Crackdown nets 103 members of Honduran gang known as MS-13 ~~

KRON4 ^ | August 1, 2005 | AP

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

WASHINGTON Federal agents have dealt a serious blow to the violent Honduran street gang known as M-S-13.Using information from local and state law enforcement agencies, federal agents charged 103 members with a range of criminal and immigration counts.

The arrests came in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Newark, Miami and Dallas metropolitan areas over the last several weeks.

The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which headed up the operation, calls M-S-13 one of the largest and most violent street gangs in the U-S with the majority of its members in the country illegally.

The gang has carried out beheadings and grenade attacks in Central America and here in this country is known to hack its enemies with machetes in cities along the East Coast.

[Cindy]

http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special03/articles/0508mara-gang080.html

"Violent gang using Arizona as gateway
Officials: Members just passing through"
Susan Carroll
Republic Tucson Bureau
May. 8, 2005 12:00 AM

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "TUCSON - Members of the notorious international street gang Mara Salvatrucha are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border through southern Arizona, and U.S. Border Patrol agents have arrested about 10 gang members in the past year, federal officials said.

Although members may be passing through Arizona, the gang does not appear to be settling here, according to federal and local law enforcement officials in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Tucson and Yuma.

The gang, commonly known as MS-13, is a band of Salvadorans with a penchant for violence and ties deep into Central America. It has been linked by law enforcement to murders from Honduras to Los Angeles to Virginia."

[Cindy]

http://www.wtop.com/index.php?nid=25&sid=551538

AP


Duncan Calls for More Action to Battle Gangs
Updated: Sunday, Aug. 7, 2005 - 3:15 PM

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "ROCKVILLE, Md. - Montgomery County's executive says many approaches are needed to combat gangs, including more recreational activities and job programs for young people.
Doug Duncan made those remarks as Montgomery County police announced the arrest of six people in connection with Friday's stabbings at a high school and shopping mall.

Police say all the suspects, as well as all six victims, are members of rival Salvadorian gangs."

[HiTech RedNeck]

Should we be so quick to hustle these folks back across the border? If it's MS13, it's trouble.

[philetus]

Losing 103 members must be hard on them.

Composed of mostly Salvadorans and other Central Americans—many of them undocumented—the gang has a uniquely international profile, with an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 members in 33 states in the United States (out of more than 700,000 gang members overall), and tens of thousands more in Central America.