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FBI calls for teamwork as thugs seek foothold
Local gangs' absence creates tempting void
Friday, February 17, 2006
By Michelle Hunter
East Jefferson bureau
The winds of Hurricane Katrina might have blown New Orleans' violent yet unsophisticated street gangs out of town. But the FBI warns that it's only a matter of time before more brutal and better-organized criminal groups, some from outside the state and some from outside of the country, try to fill the void.


The FBI invited more than 200 officers from local, state and national law enforcement agencies to a seminar Thursday in Metairie to discuss the threat, and in his introduction to the packed house, Jim Bernazzani, special agent in charge of the New Orleans field office, identified some of the potential criminal carpetbaggers as Russian organized crime, the Latin Kings and MS-13, an ultra-violent Latin American gang already menacing 23 states with drug and firearms trafficking. MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, has dubiously earned its own federal task force.

"There are going to be a lot of players in town," Bernazzani said. "We're going to have a full plate, no question about it."

Last week, the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office booked a former MS-13 member with marijuana possession, said Maj. John Doran, head of the Special Criminal Investigations Division.

"The stories this guy was telling," Doran said. "Bad stuff . . . contract killings. We're not used to anything like that around here."

And in Kenner, gang graffiti is popping up on some buildings, including "MS-13" painted on a store on Williams Boulevard. Capt. James Gallagher, a Police Department spokesman, said there's been no indication that the tagging is connected to actual gang activity.

Bernazzani agreed there's no information that multinational gangs are here in any organized fashion. Most likely, individual members are here to make a quick buck in the reconstruction boom, sprinkled among the more than 50,000 Latin American workers in town to help after the storm, he said.

The vast majority of the workers are good people who simply want to earn honest money. "But there are some who are craftsman, carpenters and electricians by day and bad guys at night," Bernazzani said.

When multinational mobs tried in the past to gain a foothold in the New Orleans area, they were driven off or killed by local gangs, Bernazzani said. Now the local gangs are scattered across the country.

Some might return. But as the general population returns to the city, so do certain criminal industries such as drug trafficking and prostitution. It's possible that multinational gangs could soon send in scouts to report back with any opportunities.

"They're banking on us being decimated," Doran said.

The FBI's concerns aren't tied to ethnicity but criminal activity, Bernazzani said. On Feb. 3, the New Orleans Gang Task Force seized an 18-wheeler with 100 pounds of marijuana and 50,000 tablets of Ecstasy that Bernazzani said was intended for distribution during Carnival, arranged by an Asian gang with ties to New Orleans, New Jersey and Canada.

The key to combating the multinational gang threat will be cooperation among law enforcement agencies. The FBI has joined with the New Orleans Police Department and the Jefferson, St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parish sheriff's offices to form the Metropolitan Violent Crime Center. Through the center, local law officers will have access to background information on multinational gangs: leader biographies, tattoos, recognition signals and hierarchy. And they'll be able to share their information with one another.

Through aggressive policing and cooperation, Bernazzani said, law enforcement could keep a lid on the problem.

"The key is to take them out before they gain too much traction," he said.

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Michelle Hunter may be reached at mhunter@timespicayune.com or (504) 883-7054.