Sweep exposes presence of violent MS-13 gang in New Bedford
By Brian Fraga
bfraga@s-t.com
August 21, 2010 12:00 AM

NEW BEDFORD — Two alleged MS-13 members were apprehended this week in New Bedford during a regional sweep of gang-affiliated legal and illegal immigrants, raising concerns that the violent Central American gang is taking root in the city.

"It was an eye-opening experience for us," said Bruce M. Foucart, the special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Office of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston, which coordinated the sweep.

"We hadn't thought that MS-13 had infiltrated New Bedford," Foucart said. "The intelligence we had received indicates they were up around the Boston area."

In the past week, local, state and federal law enforcement officials apprehended 27 gang members with immigrant backgrounds in Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Many of them had ties to MS-13, 18th Street, Latin Kings, Vatos Locos, Gangster Disciples and the Bloods.

Those individuals had criminal backgrounds that included arrests for attempted murder, carjacking, assault and battery with dangerous weapons, assault to rape, possession of firearms, as well as narcotics distribution.

"These were the worst of the worst," said Foucart, adding that the ICE-led investigation — called "Operation Community Shield" — has led to 47 gang members being arrested in New England this summer.

The gang members were not arrested on new criminal charges. They were taken into custody because they have criminal backgrounds and convictions that warrant them being deported. Some were also in the country illegally and had been identified by local police for their violent tendencies.

One of the New Bedford MS-13 gang members — both of them are men — had a pending assault and battery case on charges he swung a machete at a woman. The other individual was suspected of falsifying personal documents.

Also, a 23-year-old man who immigrated to New Bedford from Cape Verde in December 1991 was apprehended. Officials said he was a high-ranking member of the Gangster Disciples and has a criminal history dating back to 2000 that includes arrests for drug dealing, armed robbery and illegal gun possession.

"The three arrests we made in New Bedford were probably three of the most significant out of the whole operation," Foucart said.

Officials declined to release the men's names, saying it was because they have not been criminally charged. They and the other transnationals apprehended in the gang sweep will begin appearing next week before immigration judges in Boston to face possible deportation proceedings.

New Bedford Police Chief Ronald E. Teachman said the department's Gang Unit assisted the ICE-led operation. He said the investigation targeted dangerous "impact players."

"You have people committing violent crimes in your community, so you work to remove them to make your community safe, whether it's by incarceration or deportation," Teachman said.

"This is an example of a federal and local partnership identifying those who present the greatest risk to the community. Our officers know where these people are, where they live, where they can be found."

Foucart found it particularly troubling that MS-13 has found a foothold in New Bedford.

"(MS-13) is probably one of the most violent transnational gangs in the U.S., and we have arrested more of them nationwide than any other national agency," said Foucart, adding that ICE has arrested 225 MS-13 gang members in New England since February 2005.

MS-13 — the initials stand for Mara Salvatrucha — was formed during the 1980s by El Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles. The transnational gang is notorious for its violence: Its members have used machetes to decapitate and dismember their enemies, and have assassinated political leaders and police in Central America.

Since forming in California, the gang spread to large urban areas, but now officials say the gang is seeping into smaller cities like New Bedford, where in recent years police have seen MS graffiti and arrested its members.

Earlier this year, New Bedford police arrested an alleged MS-13 gang member on charges he stabbed a rival member of 18th Street during an early-morning fight outside the Escondinho Bar at 110 County St.

Two years ago, a former 18th Street gang member who still had his gang tattoos said he was attacked by two MS-13 members in New Bedford after he took his shirt off at the beach.

Local police officials previously said they did not believe those Central American gangs had reached a critical mass in New Bedford, but Foucart said that remains a strong possibility.

"The potential is absolutely there about them," he said.

"We've gone back and asked the state police and the New Bedford Police Department to keep their eyes open because where there are some, there are probably others."

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