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Feds gang up on MS-13, nab 63 alleged members
By Michele McPhee
Tuesday, August 2, 2005 - Updated: 03:08 AM EST

A federal takedown aimed at crushing MS-13 – an international Salvadoran gang with strong roots in East Boston – has led to the arrests of 63 alleged gang members in the Boston area, White House officials announced yesterday.

The government began cracking down on MS-13 and other Latino gangs in March with "Operation Community Shield," soon after the Herald reported the threat that the gang, which has a stronghold in Maverick Square, poses to East Boston.

Members of MS-13 overseas have been linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, the Herald reported in January. MS-13 members have been arrested alongside militant Muslims sneaking into Texas from Mexico.

In the past two weeks, 582 alleged gangbangers have been busted in 27 states across the country on immigration and criminal charges. Some 515 of those belong to MS-13, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said yesterday.

Of the 63 arrested in Bay State sweeps over the past two weeks, 29 were caught in East Boston, 12 in Chelsea, with the majority of the others busted in Lynn, Somerville and Peabody, federal officials said.

"Operation Community Shield targets violent street gangs. When it was rolled out, MS-13 was the primary target," said Paula Grenier, spokeswoman for the Boston office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Boston had the largest number of gang members arrested of any state in the country, Grenier said, but the gang is a threat nationally.

"We are putting these street gangs on notice: Your violence and criminal activities will not go unchallenged," said the director of ICE's Office of Investigations, Marcy Forman.

During a press conference in Washington, D.C., Forman referenced one of the 63 gangbangers arrested in the Boston area. "There was an MS-13 gang member in Boston whose criminal history includes assaulting a police officer, and assault and battery with a weapon," said Forman.

According to the federal Department of Justice 2005 Gang Threat Assessment report, "MS-13 has been found to be a serious threat in Massachusetts. The gang . . . has an affinity for excessive violence and little respect for law enforcement." [continue]

Grenier said the majority of those arrested on the North Shore were MS-13 members, but also seized were reputed gang members from the 18th Street Gang, Vatos Locos, the Bloods and the Mexican Mafia.

The Boston Police Department has been monitoring the criminal activity of MS-13 in East Boston since 1995. The growing number of MS-13 members, and the degree of violence the gang engages in, prompted investigators from 14 local and national agencies to form the North Shore Gang Intelligence Task Force in 2000, a group led by BPD Sgt. Det. Joseph Fiandaca.

At least three MS-13 members were rearrested in Boston this year, months after they had been deported for criminal activity. It was unclear how they managed to get back in the country.