Posted on 06/12/2005 7:02:51 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
EDCOUCH — The mid-April incident looked like a typical one for the Edcouch Police Department: two men caught and charged with multiple counts of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon while committing a home invasion.
But something stood out to Police Chief Jose Perez as one of the suspects was being interviewed by his officers. The male suspect, who said he lived in the Elsa area but was really an undocumented Mexican citizen, said in Spanish to watch out for the Mara Salvatrucha-Treces, also known as the Maras or MS-13. The group has ties to Central America but began forming in Los Angeles in the 1980s among immigrants from El Salvador, according to national gang identification and training expert Robert Walker’s Gangs Or Us Web site.
Perez said the suspect was later interviewed by U.S. Border Patrol agents but took back his MS-13 threat.
"Since they are a more violent organization, their members are more apt to do their time than name other people and face the risk of they themselves being kidnapped and killed," he said.
But Perez said if there was one person claiming ties to the Maras, there could be others working in the area.
"I’m certain they are here and certain they are operating with the drug organizations," he said.
Legislation filed last week in Congress by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., called for denying people seeking entry into the United States paperwork if they were thought to have international gang ties. The bill also gives up to 10 years of prison time to those caught bringing gang members into the country. His bill, which amends a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act, was read twice on the Senate floor and forwarded to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Staff members in Nelson’s Washington, D.C., office did not answer two requests The Monitor made last week seeking comments about the legislation.
But Nelson talked June 6 about the dangers of the Maras on the Senate floor. He said the group was involved in murders, drug trafficking, rape, robbery and other crimes, and was a problem in cities such as Baltimore, New York, Miami and Washington, D.C.
Nelson said there were between 8,000 to 10,000 MS-13 members in America now who might have ties to al-Qaida, the terrorist group led by Osama bin Laden and masterminds of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"The time to act to stop the spread of this gang is now, before they are able to spread their web of violence to more cities and areas within the United States," Nelson told senators.
The MS-13s garnered attention in February when its Honduran branch leader, Ebner Anibal Rivera-Paz, was stopped and arrested at the Border Patrol’s Falfurrias checkpoint in Brooks County. Rivera-Paz was connected to a bus shooting in Honduras on Dec. 23, 2004, in which 28 women and children were killed.
Roy Cervantes, spokesman for the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector in McAllen, said agents training Honduran law enforcement people in technology received information about Rivera-Paz’s trip to the United States to avoid being arrested for the bus incident. The lead for them to look for was passed to Border Patrol agents in the United States him.
"Most of these gang members will make an illegal entry through the river," Cervantes said. "When he was arrested, he initially provided the name Franklin Jairo Rivera Hernandez, but through IAFIS (Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System) records check, even though he was proving an alias, the database clearly identified him as Ebner Rivera-Paz because he had an extensive criminal history in the United States."
Cervantes said 26 MS-13 members have been arrested and later prosecuted and deported throughout the sector during the 2004-2005 fiscal year. He said they were not armed when arrested. Border Patrol agents also had two "encounters" with MS-13 gang members that were identified as having gang ties, Cervantes said.
"The problem is that these hardened gang members don’t fear the police, they don’t fear the court system, but they do fear deportation," he said. "We get their attention with deportation because ultimately that sends them to their country of origin where they might be wanted for a serious crime, whether it is murder or robbery."
Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said Nelson’s legislation sounded good, but law enforcement agencies would have to work harder to prove people were members of internationally-based gangs. He said some people do not wear the tattoos traditionally linked with membership in the Maras or local groups like the Tri-City Bombers or Mexican Mafia.
"You have to rely on foreign intelligence probably, which may be flawed," the sheriff said. "They say they are going to maximize the sentencing or punishment for the people’s smugglers. Well, that might be a good deal right there because they are creating a heck of a problem. If it helps, great."
Treviño said having more manpower working to gain the trust of residents in neighborhoods was a way to get additional information on illegal activities.
"If we could tap into just 10 percent of community knowledge of what is going on, we would be rocking and rolling," the sheriff said.
Treviño said Maras have not been specifically detected yet in the county. He said the group uses the county as a passage to get to larger cities, like Dallas and Houston.
McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said the drug trade typically follows the immigration routes for people seeking work in the United States. This is why the city has not had a problem with the Maras.
Rodriguez said creating tougher legislation was typically how Congress dealt with issues such as immigration and gang activities. He said he was not sure if Nelson’s proposed bill would curb these problems or not.
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Daniel Perry covers Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4454.
Brutal. I'm sure MS-13 members are shaking in their oversized pants.
The only way we will see action is when gangs like MS-13 start kidnapping and murdering politician's families and doing home invasions into their homes.
Until then, expect this problem to grow.
The good Senator needs to be reminded that it is all ready illegal for illegal aliens to be here....enforce the laws you were sworn in to protect.
Most gang members are not coming through customs.
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