MS-13, Mara Salvatrucha.Who are they?

Who are they? Members of Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, who are mostly Salvadoran nationals or first generation Salvadoran-Americans, but also Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, and other Central and South American immigrants. And according to the FBI's recent national threat assessment of this growing, mobile street gang, they could be operating in your community...now or in the near future. Based on information from their own investigations, from state and local law enforcement partners, and from community organizations, FBI concluded that while the threat posed by MS-13 to the U.S. as a whole is at the "medium" level, membership in parts of the country is so concentrated that they have labeled the threat level there "high."
MS-13 operates in at least 42 states and the District of Columbia and has about 6,000-10,000 members nationwide. Currently, the threat is highest in the western and northeastern parts of the country, which coincides with elevated Salvadoran immigrant populations in those areas. In the southeast and central regions, the current threat is moderate to low, but recently, FBI see's an influx of MS-13 members into the southeast, causing an increase in violent crimes thereRight now, according to the FBI MS-13 has no official national leadership structure. MS-13 originated in Los Angeles, but when members migrated eastward, they began forming cliques that for the most part operated independently. These cliques, though, often maintain regular contact with members in other regions to coordinate recruitment/criminal activities and to prevent conflicts. The FBI believes that Los Angeles gang members have an elevated status among their MS-13 counterparts across the country, a system of respect that could potentially evolve into a more organized national leadership structure.MS-13 members engage in a wide range of criminal activity, including drug distribution, murder, rape, prostitution, robbery, home invasions, immigration offenses, kidnapping, carjackings/auto thefts, and vandalism. Most of these crimes, you'll notice, have one thing in common—they are exceedingly violent. And while most of the violence is directed toward other MS-13 members or rival street gangs, innocent citizens often get caught

in the crossfire. MS-13 is expanding its membership at an "alarming" rate through recruitment and migration. Some MS-13 members move to get jobs or to be near family members—currently, the southeast and the northeast are seeing the largest increases in membership. MS-13 often recruits new members by glorifying the gang lifestyle (often on the Internet, complete with pictures and videos) and by absorbing smaller gangs.Speaking of employment, MS-13 members typically work for legitimate businesses by presenting false documentation. They primarily pick employers that don't scrutinize employment documents, especially in the construction, restaurant, delivery service, and landscaping industries.The FBI, says through its MS-13 National Joint Task Force and field investigations, remains committed to working with local, state, national, and international partners to disrupt and dismantle this violent gang.
Mexican drug cartels responsible for recent border violence have also cemented ties to street and prison gangs on the U.S. side. U.S. gangs retail drugs purchased from Mexican traffickers and often work as cartel surrogates or enforcers on U.S. soil. Intelligence suggests Los Zetas have hired members of various gangs at different times including the Mexican Mafia, Texas Syndicate, MS-13, and Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos to further their criminal endeavors.Just this week over a dozen people were either shot or beaten to death in separate incidents in Mexican border cities. Over the weekend in Juárez Mexico, just across the Rio Grande River which is all that separates Mexico from the U.S. border city of El Paso Texas. Also, in Juárez an 8-year-old girl at a road side cafe was shot in the ribs apparently by a stray bullet during a fight between street gangs, officials said. At about 2:20 a.m. Sunday, Juárez officials said, Javier Leal Saucedo, 33, was found dead near Zaragoza Boulevard and Rayon Street. He had been beaten to death by border gangs doing the dirty work for the powerful Mexican Cartels.
Later the same day at about 9 a.m., the bodies of two men were found shot in the head in Ejido Jesus Carranza, a suburb of Juárez. The victims have not been identified, but authorities said, they found two 9 mm shells near the bodies. Also on Sunday, a 30- to 35-year-old man was found dead in his car, the victim of still another gangland type killing. The cause of death and the name of the victim are not known. The incident took place near Paseo de la Plaza and Paseo de los Arcos streets in downtown Juárez. In January of this year in Tijuana Mexico not far from the American city of San Diego, officials said they found six executed kidnapping victims inside a Tijuana house where gunmen took refuge during a chaotic three-hour shootout with Mexican soldiers and police. The victims, all male, were blindfolded and gagged wrapped in blankets and had been shot in the head, although it was unclear if they were killed before or during the gun battle. said Edgar Millan, a spokesman with the federal Public Safety Department. According to Gen. Germán Redondo Azuara, commander of the second military zone said Mexican soldiers, state and local police were sent in to help control the firefight that began when federal agents prepared to raid a house in the Tijuana neighborhood of La Mesa. Police now say that it was a shelter for a cell of the Arellano Felix drug cartel.
Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, the state secretary of public safety indicated to the press that three nearby schools were evacuated. Television showed police running with small children in their arms while shots rang out. Edgar Millan a top official with Mexico's federal Public Security Secretariat said, the shootout killed two gunman and one police officer and wounded three other police officers, in the latest outbreak of violence across the border from San Diego. As a result of the Mexican Government siege four gunmen were arrested – one is a well known state police investigator and another is a local Tijuana police officer. The four arrested gunmen have been flown to Mexico City for questioning. Millan said officials recovered 11 automatic rifles and three bulletproof vests inside the house. Rommel Moreño Manjarrez, Baja California's attorney general said already this week, gunmen shot and killed eight people in Tijuana alone, including three local police officers, as well as a district commander, his wife and his 12-year-old daughter. The gun battle shocked even crime-weary Tijuana residents. Many argued President Felipe Calderón should step up a yearlong crackdown on gangs, drug traffickers and other organized criminals that has sent soldiers into cities across the nation.The San Diego Tribune further reported, a Mrs. Padilla spent the three-hour shootout hiding in the closet with her 19-year-old daughter. As they crouched in the dark, they started to think they wouldn't escape alive. Gunmen across the street shouted that they would drop bombs unless police backed off.

"The gunfire was terrible," she said. "It made the walls shake. I really didn't think we were going to get out." Less than two blocks down the street, police were rushing children from a school vulnerable to gunfire from men holed up on the roof and top floors of the besieged brick safe house.
Some of the children were carried by officers who crouched and pressed themselves up against the building to avoid the bullets. Other children ran out onto the sidewalk in groups under armed guard, their eyes wide with terror. "I could hear the hail of gunfire, and it was really strong," Rico Espinosa said. "I didn't feel fear until we had evacuated all 65 kids that were under my care, and then my legs started to shake." Rico and the children were all safely removed from the school, but Rico's husband, Jorge Espinosa, stayed in a back room to take calls from worried parents.

"It was like being in Beirut," he said. Residents said soldiers, sent in to help overwhelmed police, swarmed rooftops. The gunmen refused to back down, shouting obscenities at the police and taunting them. Recently in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo assailants killed the director of public safety for the town of Tulancingo. Jose Alvarado was shot more than 20 times, Hidalgo state police director Ahuizotl Figueroa said.Many on both sides of the border have been killed or wounded and the terror goes on with authorities unable to control the gangs that kill and traffic in drugs and humans for the wealthy Mexican cartels.

Gen. Germán Redondo Azuara says he believes many of the drugs raised in Afghanistan, finds its way via smuggling routes into markets in both Europe and the United States where they are peddled by gang members. In turn millions of dollars and Eros are used to fund terrorist and their terror activities not only in Afghanistan but around the world. Most of these same terrorist drug organizations, that fuel the terror network also help to fund the Taliban attacks in Afghanistan. Part of this illicit cash provides operating capital for international terrorist Osama Bin Laden and others. The Columbian and Mexican drug cartels now believed to be working with international terrorist is the most pervasive organizational threat to the United States according to one D.E.A. agent. murder money & mexico: tijuana cartelThese new combined international drug trafficking organizations are complex organizations with highly defined command-and-control structures that produce, transport, and/or distribute large quantities of Afghanistan illicit drugs. Global Terrorist And Drug Trafficking CartelsA high ranking ICE official claims the Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTO´s) are perfect for the terrorist because they are active in every region of the country and dominate the illicit drug trade in every area in both Mexico and the United States. Because of this new alliance Mexican DTOs are expanding their operations dramatically in order to gain a larger share of the drug market. Colombian DTOs are dominant cocaine and heroin traffickers, particularly in the Northeast; however, they are increasingly relinquishing control to Mexican DTOs in order to shield themselves from law enforcement detection. The Mexican DTOs are already major transporters and distributors of cocaine and South American heroin into the U.S. They also distribute cocaine and other drugs to numerous other DTOs and criminal groups that are also active in the United States, the world´s largest users of cocaine and heroin.Other reasons the terrorist have chosen the Mexican DTOs is they control the transportation and wholesale distribution of most illicit drugs in every area of the western hemisphere, exerting unrivaled control over transportation and wholesale distribution of cocaine, Mexican heroin, Mexican marijuana, and ice methamphetamine. Their established overland transportation routes and entrenched distribution networks enable them to supply primary and secondary drug markets throughout these regions. Mexican DTOs are further expanding their influence throughout the world.
The drug distribution is even involving gangs in America and they in turn sale to the street dealers. The street dealers than get the products to the smaller dealers to distribute to our neighbors. All of this creates an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. And that is exactly what the terrorist want.
In a recently released FBI report on gangs operating both in Mexico and the U.S which was meant for law enforcement eyes only says and we quote: That these gangs on both sides of the border perpetrate violence—from assaults to homicides, using firearms, machetes, or blunt objects—to intimidate rival gangs, law enforcement, and the general public. They often target middle and high school students for recruitment. And they form tenuous alliances...and sometimes vicious rivalries...with other criminal groups, depending on their needs at the time.