America's Most Dangerous Gang

Spreading from El Salvador to L.A. and across the United States, Mara Salvatrucha 13 is increasingly well organized and deadly.

Within one hour, two people were found murdered miles apart in suburban Nassau County, N.Y. After an intensive investigation, police officials learned the murders were the work of the violent street gang Mara Salvatrucha 13. It also soon became apparent the gang was sending a bold message to its members and associates. That message: “If you are not loyal, you are dead.”

But there was another message in the brutal slayings for the people of Long Island. And that message was that gang violence had moved into the upper middle class enclaves of the Island, into the kinds of communities where the locals assume that crime is somebody else’s problem.

Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13) is unfortunately becoming everybody’s problem. This plague that came to Long Island from El Salvador by way of the streets of Los Angeles follows the same migratory patterns as the Salvadoran immigrant community that it preys upon, fanning out across the United States from ethnic enclaves in California.

Until recently, MS-13 wasn’t that big a player in East Coast gang culture. The reason for its weak position in the East Coast crime world was obvious: It wasn’t very well organized. MS-13 was comprised of a group of cliques that operated independently of each other.

No more. Law enforcement officials now report that gang members from across the country have come together to unite affiliated groups up and down the East Coast. The leadership for these cliques is now coming from as far away as California and even from El Salvador.

Robert Hart, senior agent in charge with the FBI, says that when individual groups of MS-13 unite, the results can be devastating. “The cliques, instead of operating independently of each other, are beginning to come together,” Hart explains. “The difference is by doing that, obviously you have a much tighter organization, much stronger structures and, instead of having various cliques doing whatever they want, wherever they want, there is one individual who is the leader and is able to control the payment of dues and the criminal acts they engage in. The result is very, very similar to what you would see in what we refer to as traditional organized criminal families.”

Los Angeles and New York law enforcement and even politicians are aware of the impact of MS-13 on their streets and on their crime statistics. So they’ve taken action. The results are usually not stellar, but at least these cities have recognized that MS-13 is a problem. Unfortunately, the leadership of MS-13 is not stupid. Once the heat comes down hard in L.A. and New York, they head for new turf, choosing Midwestern and Southern and suburban cities where gangs “are not an issue” and local officials and authorities are in denial.

And once MS-13 takes hold in a community, it grows fast. The gang reportedly has some 300 members in suburban Long Island. A few years back it didn’t have any.

Once MS-13 shows up on the radar, some local officials and authorities will take action. In Nassau County, for example, a joint gang task force headed by the FBI and comprised of local police departments, has arrested 16 leaders of MS-13. They were charged with two murders, assault, conspiracy, and firearms violations.

Such investigations aren’t easy because MS-13 has a pretty strident zero-tolerance policy toward anyone who informs the cops of their activities.

Court papers reveal that one of the Nassau County defendants was captured in a secretly recorded telephone conversation detailing how he killed a male victim because he had provided law enforcement officials with information and that he had “put one in his chest and three in the head.” In another recorded conversation, a second defendant said he killed a young female because, in part, she had also provided information to law enforcement.

The senseless violence of MS-13 has shocked the local citizens of Nassau County, so the Nassau County Executive appointed a “gang czar” to deal with the increasing gang problem.

A seasoned, dedicated officer, the new “czar,” in reality, will find it difficult to accomplish what he has been mandated to do. His department, like many across the nation, is at its lowest staffing levels in recent history, and he has been given no additional personnel or resources to combat the problem. The public was placated by the appointment, but while politicians put Band-Aids on deep cuts, the problem continues to escalate on Long Island.

And Long Island is not alone. Nationally, police departments are dealing with the surge in violence emanating from MS-13 members.

In Charlotte, N.C., 53 gang members were arrested as part of Operation Fed Up, which targeted MS-13 members. Officials in the medium-sized Southern city say MS-13 has been involved in at least 11 murders in the Charlotte area since 2000. And with a membership estimated at 200, MS-13 is by far Charlotte’s largest gang.

Some 400 miles north of Charlotte, the northern Virginia and southern Maryland communities around Washington, D.C., have become MS-13 turf. Local authorities estimate that there are between 5,000 and 6,000 MS-13 members in the metropolitan area.

And where MS-13 goes, violence follows. In July 2003, an 18-year-old federal witness was stabbed to death; last May, a 16-year-old boy had his hands almost completely chopped off with a machete; and a week later a 17-year-old was shot and murdered. All three crimes were tied to MS-13 members.

The rapid increase in MS-13 activity along the corridor between Charlotte and D.C. is simply explained by Det. Tim Jolly, a gang specialist with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. The area has the nation’s second highest population of Salvadoran immigrants.

One of the more unusual aspects of MS-13 when compared to other street gangs is that it is extremely flexible in its activity. While some gangs are only into drugs, MS-13 will do any crime at any time.

Sgt. George Norris, supervisor of the gang unit in the Prince George’s County (Md.) Police Department, says MS-13 doesn’t sling drugs in his jurisdiction. “We see mostly citizen robberies, auto theft, shootings and cuttings, and homicides,” he says, adding that drug sales by MS-13 may be just a matter of time.

When MS-13 moves into a new community it tends to announce its presence with violence. The same can be true when a new leader takes over the local cliques.

Norris says gang members from other areas had once been able to join the new gang by simply being “jumped in.” But now that new leaders have moved into Prince George’s County and consolidated the cliques, the gang’s local culture has become more violent and vicious.

“According to one of our informers, things have changed,” says Norris. “Now in order to get your letters or clique [symbols] tattooed on you, you have to also put in some violent act to show your commitment.”

And MS-13 violence is not restricted to civilians, rival gang members, and clique traitors; the gang will go after cops. Threats against police officers, known to gang members as “green light” notices, have increased so much in the past few years that the Virginia Gang Association has warned officers in Virginia and states to the north and south to be wary of MS-13 members.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Jolly says he is aware of the threats against police officers in his community and in Virginia. Prince George’s County’s Norris says he’s heard them, too. “If you do something to them, their natural response is, ‘OK, I’m going to kill you,’” he says. “Or at least they talk like they will.”

Norris dismisses some of MS-13’s threats, but that doesn’t mean that officers should take all MS-13 threats lightly. The gang is extremely violent and it has attacked and will continue to attack anyone who gets in its way. That includes law enforcement officers.

Named for La Mara, a street in San Salvador, and the Salvatrucha guerillas who fought in El Salvador’s bloody civil war, Mara Salvatrucha 13 was organized in Los Angeles in the late ’80s. At first, the gang’s primary purpose was to defend Salvadoran immigrants from being preyed upon by other L.A. street gangs.

But like any other street gang that was created to defend a particular ethnic group, MS-13 was quickly perverted until its primary purpose was preying upon the Salvadoran community. It also violently defends its turf against any other gang that might seek to slice away a piece of its action.

Gang members sometimes wear blue and white, colors taken from the national flag of El Salvador. They can also sport numerous body and even face tattoos. However, some members are much less visible and therefore much more dangerous.

Recent reports indicate that MS-13 has expanded from California to Alaska, Oregon, Utah, Texas, Nevada, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Washington, D.C., and Florida. The gang has also been exported back to Central America.

It’s estimated that there are 36,000 MS-13 members in Honduras alone. In Honduras, according to a March 2004 report prepared by the Washington, D.C.-based, right-wing think tank the Maldon Institute, MS-13 has, with increasing frequency, resorted to leaving a dismembered corpse, complete with a decapitated head, as a calling card. Recently, according to the report, such a grisly message was left with a note for the Honduran president.

The note is supposed to have stated the gang’s displeasure with an August 2003 law that made it illegal to be a part of a gang. Under Honduran law gang leaders can be sentenced to prison for up to 12 years and rank-and-file members from six to nine years, just for being in the gang. A gang member can be arrested for simply having a tattoo.

El Salvador has also launched a crackdown on MS-13. A police offensive called “Operation Strong-arm” has resulted in the arrest of more than 4,000 gang members.

For MS-13, these are small losses. The gang is nothing if not mobile. When it feels heat in the U.S., it moves to another state. When it feels heat in El Salvador and Honduras, it sets up operations in Mexico.

The Maldon Institute report indicates that MS-13 “appears to be in control of much of the Mexican border and, in addition to its smuggling and contraband rackets, the gang collects money from illegal immigrants that it helps [move] across the border into the United States.”

The ultra-conservative Maldon Institute is known for doomsday predictions when it comes to the U.S.-Mexico border. But there can be no denial that MS-13 is very active in smuggling people, drugs, and guns across the border. And independent reports indicate that many illegal immigrants have been assaulted, robbed, and even raped by MS-13 members.

Mexico is now taking steps to fight back against MS-13. In December, Mexican authorities arrested 224 gang members in response to what they called a threat to national security. Among the arrests were members of MS-13 who were charged with trafficking in drugs and firearms across Mexico and Central America.

While some of the Central American countries appear to be cracking down on MS-13, serious problems still exist. And they are being missed by politically correct reporters who want to tout U.S.-Latin American cooperation.

For example, on Long Island, the media was quick to cover an agreement between El Salvador and Suffolk County to share information on MS-13. What the local reporters didn’t cover was a much more serious issue. If these gang members commit serious offenses, they can return home, and there is no extradition agreement. And, of course, they are doing so in increasing numbers.

“I would say that between Honduras and El Salvador, there are seven or eight people we are seeking to take into custody,” says Lt. Dennis Farrell, head homicide investigator for the Nassau County Police Department. “Proportionally, if you take that across the country, the numbers are astronomical, the number of people who have probably fled to these two countries.”

Farrell says that two gang members who his detectives are looking to arrest for two separate murders are now living in the same town in El Salvador. He calls the situation extremely frustrating. “You undertake a very in-depth and comprehensive investigation, pursue all possible leads, build a case, essentially conduct a successful investigation, only to have it thwarted by the fact that after having identified the killer or killers, you are unable, under the present international agreements, to return them to Nassau County to face murder charges.

“Even more than that frustration, how about the injustice and sense of desperation on the part of families who have lost loved ones? Where is the measure of justice? There is really no justice for those families, and absent some reworked or new initiative between our state department and those sovereign states, I don’t see any change in this condition in the foreseeable future,” Farrell adds.

In addition to extradition treaties, many gang investigators believe stricter and more uniform laws are needed here in this country. According to Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Jolly, one of the reasons MS-13 has migrated to the East Coast is the strict anti-gang laws on the West Coast. He also believes that, with the stricter gang laws in Central America, many MS-13 members may be coming back to the United States illegally.

With the number of MS-13 members growing nationwide (some cliques now even accept non-Hispanic members), and the violence escalating, the future for law enforcement appears grim.

“They adapt to what the police do,” says Prince George’s County’s Norris. “They will change the way they operate, depending on the way things are enforced by the police. If there is no enforcement, they will wear their colors and bandanas because in the communities they are in it is common knowledge and the people fear them, so it is a form of intimidation.

“Once the police recognize and confront them, they will change and wear different colors from the blue and white, no bandana on their head, maybe now in their pocket, and instead of the number 13 they will wear 67 or 76 because it equals 13. They adapt so it is a continually evolving thing.”

While the nation focuses on terrorism, the issue of gang violence has taken a lower priority. But to many, the violent acts of MS-13 members are more of an everyday threat that is being overlooked.

Prison Gangs - Sgt. Bill Valentine (Ret)
Al-Qaeda and Prison Inmates
MARA SALVATRUCHA–MS 13

President George Bush glossed over the issue of immigration during his State of the Nation speech Wednesday night, barely touching on the subject. Yet weeks prior to giving the speech, he had, on occasion, floated trial balloons suggesting we pass legislation granting legal status to millions of illegal aliens here who have blatantly broken our laws in sneaking into this country, most of whom are from Mexico. “It’s a compassionate way to treat people who come to our country,” he said during a news conference in January, “It recognizes the reality of the world in which we live There are some people...there are some jobs in America that Americans won’t do and others are willing to do.”

It seems he is not giving much thought to the impact on our schools, hospitals, the job market, law enforcement and prisons, these aliens are creating. He will though, because organized opposition from the House Republicans is gaining momentum. With the new Congress commencing, key Republicans indicate they will push legislation to tighten the Mexican border near San Diego and to introduce legislation prohibiting states from issuing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.

When we first invaded Iraq, in a news conference he said of other countries, “You are either for us or against us.” Oil rich Mexico refused to help us, so by his reasoning, that country was against us. Yet now, he continues to pander to Vicente Fox. Why?

What drives President Bush? Is he poll-driven like Bill Clinton? Possibly, but now in his second term he is unable to run for President again, and it seems he will spend much of his current term dealing with Iraq. And across the border, Iran looming on the horizon, may become an even bigger headache. Iran, a cauldron of terrorism and hate, will surely succeed in developing nuclear weapons while he is still in office.

President Bush should reflect back to March, 2001, when he granted “temporary protected status” to as many as 300,000 illegal immigrants from El Salvador, many of whom were hardened veterans of that country’s civil war, a war that raged for 12 years, and ended in1992. That bloody war pitted government troops against leftists guerillas, and incurred in excess of 100,000 casualties, along with sending hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing northward. A large percentage of these refugees that had fought in their homeland, and who had been trained by U.S. Army advisers in El Salvador on the finer aspects of explosives, weaponry, infiltration and warfare, made it into the U.S. And in so doing, became the nucleus of a new formidable street gang, now pervasive throughout the United States.

With the arrival of the first wave of these people in Los Angeles, the area of Rampart Division became the first stop. At that time, Rampart was the home base of the violent Eighteenth Street gang. The newcomers who had been part of the bloody civil war in their homeland, were quick to seize upon the opportunities afforded them in their new home. After all, doesn’t everyone come here to make a better life? We keep hearing that from the politicians.

Many of the Salvadorans jumped in with the Eighteenth Street gang, but the majority of them decided to form their own street gang limiting membership to Salvadorans only. Thus, Mara Salvatrucha was born. The name “Mara Salvatrucha–13,” breaks down into: “Mara” which is equivalent to “barrio, or neighborhood as used by U.S. Hispanic gangs, “Salva” refers to El Salvador, and “trucha” translates into “beware of.” The “13,” only denotes their preference in claiming southern Hispanic, as opposed to 14, which denotes northern Hispanic allegiance.

“Beware of the Salvadorans.” Many people, including the police were soon to realize this. The MS-13 took to street crime like a duck to water. Drugs, weapons, robbery and burglary, witness intimidation, extortion, car jackings, became commonplace with them, as did rape, arson, murder-for-hire, and bloody gang fighting for control of turf.

The MS-13 soon took on their own identity, and earned a reputation from the other street gangs as being a particularly unmerciful gang which would retaliate violently when challenged. After establishing themselves in L.A., they set up beach heads in other large cities, the first being Washington D.C., followed by New York City. Today, many of our major cities has an MS-13 chapter.

In L.A., the MS-13 was cutting into the profits of long established Hispanic gangs. Gang meetings were held to decide how best to deal with the Salvadorans. A showdown was inevitable, and it happened on a balmy afternoon in a park frequented by MS-13 members and family who were having a picnic and drinking beer. Many of the other picnickers were Mexican American gang members. The Salvadorans decided to deride the other gang members by burning a Mexican flag they picked up.

The Maravilla, a pervasive L.A. based street gang that dates back to the 1920s, and which has about a dozen chapters were among those in attendance. Fights broke out, and Maravilla declared war on MS-13, as did the burgeoning Eighteenth Street gang. The long established Mexican Mafia got into the fray and subsequently demanded a 10% tax from MS-13 on all profits they gained from street crime. The Salvadorans told La eMe to go to hell. For the next year, the MS-13 fought a defensive battle against the others, but did not back down.

Their resolve so impressed La eMe, that a truce was called. Secret meetings were held between the two gangs. It was agreed that the Salvadorans would sell drugs and weapons for La eMe, and provide muscle and tax collectors. But the Maravilla, who would not call off the war, and who resented La eMe’s pact with MS-13, also refused to pay taxes. This became contentious with La eMe, who put out the green light on Maravilla. Today, in Los Angeles where Maravilla is entrenched, graffiti is splashed around proclaiming Maravilla is “TAX FREE.”

The MS-13 and Maravilla continued to wage war. Fighting between the two groups broke out in other cities where they had a presence, including Reno. In Reno, on August 13, 1995, Juan Mauricio Castillo, A.K.A. “Little Boy,” age 15, who was identified as an MS-13 gang member, fired a .380 pistol in the direction of rival Maravilla gang members who had gathered at Horseman’s Park to play soccer. Tragically, his aim was poor and the rounds went past them and struck a 12 year old girl in the head killing her.

At trial, Little Boy who had turned 16, was hammered with two life terms running wild. As of this writing he is confined at Ely state prison, resting well we hope.

THE AL-QAEDA CONNECTION

Across the nation, in Boston, the MS-13 are reported to have over 100 hard-core members who are active in violent street crime and home invasions. On these sorties it is reported they carry razor sharp machetes along with firearms. In 2002, in a Somerville park, three of the Salvadoran gang members were charged with the bloody rape of two local deaf girls, ages 14, and 17. One of the girls was kicked out of her wheel chair prior to the assault.

More ominous, are reports that link MS-13 with al-Qaeda terrorist organizations. Intelligence sources in Washington have alerted Boston area authorities that al-Qaeda terrorists under surveillance in El Salvador have been seen meeting with local Mara Salvatrucha leadership in that country. This gives rise to the suspicion that the Salvadorans may be smuggling Islamic fundamentalist terrorists into the U.S. They have the established alien smuggling routes through Mexico, and the ability to do so.

Boston police have reported that two MS-13 leaders whom they deported back to El Salvador a year ago, have again surfaced in Boston, where they were spotted recently on the North Shore. One of the men, Elmer “Tiger” Tejada, was initially deported after a crime spree which included charges of attempted murder of a police officer when he hurled a machete at Chelsea police.

The Boston police continue to track this al-Qaeda connection. Raed Hijazi, an American born in the Bay area, and a one time student at Sacramento City College, is alleged to have ties with al-Qaeda. Hijazi at one time drove a cab in Boston and is alleged to have sent money he earned to a terrorist cell in the Middle East. After he left the U.S. he was charged with training the suicide bombers that attacked the USS Cole.

He was next heard of in October, 2000, when Syrian authorities arrested him in Damascus and turned him over to the Jordanians. Jordan had charged him with conspiracy to commit mass murder by placing bombs in the Radisson Hotel in downtown Amman that was expected to be full of American tourists during the Millennium celebrations in 1999. In addition, he was charged with conspiracy to murder U.S. and Israeli citizens at two Christian Holy sites, and two border crossings into Israel. At trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. As of yet, this sentence has not been carried out.

The FBI has not revealed any connection between MS-13 and the al-Qaeda to the public. However many other reports do. In December of last year, an MS-13 gang member and a Muslim from Bangladesh were arrested crossing the Rio Grande together. This prompted Congressman Solomon Ortiz, (D-TX) co-chairman of the House border caucus, to state publicly that meetings between the two groups have taken place, and that the Mara Salvatrucha have a network for illegal entry into this country that stretches all the way from El Salvador to the U.S. border, and that they may already be smuggling terrorists into our country.

The Boston authorities who are tracking this connection, want to remind us all that the jets that were hijacked and became suicide bombers resulting in a loss of life of 3,000 innocent persons, were boarded by the terrorists at Logan International Airport, Boston.

Today, MS-13 are recruiting nationwide, and are not now limiting their membership to Salvadorans only. Other Hispanics are welcome if they can measure up to the ruthlessness of the Salvadorans. Identification of the Mara Salvatrucha gang members can be made by their tattoos. Though most of them carry generic gang tattoos, i.e., happy/sad faces; spider webs and the like, the tattoo that connects them to the gang is the “M S 13.” When confronted, the gang member may try to say these initials stand for a girl friend, “Maria Sanchez,” for instance, but only uninformed law enforcement personnel would accept this.

BV http://www.nevadacorrections.org/gangs.html

Al Qaeda seeks tie to local gangs

This Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles flier shows Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a Saudi national who may be plotting terrorist attacks as part of al-Qaida. By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A top al Qaeda lieutenant has met with leaders of a violent Salvadoran criminal gang with roots in Mexico and the United States — including a stronghold in the Washington area — in an effort by the terrorist network to seek help infiltrating the U.S.-Mexico border, law enforcement authorities said.

Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a key al Qaeda cell leader for whom the U.S. government has offered a $5 million reward, was spotted in July in Honduras meeting with leaders of El Salvador's notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang, which immigration officials said has smuggled hundreds of Central and South Americans — mostly gang members — into the United States. Although they are actively involved in alien, drug and weapons smuggling, Mara Salvatrucha members in America also have been tied to numerous killings, robberies, burglaries, carjackings, extortions, rapes and aggravated assaults — including at least seven killings in Virginia and a machete attack on a 16-year-old in Alexandria that severely mutilated his hands. The Salvadoran gang, known to law enforcement authorities as MS-13 because many members identify themselves with tattoos of the number 13, is thought to have established a major smuggling center in Matamoros, Mexico, just south of Brownsville, Texas, from where it has arranged to bring illegal aliens from countries other than Mexico into the United States. Authorities said al Qaeda terrorists hope to take advantage of a lack of detention space within the Department of Homeland Security that has forced immigration officials to release non-Mexican illegal aliens back into the United States, rather than return them to their home countries. Less than 15 percent of those released appear for immigration hearings. Nearly 60,000 illegal aliens designated as other-than-Mexican, or OTMs, were detained last year along the U.S.-Mexico border.

El Shukrijumah, born in Saudi Arabia but thought to be a Yemen national, was spotted in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in July, having crossed the border illegally from Nicaragua after a stay in Panama. U.S. authorities said al Qaeda operatives have been in Tegucigalpa planning attacks against British, Spanish and U.S. embassies. Known to carry passports from Saudi Arabia, Trinidad, Guyana and Canada, El Shukrijumah had sought meetings with the Mara Salvatrucha gang leaders who control alien-smuggling routes through Mexico and into the United States. El Shukrijumah, 29, who authorities said was in Canada last year looking for nuclear material for a so-called "dirty bomb" and reportedly has family members in Guyana, was named in a March 2003 material-witness arrest warrant by federal prosecutors in Northern Virginia, where U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said he is sought in connection with potential terrorist threats against the United States. A former southern Florida resident and pilot thought to have helped plan the September 11 attacks, El Shukrijumah was among seven suspected al Qaeda operatives identified in May by Attorney General John Ashcroft as being involved in plans to strike new targets in the United States. Citing "credible intelligence from multiple sources," Mr. Ashcroft said at the time that El Shukrijumah posed "a clear and present danger to America."

In August, an FBI alert described him as "armed and dangerous" and a major threat to homeland security. Earlier this month, Mr. Ashcroft confirmed that U.S. border agents and inspectors had ramped up efforts to find El Shukrijumah amid reports that the al Qaeda leader was thought to be seeking entry routes into the United States along the U.S.-Mexico border. Mr. Ashcroft noted that increased enforcement efforts were under way in the wake of a rise of arrests of border jumpers from Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Authorities said Mara Salvatrucha gang members moved into the Los Angeles area in the 1980s and developed a reputation for being organized and extremely violent. The gang since has expanded into the Washington area, including Virginia and Maryland, and into Oregon, Alaska, Texas, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Georgia and Florida. More than 3,000 Mara Salvatrucha gang members are thought to be in the Washington area, with a major operation in Northern Virginia. Other gang centers, authorities said, include Montgomery and Prince George's counties and the Hispanic neighborhoods of Washington. Mr. McNulty, whose office has prosecuted Mara Salvatrucha gang members, has described the organization as the "gang of greatest interest" to law enforcement authorities. He said gang members are recruited predominantly from Hispanic communities and typically among juveniles, some as young as 13. Recruits are "jumped" into the gang by being beaten by members while others count to 13, he said. Gang rules, he said, are indoctrinated into new recruits and ruthlessly enforced. Those who cooperate with law enforcement are given the "green light," he said, meaning that the gang had approved their killing. In March, the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office filed an injunction against Mara Salvatrucha, charging that the gang's criminal activity constituted a "public nuisance" based on the number of killings, robberies and drug crimes. The injunction requires gang members, under public nuisance statutes, to follow curfew rules and regulations and prohibits them from associating, driving or appearing together in designated areas of the city.

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040928-123346-3928r.htm

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