Free Republic

SAN DIEGO – A member of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha street gang was caught among a group of illegal immigrants Monday by Border Patrol agents in rugged country near Jamul. Javier Cortez Majano, 23, was among a group of five people stopped about 6 a.m. about two miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, said Border Patrol spokesman Mark Endicott. A records check showed that Cortez, a Honduran national, was a member of the gang, also known as MS-13, and had a criminal history in Arkansas, Endicott said. Founded in Southern California by Salvadoran immigrants in the 1980s, Mara Salvatrucha has...

TONACATEPEQUE, El Salvador — Police said on Wednesday they found the remains of what they believe to be eight to 10 gang victims at the bottom of a well outside El Salvador’s capital. Five detectives were lowered about 100 feet into the well, where they found skulls, bones, hair and possibly the remains of a child, federal homicide investigator Israel Antonio Ticas said. Police suspect the victims were killed by members of Mara Salvatrucha, a violent street gang with roots in Central America and strong ties in Houston. About two dozen of the gang members operate in and around Tonacatepeque,...

In December 2008, U.S. citizen, security expert, and hostage negotiator Felix Batista was kidnapped in Saltillo, in the state of Coahuila, Mexico, as he stood outside a local restaurant. Batista, who works for Houston-based ASI Global, has negotiated the release of hostages being held by Columbian terrorists. He has also been instrumental in gaining the safe return of many kidnap victims in Mexico. Law enforcement officials on both sides of the border believe that the brutal enforcers known as the Zetas, working for the Gulf Cartel abducted Batista in a display of their power, and as an act of retaliation...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://baltimore.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/ba011209.htm MS-13 MEMBER SENTENCED TO 30 YEARS FOR RACKETEERING CONSPIRACY Participated in the Murders of Rival Gang Members Greenbelt, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow sentenced Eris Marchante-Rivas, also known as Strayboy, age 24, of Hyattsville, Maryland, today to 30 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for conspiracy to conduct and participate in racketeering enterprise activities of MS-13, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Department of Justice Criminal Division. “We are working...

The teenagers weren't thinking about last-minute holiday purchases when they pulled into the Montgomery County shopping mall two days before Christmas. Instead, one of the teens later told police, the group went to the crowded mall to randomly shoot someone. All four, including a 14-year-old girl, are members of the Bloods street gang in Prince George's County, authorities said. Two of them opened fire in the parking lot of Westfield Wheaton Shopping Centre when they spotted members of a rival gang, police said. In announcing the arrests yesterday, county police said the four were being held on charges of attempted...

Border communities from Tucson, Ariz. to Brownsville on Saturday will celebrate the end of Michael Chertoff's term as Homeland Security Secretary with piñatas, music and a retirement cake. There's only one catch: Chertoff isn't invited. Some of the secretary's most vocal critics will gather at Brownsville's Galeria 409, just a few yards from where the fence will be constructed, to commemorate what they consider Chertoff's disastrous tenure. "This is not a protest disguised as a party - this is a party," said Scott Nicol, of the No Border Wall Coalition. "Chertoff has only been secretary for three years but he...

Woman suspects shooting, sexual assault tied to her activism on illegal immigration EVERETT -- First a north Everett man was seriously wounded when a narrow-faced stranger burst into his home Dec. 22 and began shooting. On Monday night, while the shooting victim was still in the hospital, his wife called police to report that a trio of intruders had just ambushed her in her kitchen. She was beaten, sexually assaulted and slashed on the back of her neck with a knife, she told officers. Everett police acknowledge they aren't quite sure what to make of the violent events recently reported...

Columbus police and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security arrested 15 gang members today, saying they had cast fear over the Latino community. The arrests of 14 men and one woman were made between 3 and 7 p.m. on the North Side. Tamarack Circle and areas around I-71 and Rt. 161 were targeted, officials said. All 15 are in custody at the Franklin County jail and elsewhere, said Cmdr. Jeffrey Blackwell of the Columbus Police Strategic Response Bureau. Their names weren't available late tonight. Everyone arrested today was an illegal immigrant and affiliated with the MS-13 gang, which originated in...

Over 40 Murders Reported this Week CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - New details on a deadly discovery across the border from El Paso. This morning police in Ciudad Juarez say at least 12 masked gun men opened fire inside an upscale seafood restaurant and killed at least eight people. The attack comes a day after seven men were found executed in a school soccer field in an upper class neighborhood in Juarez. In all, 40 murders were reported over the holiday week along the border near El Paso. Police say the men were armed with AK-47 and fired off more than...

Two suspected MS 13 gang members accused of fatally shooting a 14-year-old student on a Maryland public bus were arrested Thursday on a Metro bus in Houston. Gilmar Leonardo Romero, 20, is charged with first degree murder in the Nov. 1 shooting death of Tai Lam at a Maryland bus stop. Mario Ernesto Milan-Canales, 30, is charged as an accessory after the fact. Milan-Canales was present at the time of the shooting and also allegedly attempted to destroy evidence, said Montgomery County (Maryland) Police Department Lt. Paul Starkes. The men had been under surveillance by members of the U.S. Marshals...

Police say the man responsible for killing a Montgomery Blair High School honors student in an unprovoked shooting on a crowded bus is not only a member of a notorious street gang, but an illegal alien as well. On Monday, Montgomery County police said they arrested a 20-year-old man and obtained warrants for two other suspects in connection with the murder of 14-year-old Tai Lam on Nov. 1. Police arrested Hector Mauricio Hernandez, of Takoma Park, on Friday, Nov. 7 and charged him with first-degree murder, after he allegedly shot a handgun into a crowded bus after exiting, striking and...

Just weeks before police say an illegal immigrant and alleged MS-13 gang member shot and killed a 14-year-old Silver Spring boy, the 20-year-old man was charged with concealing a dangerous weapon by a Montgomery County police officer, court records show. The citation was issued on Oct. 3, a little less than a month before police say Hector Hernandez — an El Salvadoran illegal immigrant living in Takoma Park — opened fire on a Montgomery County bus, killing Tai Lam and wounding two other teens, ages 14 and 15. Hernandez was with four or five other alleged gang members when he...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Federal authorities in San Francisco unveiled an indictment today against 29 people allegedly tied to a street gang, accusing the group of engaging in murder, drug trafficking, witness tampering, car theft and extortion. Those indicted include alleged senior leaders in the San Francisco faction of the Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13 gang, which originated in Los Angeles, has ties to El Salvador and is renowned for its savage tactics, federal prosecutors said. Most recently, authorities say, members of San Francisco's 20th Street clique of the gang have been tied to at least five slayings in the city, including...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Federal immigration authorities raided more than a dozen locations in San Francisco, Richmond and South San Francisco today, arresting several alleged members of the notorious MS-13 street gang, authorities said. Authorities said the investigation targeted a San Francisco-based faction of the violent group, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, which started in Southern California with roots in El Salvador. "This is a major take-down," said Northern California U.S. Attorney Joe Russoniello, adding that the investigation dealt with alleged drug trafficking, gun running, terrorism and extortion activities of the group. He declined to provide further details about the raids....

WASHINGTON (October 1, 2008) – A new Center for Immigration Studies Backgrounder finds that immigration law enforcement has been highly effective in fighting gang activity around the country. Local law enforcement agencies that shun involvement with immigration law enforcement are missing an opportunity to protect their communities, according to the authors. Since 2005, ICE has arrested more than 8,000 immigrant gangsters from more than 700 different gangs under an initiative known as Operation Community Shield. The Backgrounder,'Taking Back the Streets: ICE and Local Law Enforcement Target Immigrant Gangs,' by Jessica M. Vaughan and Jon D. Feere, was funded by the...

There are a lot of people who have forgotten about the heinous Newark schoolyard killings last year. (Background links.) I haven’t. And neither have law enforcement authorities and prosecutors in New Jersey, who have worked hard over the past year to bring the MS-13-linked barbarians to justice. Six indictments were handed down today. And officials are now formally acknowledging the illegal alien gang ties and motivations behind the brutal crimes: Prosecutors said for the first time today that the slayings of three college students in a Newark schoolyard last year had a “strong gang component” that was downplayed at the...

Yreka, Calif. - Siskiyou County Sheriff Rick Riggins said that approximately 100,000 marijuana plants were discovered at various garden locations in western Siskiyou County last week. Involved in the discoveries were the Sheriff’s Office Marijuana Eradication Team, Siskiyou County Sheriff’s deputies, Jackson County Sheriff’s deputies, the United States Forest Service, the Department of Fish and Game, and the California Highway Patrol Air Division. Riggins noted that a representative from the Fish and Game Department came along to assess the damage to the environment caused by marijuana operations. Riggins said that on Friday, the agencies involved discovered a garden in the...

Terrance Aeriel, 18, Dashon Harvey, 20, and Iofemi Hightower, 20 Murdered, execution-style, for the crime of being black. Murdered as a part of an enthic-cleansing program being run by Mexican gangs here in the U.S., with operational control coming from a criminal syndicate in Mexico. The plan? To clear neighborhoods of blacks so that they will be 100% hispanic. No, it's not a joke. It's not overwrought xenophobia (something for which this site is NOT known.) It's very very real, and Harvey, Hightower, and Aeriel and his sister are not the only victims.Michelle Malkin, bless her, has been staying...

NEWARK, N.J. — Three men and three teenagers were indicted Monday on murder and other charges for the execution-style slayings that shocked New Jersey's largest city more than a year ago. The grand jury charged all six suspects, who have reputed links to the MS-13 street gang, with murder, attempted murder, robbery and weapons offenses related to the Aug. 4, 2007 killings. Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow said the indictments took a year because charges against the three teens were upgraded from juvenile to adult court, and because multiple agencies worked together to make sure the case was airtight Those...

PHOENIX -- The fastest-growing gang in the world is coming to Arizona -- a trend that makes federal agents along the U.S.-Mexico border uncomfortable. Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, is known for its violence and guerilla warfare training, experts said. "From Oct. 1 until the end of July we've seen over 50 different people involved in not only MS-13, but a number of different gangs affiliated with them," Scioli said. "Just in the past week we've had five." According to law enforcement personnel, MS-13 members come to Arizona because its position on the border makes it a hot spot for drugs...