Thread: MS-13 Avoiding Austin?

Police: Arrests don't signal gang organizing in Austin

Man charged in fatal shooting is one of four MS-13 suspects caught in past two years.

By Tony Plohetski

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF


Thursday, May 03, 2007

Austin police have arrested four men suspected of being members of the violent MS-13 gang during the past two years, including one charged last week with robbing and killing an 18-year-old man as he walked through a parking lot with his father.

Two more were charged with petty crimes such as trespassing and shoplifting, police said. The other was arrested on a federal immigration violation charge.

But police say they have no evidence to suggest that the gang has formed an Austin-based MS-13 cell.

"The numbers just aren't through the roof," Austin police Lt. Max Westbrook, who works in the department's gang suppression unit, said Wednesday. "We don't have a lot of evidence to indicate there are vast numbers."

The April 21 shooting death of Gamaliel Jiménez Bohórquez raised questions about whether the gang, which has set up operations in other Texas cities, including Houston and Dallas, may be becoming more active in Austin.

The shooting was the first violent crime in Austin attributed to a member of MS-13, which was formed in Los Angeles in the late 1980s by Salvadorans. Police have said that Christian Palacios, 36, had MS-13 tatoos but that they don't think the shooting was gang-related.

Police have for years said that the gang doesn't have a significant presence in Austin and did not release information about the previous three arrests until after last month's shooting.

Several people who live in apartment buildings lining Reagan Hill Drive, where Palacios lived, said they are unaware of other MS-13 members in their neighborhood near Interstate 35 and U.S. 290 in Northeast Austin.

Fred Tijerina, Palacios' landlord who has lived in the area for several years, said Palacios kept to himself.

Austin police spokesman Kevin Buchman said police arrested the first suspected MS-13 member in April 2005 after officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement asked them help find Matheu Magdiel, 26, in connection with immigration law violations.

Magdiel has been deported, Buchman said.

Austin police also arrested suspected MS-13 members in March and June 2006.

According to court records, Miguel Benitez, 31, was charged with trespassing, a misdemeanor, and sentenced to 12 days in the Travis County Jail after pleading no contest.

An arrest affidavit said officers were called to an apartment complex in the 8200 block of Sam Rayburn Drive in North Austin to investigate a family disturbance. Police ran a criminal check on Benitez after questioning him and learned that officers earlier in the day had issued Benitez a citation for trespassing.

Officers arrested him for violating orders that he leave the property, the affidavit said.

Police arrested Jose Vasquez, 31, in June after investigators said they were called to investigate a shoplifting report at an H-E-B grocery store on East Riverside Drive.

An arrest affidavit said a store employee had seen Vasquez putting two pairs of sunglasses and a bottle of cologne in his shirt.

Vasquez was charged with shoplifting and failure to identify himself after police said he provided an inaccurate name to them. He was sentenced to 22 days in jail.

Police said Vasquez and Benitez also have been deported.

Westbrook and gang experts said they are unsure why MS-13 has not had a significant presence in Austin.

Westbrook said police have aggressively tried to find and arrest suspected members. They also have stayed in close touch with federal immigration authorities to track the movements of known MS-13 members nationally, he said.

Jared Lewis, a nationally known gang expert who has trained officers in dozens of law enforcement agencies on gang activity, said aggressive policing also has probably been a deterrent.

"They will tend to congregate in areas where they feel they can get away with their criminal lifestyle," he said.

tplohetski@statesman.com; 445-3605

Westbrook and gang experts said they are unsure why MS-13 has not had a significant presence in Austin.

My guess is that the Mexican drug cartel already has dibs on that area.

Westbrook and gang experts said they are unsure why MS-13 has not had a significant presence in Austin.

Because most of them are still hiding out in thier sancutary city of Houston.

Austin will sit back and wait until it becomes a big problem. I don't buy their notion that they have been able to stop it with some sort of gang crackdown. As long as our border is open, MS-13 will continue to invade our cities, especially Austin, where its hispanic population continues to grow. These are just four little ants who strayed. The mound is around there somehwere.