Thread: Gang Members Arrested in Major International Crackdown

Gang Members Arrested in Major International Crackdown
By MARK SHERMAN, AP

WASHINGTON (Sept. 9) - More than 650 suspected members of MS-13 and other gangs were arrested in the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in a coordinated crackdown on violent Hispanic gangs, officials said Thursday.

But even as a senior FBI official set a goal of dismantling MS-13 in the next 18 months, police officials from the other countries described vast challenges in quelling gang activity in their prisons and disrupting recruitment.

The roundup, conducted Wednesday by 6,400 law enforcement officers in the five countries, was run out of FBI headquarters in Washington, FBI assistant director Chris Swecker said.

"Our end game is to take out the leadership elements especially," Swecker said at a news conference. "These arrests are a means to that end."

Police and federal agents made 73 arrests, more than half on immigration charges, in 13 states, Swecker said. Thirty-two people were arrested in California alone.

Authorities also arrested 237 people in El Salvador, 162 in Honduras, 98 in Guatemala and 90 in Mexico. The arrests in Mexico all took place in the southern Chiapas state, near the border with Guatemala.

MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, originated in Los Angeles among Central American immigrants. An estimated 10,000 MS-13 members are in the U.S., with the highest concentrations in Los Angeles, New York, northern Virginia and Maryland, the FBI said.

MS-13 may have as many as 50,000 members in the other four countries, officials said.

The foreign police officials said they are all but powerless to stop gang activity in the prison population. "The gang leader must die," said Gen. Mirna Suazo Rivera of the Honduran National Preventive Police.

In El Salvador, poor areas are fertile recruiting grounds, where "10,000 gang members have 10,000 families, brothers, sons, nephews, cousins," said Douglas Omar Garcia-Funes, the country's assistant director of investigations.
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article ... 0009990016

Just another article from the FBI

AGENTS & OFFICERS TARGET MS-13 IN OREGON
Federal agents and local officers joined together today to make contact with six self-described MS-13 gang members in Oregon. This is part of a national initiative to address the gang's growing influence in America. After federal and local investigators questioned these members about gang activity in the Portland and Salem regions, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took four of these people into custody for immigration violations. Due to restrictions under federal law, the names of those people will not be released.

"The rapid growth of and violence typically associated with MS-13 is very concerning to law enforcement throughout the country," said Robert J. Jordan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Oregon. "We are seeing the beginnings of a movement of members to Oregon, and we are very serious about making sure MS-13 can't establish a strong foothold in our communities."

MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha Trece, started in California in the late 1980's. It has an estimated 8,000 - 10,000 members nationwide. Members are mostly Salvadoran nationals or first generation Salvadoran Americans, but they also include immigrants from Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and other countries in Central and South America.

"We have a message for the violent street gang members in America: 'stopping your violence and criminal activities is high on our list of ICE's priorities,'" said Leigh Winchell, Special Agent in Charge for ICE investigations in Oregon and Washington. "Working with our law enforcement counterparts, we are going to use every tool at our disposal to take these criminals off the streets and break the cycle of gang-related violence that is threatening the safety of our communities."

In 2004, the FBI established an MS-13 National Gang Task Force to focus efforts on dismantling MS-13 through intelligence sharing and coordination with local, state and federal partners. The FBI is targeting MS-13 due to its propensity for violence, rapid growth and expansion throughout the United States. Today's events in Oregon are part of that effort. Joining the FBI and ICE were the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the United States Marshals Service (USMS), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Marion County Sheriff's Office, the Washington County Sheriff's Office, the Beaverton Police Department, the Hillsboro Police Department, the Salem Police Department, the Gresham Police Department, the Oregon Department of Justice and the United States Attorneys Office.

http://portland.fbi.gov/pressrel/2005/ms13090705.htm

added to homepage

http://www.alipac.us/article701.html

MS-13 was a major reason I fled Northern Va. in July! Too many PC people there who throw the word racist at anyone who tries to discuss or tries to do something about the problem.

Time for them to target some of the ones in Charlotte.

This is exactly why Bush thinks we can have an Open Border. Because we can successfully deal with criminals via FBI or Homeland Security AFTER THE FACT of crimes done. So Bush is willing to let Americans take the economic damage, take the hit, to merge U.S. and Mexico and Canada into the North American Community. Oh yeah, it's all part of the global, international World Gov't too..............

Problem is, what if the crime AFTER THE FACT is a nuclear explosion??!!