MS-13

Mara Salvatrucha

Mara Salvatrucha gang member with gang's name tattooed on his back
Years active	1980 - present
Territory	North America, Central America
Ethnicity	Latino
Membership	70,000 [1]
Criminal activities	Drug trafficking, robbery, Auto theft, human trafficking, illegal immigration, money laundering, murder, pandering, racketeering, assault, kidnapping and arms trafficking.
Allies	Sinaloa Cartel, La Familia Michoacana
Rivals	Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, Los Zetas, Juarez Cartel, 18th Street gang

Mara Salvatrucha (commonly abbreviated as MS, Mara, and MS-13) is a transnational criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles and has spread to other parts of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America. The majority of the gang is ethnically composed of Central Americans and active in urban and suburban areas.

Members of MS distinguish themselves by tattoos covering the body and also often the face as well as the use of an own sign language. They are notorious for their use of violence and a subcultural moral code that predominantly consists of merciless revenge and cruel retributions.

This excessive cruelty of the distinguished members of the "Maras" or "Mareros", earned them a path to be recruited by the criminal organization of Sinaloa, Joaquin Guzman, to be trained in handling weapons and counter the force from the Gulf Organization (Los Zetas), a war that rages south of the United States Border.

History

The Mara Salvatrucha gang originated in Los Angeles, set up in the 1980s by Salvadoran immigrants in the city's Pico-Union neighborhood who immigrated to the United States after the Central American civil wars of the 1980s. There is some dispute about the etymology of the name (see below: Etymology). The most common belief is that Mara refers to the word for gang in Spanish slang; it is suggested that Salvatrucha refers to the Salvadoran guerrillas, the source of much of the gang's early manpower.

Originally, the gang's main purpose was to protect Salvadoran immigrants from other, more established gangs of Los Angeles, who were predominantly composed of Mexicans and African-Americans.

Many Mara Salvatrucha gang members from the Los Angeles area have been deported after being arrested. As a result of these deportations, members of MS have recruited more members in their home countries. The Los Angeles Times contends that deportation policies have contributed to the size and influence of the gang both in the United States and in Central America. According to the 2009 National Gang Threat Assessment, "The gang is estimated to have 30,000 to 50,000 members and associate members worldwide, 8,000 to 10,000 of whom reside in the United States" [2].

In recent years the gang has expanded into the Washington, D.C. area, in particular the areas of Langley Park and Takoma Park near the Washington border have become centers of MS gang activity. Their wide-ranging activities and elevated status has even caught the eye of the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who recently initiated wide-scale raids against known and suspected gang members netting hundreds of arrests across the country.

Publicized crimes

On July 13, 2003, Brenda Paz, a 17-year-old female, former MS member turned informant was found stabbed on the banks of the Shenandoah River in Virginia. Paz was killed for informing the FBI about Mara Salvatrucha criminal activities. Two of her former friends were later convicted of the murder.

In 2004, the FBI created the MS National Gang Task Force. In 2005, the FBI helped create a National Gang Information Center and outlined a National Gang Strategy for Congress.

On December 23, 2004, one of the most widely publicized MS crimes in Central America occurred in Chamelecón, Honduras when an intercity bus was intercepted and sprayed with automatic gunfire, killing 28 civilian passengers, most of whom were women and children. MS organized the massacre as a protest against the Honduran government for proposing a restoration of the death penalty in Honduras. Six gunmen raked the bus with gunfire. As passengers screamed and ducked, another gunman climbed aboard and methodically executed passengers. In February 2007, Juan Carlos Miranda Bueso and Darwin Alexis Ramírez were found guilty of several crimes including murder and attempted murder. Ebert Anibal Rivera was held over the attack and was arrested after having fled to Texas. Juan Bautista Jimenez, accused of masterminding the massacre, was killed in prison. According to the authorities, fellow MS-13 inmates hanged him. There was insufficient evidence to convict Óscar Fernando Mendoza and Wilson Geovany Gómez.

An MS suspect bearing gang tattoos is handcuffed.

On May 13, 2006, Ernesto "Smokey" Miranda, an ex-high ranking soldier and one of the founders of Mara Salvatrucha, was murdered at his home in El Salvador a few hours after declining to attend a party for a gang member who had just been released from prison. He had begun studying law and working to keep children out of gangs.

On June 4, 2008, in Toronto, Ontario, police executed 22 search warrants, made 17 arrests and laid 63 charges following a five-month investigation.

On June 22, 2008, in San Francisco, California, a 21-year old MS gang member, Edwin Ramos, shot and killed a father, Anthony Bologna, 48, and his two sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16, after their car briefly blocked Ramos from completing a left turn down a narrow street as they were returning home from a family barbecue.

On November 26, 2008, Jonathan Retana was convicted of the murder of Miguel Angel Deras, which the authorities linked to an MS initiation.

In 2008, the MS task force coordinated a series of arrests and crackdowns in the U.S. and Central America that involved more than 6,000 police officers in five countries. Seventy-three suspects were arrested in the U.S.; in all, more than 650 were taken into custody.

In February 2009, authorities in Colorado and California arrested 20 members of MS and seized 10 pounds of methamphetamine, 2.3 kilograms (5 pounds) of cocaine, a small amount of heroin, 12 firearms and $3,300 in cash.

In June 2009, Edwin Ortiz, Jose Gomez Amaya and Alexander Aguilar were MS gang members from Long Island who had mistaken bystanders for rival gang members. As a result, two innocent civilians were shot. Edgar Villalobos, a laborer was killed.

Illegal immigration and human smuggling

According to The Washington Times, MS "is thought to have established a major smuggling center" in Mexico. There were reports by the Minuteman Project that MS members were ordered to Arizona to target U.S. Border Patrol agents and Minuteman Project volunteers.

In 2005, Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez and the President of El Salvador raised alarm by claiming that Muslim terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda was meeting with Mara Salvatrucha and other Central American gangs to help them infiltrate the United States. FBI agents said that the U.S. intelligence community and governments of several Central American countries found there is no basis to believe that MS is connected to Al-Qaeda or other Islamic radicals, although Oscar did visit Central America to discuss the issue.

Robert Morales, a prosecutor for Guatemala, indicated to The Globe and Mail that some Central American gang members seek refugee status in Canada. Superintendent of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police integrated gang task force, John Robin, said in an interview that "I think [gang members] have a feeling that police here won't treat them in the harsh manner they get down there." Robin noted that Canadian authorities "want to avoid ending up like the U.S., which is dealing with the problem of Central American gangsters on a much bigger scale".

On the southern border of Mexico, the gang has unleashed violence against migrants.

Etymology

There are various possible explanations for the name Mara Salvatrucha. Some sources state the gang is named for La Mara, a street in San Salvador, and the Salvatrucha guerrillas who fought in the Salvadoran Civil War. Additionally, the word mara means gang in Caliche and is taken from marabunta, the name of a fierce type of ant. "Salvatrucha" may be a combination of the words Salvadoran and trucha, a Caliche word for being alert.

An MS gang sign and tattoos.

Gang markings and hand signs

Many Mara Salvatrucha members cover themselves in tattoos. Common markings include "MS", "Salvatrucha", the "Devil Horns", the name of their clique, and other symbols. A December 2007 CNN internet news article stated that the gang was moving away from the tattoos in an attempt to commit crimes without being noticed.

Members of Mara Salvatrucha, like members of most modern American gangs, utilize a system of hand signs for purposes of identification and communication. One of the most commonly displayed is the "devil's head" which forms an 'M' when displayed upside down. This hand sign is similar to the same symbol commonly seen displayed by heavy metal musicians and their fans. Founders of Mara Salvatrucha borrowed the hand sign after attending concerts of heavy metal bands.

In film

• Principal characters of the feature movie Sin Nombre (2009) are members of MS in Chiapas, Mexico and many of the traditions and practices of MS are depicted accurately (killings, tattoos, initiation, exploitation of migrants, etc).

References

Further reading

• Samuel Logan This Is for the Mara Salvatrucha - Inside the MS-13, America's Most Violent Gang, 2009
• Tom Diaz No Boundaries: Transnational Latino Gangs and American Law Enforcement, Ann Arbor, M.I.: University of Michigan Press, 2009.
• Ana Arana, “How the Street Gangs Took Central America,” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2005.
• Federico Brevé The Maras: A Menace to the Americas, Military Review, July-August 2007.
• UNODC, May 2007; Washington Office on Latin America and the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) Transnational Youth Gangs in Central America, Mexico and the United States, March 2007.

See also

• Criminal tattoos
• 18th Street gang
• Gangs
• Maras (gangs)
• Organized crime
• List of California street gangs
• Gangs in the United States
• Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)

External links

• MS Current News and Analysis
• Samuel Logan "This Is For The Mara Salvatrucha" by Samuel Logan
• "18 with a Bullet" Wide Angle PBS
• "How the Street Gangs Took Central America" May/June 2005 Foreign Affairs
• "Gangs, Terrorists, and Trade" April 12, 2007 in Foreign Policy In Focus
• National Geographic post-investigation essay.
• FBI Press release, 24 June 2008