Here's some samples. Not too difficult to spot in a crowd.
Posted on 07/03/2005 10:50:21 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Last week the observation skills of two Bee County sheriff’s deputies led to the apprehension of a member of Mara Salvatrucha, one of the most feared gangs in this hemisphere. This particular incident underscores the dramatic escalation of illegal immigrants captured in Bee County in recent weeks.
On the evening of June 24, shortly after 8 o’clock, Deputies Robert Meakins and Jason Hinds were working an accident on U.S. Highway 59 just east of Medio Creek when a white pickup truck approached, slowed down and drove into the lane of oncoming traffic. Meakins looked into the bed of the truck and noticed several men lying down. He then ran to his patrol unit and after what was described as a “slow speed” chase, the truck came to a stop in a bar ditch.
Of the men who were detained, 12 were Mexican, two were Hondurans, one Guatemalan and one Salvadoran. Hinds saw the tattoos on the Salvadoran, 26-year-old Giovanni Bermudez-Arevalo, and identified him as a member of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. The illegal immigrants were all transported to the Bee County Jail where they were later transferred to the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol.
Bee County Sheriff Carlos Carrizales said a reporter from the newspaper La Prensa Grafica in El Salvador had called him earlier Thursday regarding Bermudez-Arevalo. The sheriff asked her for a literal translation of Mara Salvatrucha. Her interpretation of “Mara” was angry ants. She added “Salva” comes from El Salvador and “trucha” is truthful, alert or smart. Also, the tattoos identifying members of the gang can be lethal. Persons with these tattoos are often executed in El Salvador by a vigilante group of police and former military personnel known as Sombra Negra.
Carrizales said, “It is my understanding Bermudez-Arevalo was a resident of New Jersey before he was deported for a narcotics conviction. He joined Mara Salvatrucha after he returned to El Salvador.” Bermudez-Arevalo now faces federal charges for illegally re-entering the U.S. after being deported. He could face 20 years in prison if convicted. Given his current circumstances, this might be preferable to returning to El Salvador and facing Sombra Negra.
The MS-13 gang originated in the Los Angeles area in the 1980s and then exported the organization to El Salvador. In recent years the gang has established major smuggling operations in several areas along the U.S.-Mexico border and has transported hundreds of Central and South Americans, including gang members, into the United States in the past two years. The gang is involved in drug and weapons smuggling and has been tied to numerous killings, robberies, burglaries, carjackings, extortion, rapes and aggravated assaults. The gang also has a reputation from the other street gangs as being particularly ruthless.
With an estimated 20,000 members nationwide, MS-13 gained such notoriety that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, has begun a nationwide crackdown on gang members in this country known as Operation Community Shield. Agents arrested more than 100 members of the gang during limited raids that began in January in just six cities.
According to U.S. Border Patrol Supervisor Roy Cervantes of the Rio Grande Valley Sector (which includes Bee County), most of the illegal immigrants detained are from Mexico, Brazil, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Carrizales added that the Border Patrol told him illegal immigrants captured this year come from 62 different countries.
The sheriff said illegal immigrants apprehended in Bee County were less than 20 per month until this past month when 123 were detained. “We were really working it in June,” said Carrizales.
Cervantes said Bee County is at the northern end of the Rio Grande Valley Sector which includes 19 counties, 320 river miles, 250 coastal miles and 18,584 square miles overall. He added the Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol office has apprehended 96,943 illegal immigrants from Oct. 1, 2004, to June 29. Cervantes said, “Of those we have apprehended, approximately 30 members of MS-13 have been identified, interviewed, prosecuted and deported.”
Numbers from the five previous years are 96,641 illegal immigrants detained in 2004; 81,185 in 2003; 93,088 in 2002; 110,764 in 2001; and 136,878 in 2000.
These numbers are problematic in that they may well show the same people being counted over and over again. When illegals are apprehended, they are offered the option of being deported or appearing for a deportation hearing. Most Mexicans prefer to be sent back to Mexico. Illegals from other countries must be held until their hearing, or must be released if there is no space to hold them. After an extensive criminal records check, most are released on their own recognizance and a promise to appear for their hearing.
According to the ICE Public Affairs Officer Luisa Deason in Houston, those that do not appear for their hearings are “deported in absencia.” She added, “We have to prioritize. Do you hold a person with a criminal background that is a flight risk or do you hold a person that is just in this country as an illegal immigrant?” She said there are no detention centers in Houston for ICE and illegals who are to be held are placed in county jails or other detention facilities.
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HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
Whoa. That's some scary stuff.
Mara Salvatrucha Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
1 down, only around 19,999 to go.
The 20,000 MS-13 gang members nationwide is an estimate only, the actual number of members may vary depending upon how well your government guesses, and how many came in last night!
I know. They're a moving and growing target. If we could pick up these 20,000 today, there would be more to pick up tomorrow. And that doesn't include the numbers in the "other" gangs.
We have ourselves a king-sized problem going here, and better figure out how to address it on a scale which matters!
Too bad our FBI quakes in fear of these gangs and prefer to investigate sexual harrassment cases. How hath the mighty fallen?
Great question. I would be interested, too.
Here's some samples. Not too difficult to spot in a crowd.
Somebody tell me why allowing the dregs of the Third World easy access to the US is such a great idea. I can't bring myself to call them, 'trusted travelers', the newest euphemism for illegals. God help us.
Hmmm....
Wow, babe magnets!
Maybe we need to look into establishing some chapters of Sombra Negra in the US.
...Not too difficult to spot in a crowd...
You nailed it, thanks for the pic's.
Thanks. Apparently they are going for anonymity.
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