Justice Department Releases MS-13 Threat Assessment
Jim Kouri, CPP



They’ve severed the fingers of their rivals with machetes…brutally murdered suspected informants, including a 17-year-old pregnant federal witness…attacked and threatened law enforcement officers…committed a string of rapes, assaults, break-ins, auto thefts, extortions, and frauds across the US…gotten involved in everything from drug and firearms trafficking to prostitution and money laundering…and are sowing violence and discord not just here in the US but around the world.

MS-13 members perpetrate violence—from assaults to homicides, using firearms, machetes, or blunt objects—to intimidate rival gangs, law enforcement, and the general public. They often target middle and high school students for recruitment. And they form tenuous alliances…and sometimes vicious rivalries…with other criminal groups, depending on their needs at the time.

Who are they? Members of Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, who are mostly Salvadoran nationals or first generation Salvadoran-Americans, but also Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, and other Central and South American immigrants. And according to our recent national threat assessment of this growing, mobile street gang, they could be operating in your community…now or in the near future.

Based on information from our own investigations, from our state and local law enforcement partners, and from community organizations, we’ve concluded that while the threat posed by MS-13 to the US as a whole is at the “mediumâ€