MS 13 In The Americas

 MS13 in the Americas: How the World’s Most Notorious Gang Defies Logic, Resists Destruction

Insight Crime

The Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) is one of the world’s largest and arguably most violent street gangs. After relatively humble beginnings in Los Angeles in the 1980s, it has spread to more than a half-dozen countries and become a central focus of law enforcement in two hemispheres. In spite of these efforts, the MS13 remains a persistent threat and shows signs of expanding its criminal portfolio. This report attempts to explain what makes the MS13 such a difficult problem for authorities to tackle. It focuses on assisting law enforcement’s understanding of the gang’s criminal activities, but it includes deep discussion on the social and political issues around the MS13. Below are our major findings.. . 

MS 13 In The Americas 

MS 13 Resurgence

  Jessica M. Vaughan is the director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies. Research assistance was provided by Preston Huennekens, a research assistant at the Center for Immigration Studies, and Joseph Kolb, executive director of the Southwest Gang Information Center. The map was created by Bryan Griffith, the Center’s multimedia director, and Preston Huennekens.

The Trump administration has declared war on MS-13, the notoriously brutal gang based in El Salvador. A similar initiative launched by the Bush administration in 2005 stifled the gang's activity after several years, but the gang has been able to rebuild itself here since 2012.

Center researchers reviewed more than 500 cases of MS-13 gang members arrested nationwide since 2012. We conclude that this resurgence represents a very serious threat to public safety in communities where MS-13 has rebuilt itself. The resurgence is directly connected to the illegal arrival and resettlement of more than 300,000 Central American youths and families that has continued unabated for six years, and to a de-prioritization of immigration enforcement in the interior of the country that occurred at the same time.

All criminal gangs are a threat to public safety, but MS-13 is a unique problem because of the unusually brutal crimes its members have committed, its success in using intimidation to victimize and control people in its territory, and its focus on recruiting young members, often in schools.

Nevertheless, because such a large share of MS-13 members are not citizens, they are especially vulnerable to law enforcement, and many can be removed from the communities they terrorize. Strategic use of immigration enforcement is a necessary element to disrupting and dismantling MS-13 gangs and any other transnational criminal organization operating in our communities.

The proliferation of sanctuary policies that interfere with cooperation between state and local law enforcement agencies threatens to hamper efforts to stifle MS-13 activity. The federal government must take steps to clarify how federal law permits such cooperation and also must set up consequences for those jurisdictions and officials who impose sanctuary policies. . . 

Read:  MS 13 Resurgence

Round Table On Immigration and MS 13

Round Table on MS 13 and Immigration

President's Panel Deals With MS 13 Animals

As a panel met for the second time to address the extreme violence perpetrated by illegal aliens allowed to lurk on the streets of America, the left continues to double down.

Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne recently wrote, “It’s never right to call other human beings ‘animals.’ It’s not something we should even have to debate. No matter how debased the behavior of a given individual or group, no matter how much legitimate anger that genuinely evil actions might inspire, dehumanizing others always leads us down a dangerous path.”

Wouldn’t not calling them out for what they are lead us down an even more dangerous path?

Source: https://www.infowars.com/presidents-ms-13-panel-deals-with-violent-animals/

Why the MS-13 Gang Is So Violent

The gang’s motto is ‘kill, rape, control’

By Charlotte Cuthbertson, Epoch Times

November 28, 2017 11:33 am Last Updated: December 2, 2017 10:02 am

WASHINGTON—The vicious nature of MS-13 gang killings came to the fore again last week with the release of court documents detailing a grisly murder in Maryland.

Ten MS-13 members stabbed a victim more than 100 times, decapitated and dismembered him, and ripped his heart out before throwing him into a grave in Wheaton Regional Park, documents say.

Gang members had lured the victim to the park to kill him, an informant told police. The informant said he was part of the killing and led detectives to the gravesite on Sept. 5. The informant “further described the circumstances of the murder and detailed the choking, stabbing, decapitating, and dismembering the victim’s body before dumping it in the pre-dug hole,” according to the court document.

This incident only adds to MS-13’s “long litany of homicides and heinous crimes,” said Robert J. Bunker, an adjunct research professor at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College. . . 

Finish reading at https://www.theepochtimes.com/why-the-ms-13-gang-is-so-violent_2366650.html

Mara Salvatrucha and Its Violent World

This is an Independent study by Albert De Amicis, MPPM, MPIA (University of Pittsburg, 2010) in which he documents the danger of MS 13 and calls upon the Arizona government to support and enforce our laws.

The PDF form is located under Links to the right of the website's front page.

Thank you

MS 13 Behead Man in Public Park

NOTE: What I find most interesting about this article is the description of how MS 13 members communicated.

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Members of an El Salvadorian street gang stabbed a man 100 times, beheaded him and cut out his heart in a park near Washington DC, police say.

Up to 10 members of MS-13 communicated on walkie talkies as they closed in on their victim at a recreational area in Wheaton, Maryland, say officials. . . 

Read more at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42089052

MS 13 No-Go Zone at High School

Imported MS-13 gang members have taken over part of a school on New York’s Long Island, GOP Rep. Peter King told Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly on Wednesday.

“We have a school in my district where one whole hallway is dedicated to MS-13,” King told Kelly. “It’s a no-go area unless you’re MS-13 … and most of those kids came in [to the United States legally] as unaccompanied minors,” he said at a hearing. 

MS-13 members committed “17 murders in my district in the last year alone,” he said. 

Kelly responded to King by noting that new border protections have slashed the northern flow of “unaccompanied alien children” by more than 70 percent. But he emphasized that MS-13 members game immigration rules to send their members into the United States. . . 

Read rest at http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/06/08/rep-peter-king-ms-13-gang-no-go-zone-new-york-high-school/

I Was an MS 13 Gangmember

“Speedy,” now 28, was born in Central Islip, and joined MS-13 when he was 16. He refused to be identified by his real name or even his old underworld moniker. Even though it’s been nearly seven years since he left the group, he still fears reprisals. He tells his story for the first time, to The Post’s Isabel Vincent.

It happened in a park at night. Three gang members kicked and punched me all over my body — my arms, my back, my stomach, my hands, even my groin. Nothing was off-limits to them. They beat me for exactly 13 seconds, while one of the gang members kept time in the background, counting slowly.

I was 16 and had just been initiated into the most powerful gang, MS-13. I gritted my teeth so I didn’t scream out in pain while they beat me. Moments later, I was in so much pain I could barely stand up. But eventually I grew to enjoy beating others.

Hurting others made me feel invincible, like nothing is against you. If you have sadness inside you, it makes you happy.

The gang knows your weak spot. They understand you. They hear you. When they find your weakness, they go all the way in. . . 

Read the rest at http://nypost.com/2017/06/10/i-was-an-ms-13-gang-member-and-got-out-alive/

MS 13 Kills Four In NY

The shocking massacre of four Hispanic young men in Long Island has been tied to the notorious illegal alien street gang, MS 13, authorities say. The four brutally murdered young men were found lying on the street in Central Islip, New York.

The bodies were found Wednesday near a soccer field inside Central Islip’s Recreation Village Town Park. The victims were murdered by members of the MS-13 gang, according to ABC 7.

The bodies were so mutilated that one could only be identified by a tattoo. The victims were all young men, one was 20 years of age, two were 18, and the youngest victim was just 16. A fifth young man reportedly escaped.

MS 13 A Terrorist Organization?

Attorney General Jeff Sessions continued his campaign against the vicious MS-13 gang on Fox News’sTucker Tuesday evening, telling host Tucker Carlson that the group may qualify as a terrorist organization.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/04/19/jeff-sessions-ms-13-designated-terrorist-organization/

Gang Pastor Financier For MS 13

Walking out of prison three years ago, Marvin Ramos Quintanilla seemed to turn over a new leaf after a life of crime and gangland violence.

He got a city government job working in community development, and also ran a business selling used cars imported from the U.S. He joined an evangelical church, where his family was regularly seen worshipping, and even got ordained as a pastor.

Then on July 28, Ramos was arrested along with several alleged leaders of the feared Mara Salvatrucha gang, which has been designated an international criminal organization by the U.S. government. Salvadoran authorities also seized thousands of dollars in cash long with properties, businesses and bank accounts. . . 

Source: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2016/08/26/el-salvador-arrests-gang-pastor-for-allegedly-wokring-as-financier-for-ms-13/

Three of the top 10 countries with the highest crime rate are in South America. The situation is generally due to the transfer of Cartels and MS 13 as one country cracks down on crime.

Top 10 Countries with the Highest Crime Rate

Murder, burglary, theft. Every country on the planet has had to wrestle with how best to deal with the darker side of humanity. Whether through mass incarceration, rehabilitation or exceedingly harsh punishments, many countries have tried to develop strategies to help curb such acts from occurring. Here, we list the ten countries that need to work on said strategies a bit more. Each country listed has had their rank determined by the following factors:
1.United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime statistical reports
2.National Crime Index Reports
3.Reports on National Corruption
4.Reports of non-government paramilitary actions
This will allow for a comprehensive look at crime not just at the individual, but at the societal level, and allow for us to predict crime outlooks for the near future.

Source: http://gazettereview.com/2016/06/countries-highest-crime-rates/

Graffiti spraypainted on Brampton church, school

Police

Brampton Guardian

By Pam Douglas 

Gang-like graffiti was sprayed on a church and a school in north Brampton overnight Thursday, according to Peel Regional Police.

Heart Lake United Church had symbols and words spraypainted on the exterior of the building, including “you can’t hid from us” and “MS-13”, which is the name of a notoriously violent Latin American gang that has spread throughout the United States.

Source: http://www.bramptonguardian.com/news-story/6729222-graffiti-spraypainted-on-brampton-church-school/

The Ruthless Hispanic Street Gang

MS13 Welcomed By Obama

Los Zetas and MS 13 Alliance

Recognizing the partnership between the transnational drug trafficking organization Los Zetas and the drug gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) is critically important to the security of the Americas. This relationship, however, is generally misunderstood. On one side, the partnership is portrayed as a literal merger of MS-13 and Zetas—an obvious

exaggeration of the situation. On the other, the situation is painted as insignificant, and the weight of the links denied. This article suggests that both sides misunderstand the decentralized nature of how both groups operate. It finds that the relationship between the Zetas and MS-13 is an alliance, and one that increases the Zetas’ ability to leverage new skills and markets, exploit gaps and vacuums, and extend their reach.  It will first profile the Zetas, then examine the nature of their cooperation with MS-13.

Source: CTC Sentinel

History of Mara Salvatrucha 13

In the1980s

Teens in East Los Angeles were adopting hip hop culture. The underground urban movement was based on small groups of teens who formed crews to rap, spray paint graffiti and break dance together. They gave each other short nicknames. Baggy jeans, oversized jerseys and baseball caps were part of

the style.

In the 1980s, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras were countries in turmoil due to a conflict between leftist guerrillas leaning toward communism and the U.S-backed political right. Salvadoran families left everything behind to flee from the terror of the civil war’s atrocities – rapes, tortures, the use of machetes to decapitate bodies and massacres with high-power weaponry. . .

Truce Leads To Stronger Gangs

ILOPANGO, El Salvador (AP) — Marvin Gonzalez waves to shopkeepers as he enjoys a morning walk through the sunny, working-class resort of Ilopango. His cellphone rings nonstop with residents seeking his support for anything from dealing with a drunk who won't pay his bar bill to reporting an attempted rape.

Gonzalez is not a police chief, nor a politician. The 31-year-old plug of a man is the local leader of the Mara Salvatrucha, a gang formed by Central American immigrants in California and now designated by the U.S. as a transnational criminal organization.

But in Ilopango and communities across El Salvador, the Mara Salvatrucha and their arch rivals, the 18th Street Gang, are de facto rulers. A truce declared two years ago briefly tapered their bloody gang war, but the cease-fire had an unintended consequence: It gave the gangs breathing room to grow even stronger. Now, violence is on the rise again.

The murder rate has climbed since the truce unraveled in late 2013. Last month, the average was up to 10 a day compared to six during the truce.

This wasn't what was expected when gang leaders reached a truce in March 2012. Observers hailed the agreement as the start of a new era of peace for El Salvador, a model to be followed by other countries, and one that had taken cues from the peace process that, two decades earlier, ended El Salvador's 12-year civil war.

"They stopped the civil war with dialogue, so why shouldn't we talk?" said Gonzalez, speaking with a quiet sophistication. "Nobody is going to cease to belong to the gang. But this way, we can begin to rebuild the social fabric."

Former adversaries in El Salvador's civil war joined together to help broker the peace between the gangs. In 2011, then-Security Minister Gen. David Munguia asked Raul Mijango, a former guerrilla fighter who'd served in congress, to go into prisons to talk to gang leaders and negotiate an end to the bloodshed. Violence had reached a peak that year of nearly 70 killings per 100,000 people, one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

After the truce was reached, an order went out to stop the killings, and by mid-March 2012, the government proclaimed that the homicide rate dropped from 14 a day to six. . .

The Case of MS 13

"MS-13 is considered by law enforcement to be the fastest-growing and most violent street gang in the

United States. Wherever MS-13 goes, violence follows. Gang members have carried out beheadings and grenade attacks in Central America and have hacked people with machetes in cities along the East Coast in the United States. 

According to the FBI, MS-13's motto is, "Mata, Viola, Controla," or "Kill, Rape, Control."

By some accounts, MS-13 has "mushroomed into the size of a small army." The FBI estimates in 2005 that there were approximately 10,00 "hardcore" members of MS-13 in the United States. Estimates of the number of gang members in Central America and Mexico range from 50,000 up to 300,000 members. . . "

Read more at Center For Immigration Studies