Vicious MS-13 gang seen as growing threat

Dallas Morning News ^ | 10-28-06 | DAVID McLEMORE

[Dysart]

PHARR, Texas – Shortly after midnight in late September, a Texas National Guard soldier with night-vision equipment spied four figures slipping through the brush and alerted Border Patrol agents.

The men were arrested, and one in particular stood out for the extensive tattoos across his face, body and arms.

A fingerprint check showed Santos Chileno-Gomez, a 23-year-old Salvadoran, had been deported for an assault on a Long Island, N.Y., police officer. His lengthy criminal record – and the tattoos – labeled him as a member of Mara Salvatrucha 13, a vicious international street gang that federal authorities call one of the most violent in the U.S.

Mr. Chileno-Gomez is among 76 MS-13 members apprehended by the Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley during the just-ended fiscal year. That total was up from 62 the previous year, showing the gang's resilience to federal efforts aimed at rooting it out and its determination to travel almost at will through Texas to cliques operating throughout the U.S.

And, some police agencies believe, there is evidence that MS-13 has taken sides in the bloody war among drug cartels that's playing out in Nuevo Laredo.

[Dysart]

AP

Wilmer Matamoros, 23, a Mara Salvatrucha gang leader, was imprisoned earlier this year in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Any identifiying characteristics to help spot these hombres?

[Gay State Conservative]

"They're just ordinary people who want to come here,obey the law,pay taxes and live the American Dream"--Ted Kennedy,in one of his 10AM Chivas induced drunken stupors

[Dysart]

Until now it's not been too problematic to id these gangstas, but...One sign of the group's increased organization: Recently, MS-13 leaders have told members to remove tattoos from their faces, necks and arms to avoid notice from law enforcement. During interviews with agents, MS-13 members now deny involvement and insist their tattoos are residue of past involvement.

[arthurus]

This is war and it is part of THE war. Gang members who have previously been previously deported should be permanently neutralized upon identification. These are soldiers in the invasion. Sending them back across the border is an excercise in naivete and futility.

[Dysart]

Here's a telling quote from a border patrol agent (is anyone paying attention?):

"When we apprehend these guys, they clearly are not afraid of the courts or law enforcement," said Mr. Cervantes of the Border Patrol. "And when they get deported, it won't be long until they return. To follow the smuggling route from Honduras takes about a month."

[Northern Alliance]

Why they don't use RICO against these animals puzzles me - especially since they have against the Hell's Angels (and anti-abortionists).

[kellynla]

Just doin' crimes Americans won't do...
unless and until we build a wall, these POS will just keep comin' back over and over and over again!

[mo]

"When we apprehend these guys, they clearly are not afraid of the courts or law enforcement," said Mr. Cervantes of the Border Patrol. "And when they get deported, it won't be long until they return. To follow the smuggling route from Honduras takes about a month..."


So how come we haven't tried high-velocity lead therapy for the problem...IMHO, its increasingly obvious it will take a wall AND snipers to control the border...

[Hazcat]

I heard recently (last day or two) that there is a push on to have the Gov't (Medicare, Medicaid, whatever) pay to have tattoos removed. Wouldn't that be typical, our money going to help the bad guys!

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

RICO? Good luck on finding any organization or assets. They are gangsters the same way that the cripps and bloods are gansters.

[alloysteel]

MS-13 is as much a terrorist group as al-Qaeda, even though there is no evidence of collaboration between the two organizations.

Yet.

Their methods are eerily similar, even if their objectives are not. Both use intimidation of non-members as their way of blending in, like leaving decapitated bodies as a warning to others, a tactic that has been used by both organizations. Infiltrations into neighboring countries to carry out specific missions, such as transfer of armaments or illegal drugs, is customary. And contempt for the law and culture of the countries they choose to bring their depredations upon is another common trait.

So far as may be determined, MS-13 has no religious affiliation, but given their propensity for violence, looking to Islam and the Koran for justification for their wholesale onslaught against everyone who is not part of the organization, would have the further advantage of allowing a cloak of righteousness and virtue to fall over their shoulders. After all, a divine power would surely support their cause. Look what it has done for Osama bin Ladin.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Six years of the irresponsible Bush Administration, preceded by countless years of irresponsible Democrat administrations, (and some GOP as well), are responsible for this reprehensible situation.

It is outrageous that such people are even on American Soil. Every damn last one of them came through a porous border that is the fault of Washington D.C., came in by the thousands, without let up, for years.

[Dysart]

Why they don't use RICO against these animals puzzles me - especially since they have against the Hell's Angels (and anti-abortionists)

You bring up an interesting question. I believe that many of the powers that be don't view this a serious threat; in the article, it cites some official's opinion that the threat from the gang is exaggerated. Sure.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

I bet it didn't tickle when that one between the eyes was inked.

[yoe]

"...an MS-13 member walked up and asked in Spanish, "What gang are you down with?" When Mr. Galicia said he didn't belong to a gang and turned to walk away, the man shot him in the back of the head. Dallas police made four arrests."

What does a gang do other than murder, rape, pillage, coerce, steal and disrupt normal commerce. Why isn’t this form of supremacy outlawed in America once and for all? They take no prisoners, why should we.

[paratrooper82]

Thank you liberals for the federally funded tattoo removal program.

Not only do the terrorist get Constitutional rights, but, they get to hide from law enforcement, compliments of the American tax payers! Need plastic surgery to go along with removing that tattoo, just ask the liberal democrats, I am sure they have a federal program to fund that also!

[hershey]

How can this be? Violent Mexican criminal element? Well, just a blip on the CFR's dream of One Happy Hemisphere/North American Union. Some trusted travelers turn out to be bad guys. Who knew. We'll have to clean up Mexico and the rest of the hemisphere without invading. Let them invade us instead. Think only Bush and the republicans have bought into this idea, think again. Equal blame on both sides of the aisle.

[paratrooper82]

That is 100% right. Now the liberals want amnesty for all of them too. Why, the American economy would fail if the illegals were rounded up and deported/sarcasm off

[hershey]

This nightmare emanates from Central America and points south, not just from Mexico.