Thread: U.S. sweep aimed at Salvadoran gang in Seattle

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/240 ... own14.html

U.S. sweep aimed at Salvadoran gang here
Immigration agents targeted South Park area

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

By HECTOR CASTRO
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A recent immigration sweep in South Park was meant to deal a blow to the Salvadoran gang MS-13, which was beginning to show signs of growth in Seattle, with one member accused of at least one murder and shooting it out with federal agents last year.

But whether the crackdown will slow the gang's development in the region, or even whether all those targeted were gang members, remain questions.

MS-13, also called Mara Salvatrucha, has developed a reputation across the United States for brutal slayings and connections to other criminal enterprises, ranging from drug dealing to immigrant trafficking.

There are believed to be fewer than 50 MS-13 members in the Puget Sound region, according to data gathered by the Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force. Two dozen men were detained in the August sweep.

"The biggest concern for me is that we remove a criminal element from the community," said Leigh Winchell, special agent-in-charge in the Seattle office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. "It doesn't mean that two months from now some of these guys won't be back in town."

But the method ICE used, using deportations to rein in gang growth, has made some in the Latino immigrant community wary of looking to law enforcement for help, and not only with gang problems.

"People are extremely afraid," said Maru Villalpando, a community activist with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project who has received calls from friends and relatives of those who were detained and possibly deported.

The fear is compounded because some in the community don't believe all of those detained are gang members, despite ICE officials' assertions that the majority of those taken into custody had criminal records, admitted to being members of MS-13 or bore tattoos showing their gang affiliation.

"Personally, I have a little bit of doubt," Villalpando said.

On Aug. 23, ICE agents led an operation, primarily in South Park, which resulted in the detention of 24 Latino men. Four were U.S. citizens and were arrested on outstanding warrants. The rest were detained because they were believed to be in the country illegally; some reportedly have been deported.

Only 43 of the more than 1,300 names of suspected local gang members in the task force's database are those of MS-13 members, including those caught up in the South Park sweep.

"It's not a particularly large contingent at this time, from what we know so far," Winchell said. "Our goal is to keep it from getting a foothold."

The agency released the name of just one man picked up in the raids: Yoni Gonzalez, 20, who once boasted to an arresting officer that he was an MS-13 gang member.

Gonzalez has been convicted of assault for punching a police officer, domestic violence harassment for threatening to kill an ex-girlfriend and unlawful possession of a firearm, when he was found with a semi-automatic pistol after King County sheriff's deputies broke up a gang fight. He remains in the King County Jail on warrants related to a drinking violation and the harassment case.

Federal authorities would not release the names of those detained in the sweep, and without the names, additional information about the men was unavailable. The agency would say only that the non-U.S. citizens were held on immigration violations. Some had previous arrests for drug violations, assault and robbery, Winchell said.

Seattle police officials, who helped in arresting the U.S. citizens wanted on warrants, met with Latino community leaders last week to assure them that immigration status is not something they consider.

"The way we solve crimes is by working closely with the community, but if the community feels you're an occupying army or are there for other reasons, they're going to be afraid to talk to you," said Deputy Chief John Diaz.

That cooperation is particularly important in South Park, where shootings have claimed at least four lives in the past two years.

Seattle police and federal authorities agree, however, that using any law enforcement tool, including deportation, makes sense when dealing with MS-13.

An MS-13 gang member went on a one-man crime spree when he allegedly shot and killed one man in South Park in October, then had a gunfight with federal authorities who weren't even looking for him.

When U.S. marshals caught up with Jose Wilbur Sorto, 23, several days after he fired shots at immigration agents, it was in the Los Angeles area. He was extradited and remains in the King County Jail awaiting trial on a murder charge.

It's that sort of violence and fluid movement that has made cracking the gang a federal priority. The raids last month were part of an immigration and customs effort dubbed "Operation Community Shield," which began nationally in February.

There also are local efforts targeting gangs, including an anti-gang task force led by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that was created earlier this year, Special Agent Julianne Marshall said.

The group includes a Seattle police detective and an FBI agent, and works with the King County Sheriff's Office and the state Department of Corrections. "For so long, no one has wanted to say the word 'gang' in Seattle, or that we have gangs in Seattle, and we do," Marshall said.

Ofc John Diaz of The Seattle Police: "We do not want to act on immigration status. We do not want to seem like an occupying army."

What kind of crystals has this officer been smoking?