and ballistic vests.“
The Washington Times has reported that the gang has also targeted the Minuteman group in Arizona.
The following is a short list of MS-13’s more infamous crimes:
In 2004, a group of MS-13 members stopped a bus in Chamelecon, Honduras and riddles with automatic weapon fire. The attack resulted in the death of 28 passengers, mostly women and children. most of whom were women and children.
During 2004-2005, there were two machete attacks in the Northern Virginia area. An Alexandria teenager lost four fingers during a savage encounter with MS-13 members, while a Fairfax man also became a victim of an MS-13 machete attack. Both incidents are believed to have been initiation acts.
In 2005, two MS-13 members were convicted in an Alexandria, Va. United States District Court for killing a 17-year-old pregnant girl. A rope was placed around the neck of Brenda Paz, she was then stabbed repeatedly. Her body was then left along the muddy banks of Virginia’s Shenandoah River. The murder was retribution for the girl’s cooperation with a federal investigation into the gang’s activities.
In 2006, Madison, WI police and FBI agents arrested three MS-13 members who were involved in stealing tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of OTC medicines from 22 separate Walgreens drugstores in the Midwest. The medicines were being taken to a warehouse in Louisville, KY for resale. Madison Police Department spokesman Mike Hanson told reporters: “The suspects researched Walgreens throughout the Midwest and on a routine basis averaged $45,000 to $55,000 worth of stolen merchandise per day.”
In 2007, MS-13 gang member Everec Alvarez Chacon pled guilty to beating a man to death in a Suitland, MD cemetery. Two other gang members took part in the 2004 murder.
In 2008, MS-13 gang member, Edwin Ramos, murdered three members of the Bologna family, father, Tony, 48, and his two sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16, in San Francisco. Ramos was angry that the Bologna’s car was temporarily blocking his at an intersection and opened fire on them with an AK-47.
At the 2007 Gang Enforcement Conference, El Salvador President Antonio Saca expressed the concern that MS-13 is becoming a powerful and international danger.
President Saca said: “Gangs like MS-13 have evolved into coordinated and well-financed criminal organizations. The immigration that we have experienced in the region, into Mexico and the United States is a theme we have to understand. The same activity of the criminal gangs we experience here in this region is now being experienced in the United States. The territorial expansion of these criminal organizations is the principle menace we are facing from gangs like MS-13.“
Perhaps the most troubling information on the gang‘s activities, has come from Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez, who claims that Al Qaeda has sought help from MS-13 in infiltrating the U.S. While the FBI has not confirmed this claim, Alvarez maintains the information is credible.
The violence which MS-13 perpetrates and will continue to perpetrate as the gang grows, is unprecedented in this country. They do not limit their brutality to rival gang members, as we saw in the murder of the Bologna family on a San Francisco street. Whether a civilian or even a police officer, no one is safe as long as this gang exists.
Just as a cancerous tumor must be removed from its host, MS-13 must be eradicated from this nation. However, as long as our border remains largely undefended and cities such as San Francisco continue their Sanctuary Policies toward criminal illegal aliens, this cancer will continue to grow.
Dave Gibson
Sources: FBI (National Threat Assessment) and National Alliance of Gang Investigators Associations
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