Largest gang bust in Alpharetta history

Largest gang bust in Alpharetta history Deadly SUR-13 gang has 10 members arrested, deported By: Rosemary Taylor 7/14/2005

An investigation by the Alpharetta Police Crime Suppression Unit into street gangs using Alpharetta as a home base for their activities in Metro Atlanta led federal agents June 30 to an Alpharetta home only half a mile from City Hall.

There amidst Surento 13 (SUR-13) gang graffiti and paraphernalia agents from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI’s "Safe Street" Gang Task Force, assisted by Alpharetta Police, arrested 10 members of the SUR-13 street gang on illegal immigration charges.

Arrested were Luis Castro-Guzman, Marcelino Navarro-Guzman, Armando Guzman-Castro, Marco Franco-Garcia, Filiberto Guzman-Mina, Armando Alvarez-Hernandez, Marcial Guzman-Mina, Francisco Guzman-Castro, Salvador Guzman-Mina and Roberto Alvarez-Hernandez. All are from Mexico, and all are here without proper immigration paperwork, according to Department of Homeland Security Public Information Officer Sue Brown.

"Several of them had teardrops tattooed under their eyes [a gang symbol that they’ve killed someone or someone close to them has been killed]. They also had SUR-13 tattoos on the backs of their heads and on their arms, and there were SUR-13 belts and hats lying around," said Alpharetta Sgt. Sean Woods, a member of the Crime Suppression Unit. "They were definitely members of SUR-13."

According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, the SUR-13 gang is a major Hispanic street gang in Metro Atlanta. Its members distribute cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine, and they also commit murders, assaults, drive-by shootings and auto thefts.

Sur-13 street gang members often identify with the symbols XIII, X3, 13, and 3-dots. This refers to the 13th letter of the alphabet "M," which stands for the Mexican Mafia, the major California-based Hispanic prison gang that SUR-13 is affiliated with.

"The home they were renting at 212 Devore Road we believe was a ‘stash house.’ These guys would come in once a week and drop off their kilos of cocaine and anything else they were dealing and stash their drugs there for a day or so. Then they’d come back and pick it up and go back out on the street and sell it," said Woods.

There were no drugs or cash found in the raid of the house, however. Police had gone to the house the day before the arrests to confirm that there were gang members living there. When they saw a man without his shirt on and a SUR-13 tattoo on his chest, they called the FBI’s "Safe Streets" Gang Task Force in Atlanta, which brought in agents from ICE — Immigration & Customs Enforcement — and they made the arrests the next night.

Police don’t know if the house was cleared of drugs and cash during that 24-hour period, or not. The only illegal thing found was a loaded 12-gauge assault shotgun and shells hidden under a bed in the house.

Alpharetta Police officer Jimmy Rives, a member of the task force, said the 10 arrested worked local construction jobs, had close ties and were related, in some cases.

"All of them were SUR-13 gang members in California prior to moving to Forsyth County sometime. SUR-13 is really big in Forsyth. Then a few months ago they found this rental house in Alpharetta," said Rives. "We know they were involved in drugs, too, but we just went ahead and arrested them for illegal immigration."

Since Alpharetta’s Crime Suppression Unit was instituted last year they’ve solved every case they’ve been assigned, which includes drugs, gangs and repeated felonies like the rash of entering auto thefts that have been plaguing Alpharetta and unincorporated North Fulton for the last several months.

"We could use twice the number of people we have now and we’d still be busy. People living here just don’t realize what’s going on," said Woods.

He said he wouldn’t be surprised if some of these same gang members show back up here some day even after they’ve been deported.

"One guy told me, ‘I’ll be back. It’s so easy. People here are stupid."’

NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF
GANG INVESTIGATORS ASSOCIATIONS
Mara Salvatrucha

A SOUTH AMERICAN IMPORT
by Investigator Al Valdez
Orange County District Attorney's Office

Street gangs form for a variety of reasons. The United States has experienced the growth of many types of street and prison gangs within the last 20 years. During this time period, influxes of legal and illegal refugees into the United States have had a documented effect on the formation of new street gangs.

In the early 1980s, a violent civil war began in El Salvador which would last more than 12 years. Approximately 100,000 people were killed in the war, and more than one million people fled from El Salvador to the U.S. The Salvadorian refugees and immigrants initially settled primarily in southern California and Washington, D.C.. Some of the refugees and immigrants had ties with La Mara, a violent street gang from El Salvador. Others had been members of paramilitary groups like the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMNL) during the civil war. FMNL was made up of Salvadorian peasants who were trained as guerilla fighters. Many were adept at using explosives, firearms, and booby traps.

Most of the Salvadorian refugees settled in the established Hispanic neighborhoods of the "Rampart" area of Los Angeles. However, Salvadorians were not readily accepted into the Los Angeles Hispanic community, and were frequently targeted by local Hispanic gangs. As a result, in the late 1980s, some refugees and refugee members of La Mara and FMNL formed what is now known as the Mara Salvatrucha (MS) street gang in Los Angeles. Like many other street gangs, MS initially formed for protection, but quickly developed a reputation for being organized and extremely violent. MS membership continues to be fed by refugees from groups like FMNL.

Since its inception in California and Washington, DC, Mara Salvatrucha has expanded into Oregon, Alaska, Texas, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Canada, and Mexico. MS is unique in that, unlike traditional U.S. street gangs, it maintains active ties with MS members and factions in El Salvador. Mara Salvatrucha is truly an international gang.

Mara Salvatrucha gang members maintain contact between groups in the United States and El Salvador for several specific reasons. In El Salvador, a hand grenade sells for $1.00-$2.00 U.S. currency and an M-16 rifle will sell for approximately $200.00-$220.00 U.S. dollars. This communication and alliance provides a mechanism for MS gang members to access military-style munitions and also establishes a network to traffic illegal firearms into the United States.

Although military weapons seem to be readily available to this gang, street intelligence indicates they often have difficulty obtaining handguns, which are not readily available in El Salvador. This creates a demand for small arms by MS members in the U.S. and El Salvador. This demand is so high that MS members will often take handguns as payment for drug transactions. The guns are then sent back to El Salvador, or used in the United States.

MS is also involved in exporting stolen U.S. cars to South America. The cars are often traded for drugs when dealing with cartels. It is estimated that 80% of the cars driven in El Salvador were stolen in the United States. Car theft is a lucrative business for MS.

The Mara Salvatrucha gang is involved in a variety of criminal enterprises. As with members of other gangs, MS members seem willing to commit almost any crime, but MS gang members tend to have a higher level of criminal involvement than other gang members. MS members have been involved in burglaries, auto thefts, narcotic sales, home invasion robberies, weapons smuggling, car jacking, extortion, murder, rape, witness intimidation, illegal firearm sales, car theft and aggravated assaults. In terms of drug trafficking activities, common drugs sold by MS members include cocaine, marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine. Mara Salvatrucha gang members have even placed a “tax” on prostitutes and non-gang member drug dealers who are working in MS "turf." Failure to pay up will most likely result in violence.

Originally, only Salvadorians could become members of Mara Salvatrucha. However, MS now includes members from Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. Mara Salvatrucha also has a few African-American members. MS has broken the race barrier for membership, but most new members are still selected because of their ethnic (Central American) background. The majority of MS gang members are between the ages of 11 and 40 years old.

Mara Salvatrucha members identify themselves with tattoos such as the number “13," or trece in Spanish. MS gang members will also use the Spanish word sureno, meaning "southerner" to identify themselves. Sometimes sureno is abbreviated to SUR. These terms make reference to the fact that MS gang members like to claim they are from southern California as opposed to northern California, and are rivals with northern California gangs. Often, this rivalry is taken outside the state of California. Additionally, Mara Salvatrucha gang members have several ongoing rivalries with large southern California gangs, including the 18th Street gang, and in California, commonly attack 18th Street gang members on sight. There are many Hispanic gangs, including MS, which use the number “13," and the terms sureno and SUR as identifiers, including street/prison gangs outside of California. Thus, it is important to identify specific tattoos used by the Mara Salvatrucha gang, which include “M” or “MS,” in addition to the 13 or SUR identification. Another common tattoo seen is “Salvadorian Pride.” There is also a good chance that the member will also have the name of his particular clique tattooed on his/her body. Other tattoos encountered with MS members have included pentagrams and other occult symbols. These can be confusing when found in conjunction with gang tattoos and can cause misconceptions of Satanic involvement by the gang. The most common hand sign used by MS members is the letter M formed by using three fingers and pointing the hand downward. This handsign can resemble the pitchfork sign used by Folk/People Nation gangs from the Midwest, and can be made with the fingers pointing up or down. The symbols used as tattoos are also used in graffiti and personal writings.

In general, Mara Salvatrucha members show no fear of law enforcement. They are not easily intimidated and frequently act defiantly. Mara Salvaltrucha gang members have been responsible for the execution of three federal agents and numerous shootings of law enforcement officers across the country. MS gang members have been known to booby-trap their drug stash houses using antipersonnel grenades on the assumption that these structures will be searched by law enforcement. MS members at one time often bragged of assaulting law enforcement officers as a means of showing their loyalty and commitment to the gang. However, these claims have never been confirmed. Today, assaults on law enforcement officers are not required for membership, but are always an option. Thus, officers dealing with MS members (or any street gang members, for that matter) should always use extreme caution.

Law enforcement and the courts have used two primary methods to deal with criminal activity by MS: arrest/incarceration and deportation. Between April 1994 and August 1995, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) arrested and deported more than 100 MS gang members to El Salvador. Many Mara Salvatrucha gang members are currently in the United States illegally and are concerned about deportation. If a gang member is deported to El Salvador, there is a chance they will be targeted by the Sombra Negra (Black Shadow) death squad. Sombra Negra and similar groups are legendary in Central America. Gangsters and citizens alike believe that the Sombra Negra is made up of rogue cops and military personnel who target unwanted criminals and gang members for vigilante "justice." While the presence of these death squads is officially denied by the governments of Central American countries, many MS members in the U.S. believe these groups exist, and fear that they will be targeted after being deported. Honduran MS gang members have the same fear. Sombra Negra has claimed responsibility for the deaths of several MS gang members in El Salvador. The existence or belief in the existence of these death squads could also be a chief motivation for hardcore MS gang members to come to the United States.

Al Valdez is currently employed as a District Attorney Investigator for Orange County, California. Valdez has a total of 21 years of experience with a special emphasis on narcotic and gang investigations and prosecutions. Currently, he is assigned to the North County T.A.R.G.E.T. (Tri-Agency Resource Gang Enforcement Team) Gang Unit for Orange County.

Copyright © 2000 Al Valdez. All Rights Reserved.

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