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Monday, February 5, 2007



The Mara Salvatrucha Organization and the U.S. Response


PINR



The Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) considers the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) the most dangerous street gang in the United States. The violent nature of MS-13 members results in a number of murders and vicious beatings. Already a number of cases, tried in Maryland and New York, have resulted in hefty prison sentences, even life in prison, for MS-13 gang members.



Violence first attracted the F.B.I., but evidence of the gang's increased levels of sophisticated organization is an indication of a future where MS-13 has evolved from a street gang into a transnational criminal organization that stretches from Central America to suburban neighborhoods in dozens of U.S. cities.

Horizontal integration of the gang is a primary concern. Smaller groups within the MS-13 gang structure known as "cliques" now communicate on a regular basis. The nature of their collaboration ranges from recruiting strategies and turf protection to the development of regional strategies that involve: protecting gang members from law enforcement through witness intimidation, targeting of police officers and rival gang members, collecting dues to support gang members in Central America and other locations inside the United States, drug trafficking, human smuggling, and extortion.

Vertical integration, or connections between U.S.-based cliques and gang members in Central America, cements the transnational nature of MS-13. Documented communication between gang members in El Salvador and the leaders of MS-13 cliques in Maryland, just outside the U.S. capital, suggests a trend toward a higher level of organization that has likely been repeated in other states where MS-13 is known to have flourished, including New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas, Illinois, and California.


For the balance of this report please go to “The Mara Salvatrucha Organization and the U.S. Response,” PINR, January 31, 2007.

Report Drafted By: Samuel Logan, Ashley Morse