'Criminal Organizations Deepen Extortion Activities in U.S.'

August 10, 2011

Written by Geoffrey Ramsey


Extortion has long been a favored tactic of drug gangs in Central America and Mexico, but evidence suggests that criminal organizations may be increasingly running these activities from inside the United States, potentially even targeting U.S. businesses and residents.

According to El Salvador’s Contrapunto, individuals associated with the Mara Salvatrucha street gang, known as MS-13, have been using U.S. banks to launder money gained from extortion since 2005. The publication claims that the incident is known to police as the “Western Union case,â€