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Last October the Treasury Department designated MS-13 as a transnational criminal organization under Executive Order 13518 which freezes their U.S. assets and bans Americans from conducting business with them, and in a follow-up move has added six of the gang's purported leaders to the economic blacklist as reported by Jerry Seper for The Washington Times. MS-13 originated in Los Angeles, CA but now operates in at least five countries with more than 30,000 members. In the United States MS has so-called cliques in 40 states and about 8,000 members. Its money making rackets principally include drug trafficking and the flesh...

Violent El Salvador 'drug-dealing gang member' discovered running a children's party and pony rental business in Florida A suspected member of a violent street gang who has been arrested in Florida has been running a children's party business, authorities said. Dilbert Coreas, from El Salvador, was arrested in Florida after he allegedly re-entered the U.S. following his deportation in 2012. He had been charged with cocaine possession in 2009. Police from Palm Beach County's gang unit were tracking Coreas after seeing pictures of him on social media sites which suggested that he was linked to a transnational criminal organization known...

The LAPD has busted twenty suspected MS-13 members for their alleged roles in shaking down protection money from food trucks on construction sites for the last five years as reported by Andrew Blanstein for the Los Angeles Times. MS-13 originated in Los Angeles, CA but operates in more than 40 states with at least 8,000 members across the country, and last October the Treasury Department designated it as a transnational criminal organization which freezes their U.S. assets and bans Americans from conducting business with them according to an agency press release. The crime group is among those behind the child...

At least 20 reputed members of one of Los Angeles' most notorious gangs have been indicted in connection with a violent extortion racket that targeted food-truck operators in the Hollywood area over at least five years, according to state grand jury records unsealed Monday in a downtown courtroom. The 20 defendants — including four women — named in indictments returned Jan. 28 are allegedly tied to Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. The individuals, charged with extortion and conspiracy to commit extortion, are all being held on bail ranging from $2 million to just more than $3 million. At least five other...

Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation "Fast and Furious" to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales. PICTURES: ATF "Gunwalking" scandal timeline In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the "big fish." But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called "gunwalking," and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder...

Federal authorities Thursday designated the notorious Mara Salvatrucha MS-13 as a “transnational criminal organization,” giving federal authorities more tools to fight the street gang that has its roots in Los Angeles. Under the designation, federal officials said they can now seize assets of gang members found within the United States jurisdiction. The designation is the first for a U.S. street gang. Among the organizations similarly designated are Japan’s Yakuza and Mexico’s Zetas, whose leader, Heriberto Lazcano, was killed by Mexican Marines on Sunday. An armed gang later stole his body from a funeral parlor. ... MS-13 began among El Salvadoran...

Today marks the four year anniversary of when ATF Special Agent Jay Dobyns’ house was burned to the ground. The blaze was set to his home while his wife and children were sleeping inside at 3 a.m. As a refresher, Dobyns is a 25-year ATF veteran and worked undercover in the Hells Angels gang for two years in what was known as “Operation Black Biscuit.” When he got out after putting dozens of the Angels in prison, members of the gang in coordination with hard criminals in prisons around the country, issued death threats against him and his family. These...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- MS-13 gang leader to serve 50 years for sex trafficking teens in Northern Virginia A gang member was sentenced Friday to serve 50 years in prison for forcing girls as young as 14 to work as prostitutes in Northern Virginia. A jury at U.S. District Court in Alexandria in February found 24-year-old Rances Ulices Amaya, also known as “Murder” or “Blue,” guilty of conspiring to commit sex trafficking of a child and three counts of sex trafficking. According to an affidavit on file in federal court, Amaya, of Springfield, a leader of the criminal street gang Mara...

In some areas, half of the violent crimes are linked to gangs, according to the attorney general's office. RADFORD -- Gangs are a growing issue in Virginia that can only be tackled with awareness and information. That was the sentiment imparted Wednesday during an all-day gang training session held at Radford University. The training, first in a series of anti-gang sessions sponsored by the office of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, were open to law enforcement and the public. Some 50 law enforcement employees sat in McGuffey Hall to learn how gangs operate and about their presence in various parts of...

A member of the gang MS-13 from Springfield was found guilty of sex trafficking underage girls Thursday. A federal jury found Rances Ulices Amaya, 23, guilty of three counts of sex trafficking and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a child. Because of minimum sentencing guidelines, Amaya should receive at least 10 years in prison for each count. He could receive as much as life in prison when he is sentenced on June 1.

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco's biggest gang trial in many years ended today when a jury convicted six men of racketeering and conspiracy as members of MS-13, a crime organization that waged war against rivals and defectors in San Francisco's Mission District and was found responsible for at least three 2008 murders. A seventh defendant, Walter Cruz-Zavala, was acquitted. The six men face up to life in prison when sentenced Nov. 30. Jurors deliberated for a week after a federal court trial that lasted more than four months. Prosecutors portrayed the young men as leaders or soldiers of a heavily...

Seven members and associates of the Mara Salvatrucha street gang are charged with three murders as part of a squad that allegedly killed, robbed and dealt drugs on the streets of Houston, officials said Thursday. The defendants are tied to the gang, which is known as MS-13 and has roots in Central America, federal authorities said as they announced the unsealing of a federal indictment. "Gang activities reach out from far beyond the neighborhoods in which they are ongoing and into the communities in which we live," said Jose Angel Moreno, the top federal prosecutor for a region that stretches...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A Salvadoran national and MS-13 gang leader was convicted today of prostituting a 12-year-old female with clients throughout northern Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Jose Ciro Juarez-Santamaria, 24, indicted on May 12, 2011, was convicted today of conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation of a minor for prostitution. He faces a mandatory minimum term of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison when he is sentenced on Oct. 28, 2011. "Forcing girls into prostitution for the purpose of turning...

In Billy Hoover's office today: U.S. Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens. My favorite Hugo Llorens quote: "One can't violate the Constitution in order to create another Constitution, because if one doesn't respect the Constitution, then we all live under the law of the jungle." Hugo Llorens, June 2009, in reference to President Manuel Zelaya's planned referendum on a proposed constitutional assembly. I guess we'll see if what Llorens thinks is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. Maybe he's there to give Billy Hoover a lesson on our Constitution. He could sure as hell use it.

Sitting on a bus in Honduras in 2002, Denis Alvarez Alvarado says he overheard two men in front of him discussing how he was going to die. Unaware that he was there, the men said that members of a gang called MS3 — who had kidnapped Alvarez a few days earlier, beaten him and eventually released him — intended to silence him so that he would not tell police about the abduction.I left Honduras because I was afraid that MS3 members would kill me," Alvarez, now 32, says in court documents drawn up in his legal fight against the U.S....

Julio Chavez is charged with emptying his revolver into Maurice Parker on May 18, 2007, in Flushing. Chavez then hopped into a SUV, flashed gang signs and yelled in Spanish, former MS-13 gang member Jose Molina said in Brooklyn Federal Court. " 'Yeah, homie, that's how you're supposed to do it,'" Chavez said, according to Molina. "'You see the blood coming out of his head?'" Molina said Chavez then uttered, "The beast has eaten!" Assistant U.S. Attorney Ali Kazemi asked the witness to translate the meaning of Chavez's rant. "That he had just given a soul to the devil," Molina...

Last week, Alexander Rivas, 18, was arrested by Alexandria police, following an investigation that began in November, when the father of a 14-year-old runaway told police his daughter was living with Rivas. Court documents state that the girl was found in the gang member’s apartment and she was being used as a prostitute. According to prosecutors, Rivas ran a prostitution ring, operating in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, using underage runaways. The affidavit states that the business catered to “construction workers and illegal immigrants.” On a typical Friday or Saturday night, the operation would see about 100 customers...

Two members of a notorious Central American gang face life in federal prison in a murder-for-hire scheme cooked up over bad blood in Honduras that ended in gunfire in West Columbia, a prosecutor said Friday. Josue Benitez, 22, and Martin Teran, 36, were convicted Thursday after a three-week trial of a hit on Jorge Ramos, U.S. prosecutor Jay Richardson said. Ramos was gunned down while he worked on his car Nov. 2, 2008, in Hendrix Mobile Home Park on Leaphart Road. The MS-13 gang members drove from Houston to South Carolina to carry out the contract killing, Richardson said. Jurors...

A man wanted for rape in Fairfax County, who had been released from custody in Loudoun County a month before the assault because of an apparent gap in immigration databases, was captured Sunday in Houston, Fairfax police said Monday. Salvador Portillo-Saravia is being held in the Houston jail pending extradition to Fairfax. His case highlighted flaws in the much-touted Secure Communities program that is supposed to keep dangerous illegal immigrants off the street. Authorities said Portillo-Saravia, 29, was a member of the street gang MS-13 who had been picked up by gang officers in Prince William County in 2003 and...

Last week, Mexican authorities seized over 23 tons of ethyl phenylacetate, which is used in the manufacture of methamphetamine. The drug component was discovered at the Pacific port of Manzanillo, in a shipment from China. In April 2010, Mexican officials seized 80 tons of phenylacetic acid and its derivatives shipped from Shanghai, China. Imports of ethyl phenylacetate require authorization from the country’s health ministry, so the shipments are intentionally mis-labeled before leaving China. Last year, an anonymous U.S. official told Reuters that between October and November 2010, Mexican authorities seized 818 tons of chemicals used in making crystal meth. Due...