http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/si...d=512588&rfi=6

By DEE DIXON
The Enterprise 12/04/2005

PORT ARTHUR -- MS-13, a predominantly Hispanic gang, is gaining nationwide notoriety for its crimes and violence.


And in Port Arthur -- where almost one-fifth of the population is Hispanic --police have taken notice.

"Hispanic gangs, overwhelmingly, are a growing problem," said Sgt. Terry Chance of the Port Arthur Police Department. "In the beginning, they used baseball bats, clubs and knives, but they've stepped up."

Although MS-13 members here don't spill blood like their counterparts do in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Houston, where victims might meet the business end of a machete, the locals are becoming more violent, police said.

For now, Southeast Texas' economy won't let MS-13's criminal enterprises flourish. The communities are too small and too slow for the high-traffic prostitution rings, drug trafficking, alien smuggling, extortion, contract killing and strong-arm robbery, one Texas gang expert says.

While it is hard to pinpoint the exact income of the gangs, stolen cars have been identified as a profitable endeavor for MS-13, according to the National Alliance of Gang Investigators Association's (NAGIA) Web Site (www.nagia.org/mara_salvatrucha.htm). The site says about 80 percent of the cars driven in El Salvador have been stolen from the United States.

However, Southeast Texas' MS-13 gangsters mainly have laid low or hung out with family, experts say.

But MS-13 members are exhibiting a frightening trend, particularly in the past few months, according to Port Arthur police Officer Marcelo Molfino, who keeps tabs on that booming population.

On July 16, bullets riddled a home in the 4600 block of Fifth Street, with one slug narrowly missing resident Irene Costanzo, 71. Gang members spray-painted their "tag" -- their gang symbol -- on a nearby gas station.

Homeowner Johnny Costanzo said gang members were looking for his grandson, with whom they've feuded for several years over trivial matters. Costanzo, 58, said even before the shooting, gang members had threatened him with knives and guns.

He accused the city of ignoring the problem.

"My problem is the gang problem that the (city) council is denying," said Costanzo, who would like to see police launch a task force to address the issue.

Irene Costanzo said she lives in fear.

"I feel it in my heart that they are going to shoot up our house again," she said. "It's terrible. We were so used to sitting outside for a picnic. But I'd rather not see them than to be worried."

Gang roots

Refugees from El Salvador's bloody 12-year civil war started MS-13 in California in the early 1980s, according to the gang investigators' group.

After El Salvador's violent La Mara street gang arrived, its members merged with Salvatrucha guerrillas who were adept with explosives, firearms and booby traps, the Web site said.

Together, they formed the violent Mara Salvatrucha -- the M and S.

The number 13 represents the 13th letter of the alphabet -- M for Mexico or Mexican Mafia.

Gang members, unafraid to attack cops, have killed three federal agents, according to the investigators' Web site.

Even more startling, MS-13 reportedly has connections to al-Qaida, according to information on the Web site of U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi. Central American police have said al-Qaida was trying to recruit MS-13 gang members to smuggle large sums of money into the country, Ortiz testified in March before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security.

Customs agents say there are no confirmed connections between al-Qaida and MS-13.

Although alert border patrol agents can spot gang members by their tattoos, Ortiz spokeswoman Cathy Travis said gang members still slip into the country because of a lack of border detention centers.

In an effort to dismantle MS-13, the Bureau of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched Operation Community Shield last March. Since then, the agency reports more than 1,500 arrests, about a dozen of them in San Antonio and Houston. Among them were many MS-13 gang members who'd been deported but managed to return.

One was Herberth "Perro" Escobar-Leiva, one of the highest-ranking MS-13 members. Arrested in Boston last September, he'd originally been deported in 2002. His criminal record includes 20 arraignments on burglary, larceny and property destruction charges, according to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Web site.

What makes MS-13 a dangerous gang is its flexibility. It's a global organization with a highly transient membership, says Gene Lowery, a Customs agent in Houston.

Although not considered as violent as the Bloods and Crips were in their heyday, if MS-13 is left unchecked it could become even more violent, Lowery said.

Officials estimate there are 8,000 to 10,000 MS-13 gang members living in 33 states, according to a September report from the Congressional Research Service.

In Los Angeles alone, there were about 15,000 Crips and Bloods gang members in 1980, according to the California Gang Investigator's Association Web site.

Gang members in Texas have learned from organizations in larger cities.

"If it heats up in Houston, they go to L.A.," Lowery said. "If it heats up in L.A., they go to New York or they go back to their foreign country."

The gang's "corporate" structure is military-like.

"You have individuals who are the troops and the others who are the leaders and officers of the gang," said Sgt. David Davis, a Harris County Sheriff's deputy and the Texas Gang Investigators Association East Region director.

But unlike the military, MS-13 has no commander-in-chief calling the shots from El Salvador or in the United States.

"MS-13 has cliques all over the United States in most coastal cities from L.A. around the Mexican border, Houston, Miami and up the Eastern seaboard," Lowery said.

Occasionally, a high-ranking lieutenant will move from one territory to another, where he will receive a monthly stipend, women, a place to stay and respect from the local gang, Lowery said.