Thread: Grappling with Gangs

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Grappling with Gangs
June 25,2006
Andres R. Martinez
Monitor Staff Writer


MISSION — Family and gang were one and the same for Leobardo Villarreal. So in March it was no coincidence that federal authorities finally arrested Villarreal, a 22-year-old second-generation member of the gang Hermano Pistoleros, through a tip they got after arresting his father and fellow gang member Juan Eladio Villarreal-Saenza, officials said. The Pistoleros, whom the FBI says Mexican drug cartels are hiring to run drugs and do contract killings, operate in Mexico and the United States.
They are highly mobile, organized criminals who also happen to be illegal aliens, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

While the federal government is dedicating many of its resources to battling international gangs, some local law enforcers believe there are local gangs that pose a greater problem in the Rio Grande Valley.

The father-and-son arrests were part of a year-old Department of Homeland Security initiative called “Operation Community Shield,” which has led to the arrest of 2,388 gang members nationwide.

The gang members arrested in this federal sweep represent the most dangerous criminal threat in the United States today, officials say.

Those arrested through that operation include members of the 18th Street Gang, Latin Kings, Big Time Killers and Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.

MS-13, the most violent in the eyes of the federal government, has been held responsible for brutal retaliatory deaths in Los Angeles and the Washington, D.C., area.

New Approach

The Villarreals are the best example of the trend of “transnational, violent” street gangs that are becoming increasingly hard to combat because they operate on both sides of the border.

Most of the gang members are deported, but ones like the elder Villarreal, who are felons, are jailed in U.S. prisons. They face additional jail time if they illegally re-enter the country.

These gangs have spread to the Valley and the Texas border, said Alonzo Peña, ICE’s special agent-in-charge for the San Antonio Office of Investigations.

The gangs in the Valley have begun to form alliances, Peña said, or at least work in connection with the drug cartels in Mexico.

Currently, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and ICE are investigating reports of gang members in Laredo who are working as hit men in Nuevo Laredo, Peña said. That’s separate from the actual drug smuggling for the cartels in which many Valley gangs are already involved.

Federal investigators believe the contract murders involving border gang members have contributed to the escalation of violence in Nuevo Laredo, he said.

Peña, through ICE spokeswoman Nina Pruneda, would not give details about the case or with what gangs the suspects are affiliated.

Although those cases involve violence in Nuevo Laredo, where more than 100 people have been murdered in connection to the drug trade this year, there is already proof the same type of contract killing is happening here in the Valley.

Gonzalo Artemio Lopez, a Valley gang member, told authorities before his capital murder trial in Edinburg last year that he carried out a murder for the La Mana drug cartel from Tamaulipas. Lopez was convicted.

Valley Gangs
While “Community Shield” has gained a lot of attention nationwide, local officers question whether international gangs are the most pressing organized crime issue in the Valley.

In fact, there seems to be next to no overlap in how federal and local authorities combat gangs.

Many officers in local departments point to gangs like the Mexican Mafia, Texas Syndicate and Tri-City Bombers as the most dangerous.

And they point to how the Texas Syndicate and Mexican Mafia prison gangs spawned from Valley gangs into larger organizations to illustrate how ICE’s jailing of violent gang members does not deter criminal activity in the long term.

For example, local gangs that were mostly involved in petty crimes 20 years ago have now grown into full-time criminal outfits smuggling drugs, carrying out hits and laundering money, according to Edinburg Detective Robert Alvarez, a veteran gang investigator.

“A lot of the guys we arrested when they were 17 went to jail,” Alvarez said. “And I then had to arrest them for gang activity at 28.”

When they do go to jail, they get deeper into gang life, he said.

He’s not sure spending time going after international gangs will clean up the Valley. It’s not a top priority for local officers, as it is for federal agencies, he says.

Some critics cite the detention and removal policy, which DHS now advocates, as the very reason why these illegal alien gangs are growing into international threats.

The most well-known example, they say, is Mara Salvatrucha — also known as MS-13. The gang started in the 1980s with the influx of Salvadoran immigrants to Los Angeles.

Many of the MS-13 members were in fact here illegally and eventually deported back to El Salvador or other Central American countries, where over time the organization recruited more members and cemented their roots. Many of the current members in the United States have snuck back in since being deported.

Reform Needed

Peña admits that a greater strategy aimed at eliminating the gangs must be developed; but, he said, ICE is only empowered to do so much. Because foreign countries are starting to crack down on these gangs, deporting them is a much more feasible option, he said.

“It is much more effective to get them off the streets,” Peña said. “We are starting to see in their countries that their countries are aggressively pursuing them.”

Local officers are just as critical about the other option ICE is using: incarceration.

Incarcerating these gang members in the United States will only help them spread, just like gangs native to the Valley spread in the late ’80s and early ’90s, Alvarez said.

Gangs in the Valley have evolved from ones with members who committed petty crimes in order to claim their “turf,” to well-structured and disciplined gangs involved in violent crime and drugs, Alvarez said.

Many of the gangs have tiered structures, similar to the military. It’s not unlikely to see a group assign military ranks.

Alvarez, a former Hidalgo County detention officer, saw first-hand how gang bosses manipulated the jail system and were able to still communicate with their underlings as effectively as if they were on the outside.

“They don’t disband, especially if they get rooted in the prison system,” he said.
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Andres R. Martinez covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434. For this and more local stories, visit www.themonitor.com.

Many of the gangs have tiered structures, similar to the military. It’s not unlikely to see a group assign military ranks.

The gangs in the Valley have begun to form alliances, Peña said, or at least work in connection with the drug cartels in Mexico.

Are these gangs becoming Mexico's invasion force? This is a serious question. Has anyone found any evidence of this? With links?

Originally Posted by curiouspat

Are these gangs becoming Mexico's invasion force? This is a serious question. Has anyone found any evidence of this? With links?

I would imagine that liberal extremists in the US harp about their "rights" or claim that poor Mexicans turn to crime because of "white racism"; expect to see universities give gang members scholarships as Mexican thugs become the next hip and trendy cause of the Academic establishment.

Remember, the US HAS become a communist country. That is why illegals get rallies and citizens are not allowed to protest. We have just gotten taken over by the same type of Leninist elements that destroyed Russia in the 1900's.

The invasion is already complete.

These must be the family values that George Bush keeps speaking of