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Central American gangs operating in Indiana


By Yanggu Kang
Staff writer
February 24, 2006


El Salvador-based gangs are increasing their interests to become a U.S.-based clique, and their criminal and organizational skills are improving, Carlos Ponce, director of the Center for Criminology and Police Sciences of the National Civil Police of El Salvador, said Wednesday at the Central American Gangs Conference at ISU.

The conference, sponsored by department of criminology, was from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Dede II and provided police officers, public agencies, professors and students with a chance to share information of Central American gangs, now operating in Indiana.

Ponce, an El Salvador native and ISU graduate with a master's in criminology, presented his research about two main Latino gangs operating in Indiana: Mara Salvatrucha, (MS-13) and 18th Street gangs. He also discussed the brief history and policing information of El Salvador.

"Most gang members are illegal immigrants and commit crimes," Ponce said. "Someone says 'just send them back to home'. They go back to Central America, commit crimes, and then come back to the U.S." with other gang members.

Salvadorian gangs have a domestic and transnational network, Ponce said, so we need to look at a large criminal network to justify our public life.

David Skelton, professor and chairman of the department of criminology at ISU, said the conference is aimed at providing information to police and public agencies that lack information of gangs' activities, although gangs are actively operating in Indiana. Also, people conducting academic research are able to grab what is going on their jobs through the conference, Skelton said.

Representatives from Indiana Department of Correction, Indianapolis/Marion County Joint Gang Task Force and ISU criminology department's associate professors presented their research on Latino gangs at the conference.

It is the first time that the ISU criminology department has sponsored the conference about Central American gangs, Skelton said. The department of criminology at ISU has a strong ongoing relationship with the National Civil Police of El Salvador, and the department and the agency have been researching homicides in El Salvador together, he said.

Skelton hopes the conference increases a good image of the ISU criminology department and encourages agencies to hire students because the conference provides an opportunity to the department to interact with these agencies and to expose its educational programs to them.

He plans for the department to arrange conferences more frequently, he said.

Brittany Coffman, a junior criminology major, said she attended the conference because she is interested in gangs, which she is studying in class. Statistics presented by Shannon Barton-Beellesa and Phillip Shon, associate professors of criminology at ISU, interested her, with their research on gang-related homicides in El Salvador, she said.

Joe Leinberger, a graduate student studying criminology, said he enjoyed data of MS-13 gangs and the issues inside gangs and learned how easily gangs assault people and how many different types of gangs exist through the presentations. He said he deepened his knowledge about the specific subject and learned what he did not learn in class.

A graduate student studying criminology Tim Wimberley, said he came to the conference to seek highlights of what he learned about the subject previously. He said he found the presentations to be informative.

Wimberley said he learned that the gangs' activities affect society as a whole.

He particularly enjoyed Ponce's first presentation that highlighted the history of El Salvador during its civil war from 1981 to 1992, to the downfall of the Communist government, Wimberley said.

Wimberley was also concerned with 18th Street gangs operating around West Washington Street in Indianapolis because his daughter lives near there with her grandparents, he said.

Lin Presley, director of Operational Support Services of Indiana Department of Correction, listed in her presentation many types of security threat groups who disturb public safety.

Leo George, a representative of the Marion County Sheriff's Office and Indianapolis and Marion County's Joint Gang Task Force, provided a variety of data about Latino gangs operating in Indiana. He also presented criminal tendencies and characteristics of MS-13 and Eighteenth Street gangs inhabiting Washington Street in Indianapolis, using their pictures, their symbols and their victims.

Barton-Bellessa said gangs' crimes have different significance from other crimes, so it's important to continue research to confront the crimes.