America's Most Dangerous Gang

POLICE magazine ^ | Shelly Feuer Domash

[Founding Father]

I certainly agree that bribe taking border agents and those that hire illegals should be proseuted, but that is no reason to let the invasion continue today, tomorrow and the day after.

[Calpernia]

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

[Humidston]

Scary indeed!

From your piece - "MS-13 appears to be in control of much of the Mexican border."

[warchild9]

You need to stop looking for W's motives. People with the biggest bucks run Washington; it's always been so. Figure out how they'll make money from any given situation, and your head-scratching will end.

[in the Arena]

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.

[Bullish]

While MS 13 is certainly a fearful bunch. IMO, the most dangerous gang in America are the democrats.

[Gritty]

In general, Mara Salvatrucha members show no fear of law enforcement. They are not easily intimidated and frequently act defiantly.

This is a fine kettle of fish our politicians are turning our country into through their greed and negligence.

If gangs like this aren't stopped by the police, Americans will eventually resort to their own system of justice and forget about the ineffective police and the flaccid courts. Don't forget, this is an armed country - a state of affairs which frightens Liberals and many politicians - but which is the last line of defense by ordinary citizens against this sort of ongoing outrage.

'Vigilante' is a word overused today by our hysterical politicians and their buddies in the media. But, there is a genuine meaning behind this word which has not yet been employed. There is a awful threat lurking out there because of our hopeless immigration policies and this article shows one of the hydra-heads involved in it. The end results of years of political neglect of our laws and people will ultimately be on the heads of our feckless ruling class who prefer to ignore this gathering storm.

If they don't get their hands around these problems and do it quickly, there will be nothing but deadly problems ahead for us all.

[SheLion]

Why Bush refuses to stop illegal immigration is something I cannot fathom. I hate to move into the conspiracy, tin foil hat arena, but Bush must have some ulterior motive.

Ahhhh isn't the open borders wonderful!  We are now living and sharing America with illegal Mexicans, Illegal Islams, Illegal Muslims and now this MS-13!

And the government wants to take OUR guns away.  What's wrong with this picture?!

Why Bush refuses to stop illegal immigration is something I cannot fathom. I hate to move into the conspiracy, tin foil hat arena, but Bush must have some ulterior motive.

Ahhhh isn't the open borders wonderful!  We are now living and sharing America with illegal Mexicans, Illegal Islams, Illegal Muslims and now this MS-13!

And the government wants to take OUR guns away.  What's wrong with this picture?!

[Calpernia]

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

[SheLion]

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.

And here is this map to remind us again:

[Calpernia]

>>>>>>You need to stop looking for W's motives. People with the biggest bucks run Washington; it's always been so. Figure out how they'll make money from any given situation, and your head-scratching will end.

While MS 13 is certainly a fearful bunch. IMO, the most dangerous gang in America are the democrats.

[DouglasKC]

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

<SARCASM>Gosh if they would just legalize robbery, auto theft, shooting, cuttings and homicides then gang activity would virtually go away. </SARCASM>

[Humidston]

>>al Qaeda terrorists hope to take advantage of a lack of detention space within the Department of Homeland Security<<

They need to hire Sheriff Joe from AZ to build a Super Tent City for these animals.

[panaxanax]

"Why Bush refuses to stop illegal immigration......Bush must have some ulterior motive"

I've been hoping the same. Still no explanation from him. He won't even come out and lie to us about it, he just avoids the question. Very frustrating for those who voted for him and ammo for Hillary and her ilk. I've given up waiting to hear why he doesn't do something immediately. Maybe MS13 is a branch of Skull and Bones, haha?

[Wolfie]

Have to attack the demand side. Stop people from lining up to be robbed, stabbed, and killed, and the problem will dry up.

[wardaddy]

Silly adolescent hand signs.

Haven't they heard of lapel pins?

[Jack Black]

Sombra Negra is the proven effective method of dealing with this scum. Eventually a similar organization will be formed here, as mentioned above.

[Founding Father]

Maybe MS13 is a branch of Skull and Bones, haha?

I never made the connection --- thanks. That's certainly as good a reason as any Bush has put forth.

[teawithmisswilliams]

He {Bush} won't even come out and lie to us about it, he just avoids the question. If the MSM were covering immigration problems like they should, he would have no choice but to talk about it. The MSM is happy to watch our country go down in a sea of criminal "diversity." The fact that neither candidate got asked ONE lousy question about illegal immigration in the presidential debates tells it all.

[sweetliberty]

America's most dangerous gang:

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