Posted on 02/27/2005 12:50:24 AM PST by WindOracle
WASHINGTON - Long before he became known to federal authorities as a Honduran gang lord, a man arrested almost three weeks ago near the Texas-Mexico border was regularly picked up by San Francisco police, largely for drug-related crimes, government officials said.
He was in the country illegally. But Ever Anibal Rivera Paz, known as "El Culiche" - The Tapeworm - wasn't deported until 1996, two years after his first arrest, records show. Immigration officials aren't sure why, but they say it may be because he was classified as a juvenile, making it harder to deport him.
Authorities say arrests stretching back to 1993 link to Rivera Paz, reputed to be the leader in Honduras of the notoriously vicious Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gang. He also has been fingered by the Honduran government as one of the masterminds of a Dec. 23 bus attack in Honduras that killed 28 people.
The man being held in federal custody in South Texas on a charge of re-entering the country after deportation is identified as Franklin Jairo Rivera-Hernandez, and the criminal record is attached to that name, authorities said. But officials say it is one of many aliases used by Rivera Paz.
A grand jury is considering the re-entry after deportation charge, said his attorney Darrell Bryan. Their deliberations could conclude by March 9.
"Right now, all he's being charged with is being here illegally after being deported, that's how come everything else we've heard is kind of surprising," Bryan said.
The arrests began in November 1993, when Rivera Paz was picked up on drug trafficking charges. He was treated as a juvenile, but authorities say he was born in October 1975, which would have made him 18 at the time.
Several more arrests followed, including one in 1994 on drug trafficking and an assault charge, which also were handled as charges against a juvenile.
Juveniles who have committed felonies under federal immigration law and tried as adults are deportable. But deporting a juvenile requires authorities to try to find family and take other precautions, said Manny Van Pelt, spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Department of Homeland Security.
Rivera Paz also had several arrests between 1996 and 2001 for robbery, burglary, writing bad checks and criminal conspiracy, with his last arrest occurring in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Details and the outcome of several of the arrests were not available from California officials.
According to federal court records, Rivera Paz had been deported four times between 1996 and 2001. His last deportation, in August 2001, came two months after he was sentenced to 13 days in detention and three years probation for giving police a false identity, the documents said.
Juvenile criminal activity is a trademark of Mara Salvatrucha gang members.
The gang was started by Central American youths, many who came to the United States as children, usually with parents who were fleeing civil war and poverty. They learned the ways of street gangs in Los Angeles and New York. Mass deportations of many of these youths began in 1996 as federal officials attempted to cut down on crime and illegal immigration in America.
A six-month investigation by The Associated Press in 2003 found that many criminal deportees, back in countries they barely remembered, turned to what they learned in the United States to survive - drug dealing, stealing, extortion and murder. They recruited local teens to form the gangs in their countries.
Their operations in the United States have spread to several states, including Texas and North Carolina and northern Virginia.
It was unclear what, if any, impact Rivera Paz's arrest would have on the Mara Salvatrucha operations.
Van Pelt said the gangs work as independent cells. "The cell members or crews would move on to other cells or send a new leader," he said.
With the continuous deportation of criminal immigrants who've been hardened in American prisons, the flow of new leadership is constant, said Bruce Bagley, a professor of international studies at the University of Miami.
The suspect told authorities he re-entered the country Feb. 6, near Hidalgo, Texas - located on the edge of the U.S. side of the Rio Grande.
Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said drug-related gang violence is on the rise in Texas border towns, prompting plans for a task force involving the FBI, U.S. Attorney and U.S. Marshals. But he said MS-13 members seem only to pass through the area, which is crawling with Border Patrol and other federal agents trained to spot them.
"We have no MS-13 members in our county jail. As far as I know we have never arrested any," he said. "It doesn't surprise me that Hidalgo County is being used as a corridor or a gateway into the county ... it is the preferred route for smugglers.
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Associated Press Writer Lynn Brezosky in Harlingen contributed to this report.
"We have no MS-13 members in our county jail. As far as I know we have never arrested any,"
Give it a month or two
Didn't you know that gangs, extortion, murder, and drugs were invented by the United States? I could swear I've heard Al Gore claim credit for each at least once!
I don't read this in "Latino Update".
L.O.L......our government at work.
Amazing the things one can learn on FR. Thanks for the link.
A six-month investigation by The Associated Press in 2003 found that many criminal deportees, back in countries they barely remembered, turned to what they learned in the United States to survive - drug dealing, stealing, extortion and murder. They recruited local teens to form the gangs in their countries.
Well doesn't this article make you all warm and fuzzy toward all illegals?? Oh gosh was that a racist comment? God forbid we should say we don't want illegal's sneaking in and forming gangs and killing citizens, after all isn't that a racist comment?
You bet. :) It's the best news source in the world because there are so many brilliant people who post here, and I'm not talking about me. LOL Very diverse, very educated in many areas. I've learned many things on FR.
"pay the sheriff's dept. to deport."
Should say: "pay the sheriff's dept. to transport."
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