TERRORISM & GANGS LIKE MS-13

Alan Note: terror organizations like Al Qaeda and Islamic Jihadists of various ilks began using Hispanic gangs in the USA for logistics, transfering items and people (many terrorists resemble Hispanics) with a lower profile and using the knowledge of the gangs. Police and anti-gang authorities might recognize a vehicle as "gang related" and not realize that it was also doing the work of terrorists. Gangs became "agents for hire" for Islamists but resisted getting involved in killings. Till now. MS-13 thrives on violence and killings, so have added an "internal" capacity for overseas terrorists with enough money. Specially, as many of these, including the Islamic Iranian government have set up bases throughout South America to deal/smuggle illegal drugs and organize a "killing machine" within the USA. The increasingly better organized, unholy alliance, by the proponents of religion of "peace" will become apparent when Islam orders retaliation within our shores. School children, shopping malls, electricity grids, infrastructure like railroads, even supermarkets will become prime "soft" targets to spread fear, deatha nd destruction. The local gangs know their territories like the back of their hands and provide invaluable operational information and logistical capabilty the terrorists would otherwise not have. Smuggling terrorists across our borders is just the tip of the iceberg of the gand & terror co-peration. 2008 They 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 U.S. as a whole is at the "medium" level, membership in parts of the country is so concentrated that we've labeled the threat level there "high." Here are some other highlights from our threat assessment: MS-13 operates in at least 42 states and the District of Columbia and has about 6,000-10,000 members nationwide. Currently, the threat is highest in the western and northeastern parts of the country, which coincides with elevated Salvadoran immigrant populations in those areas. In the southeast and central regions, the current threat is moderate to low, but recently, we've seen an influx of MS-13 members into the southeast, causing an increase in violent crimes there. For More Information - Going Global on MS-13 - MS-13 Up Close - FBI Violent Gangs Website MS-13 members engage in a wide range of criminal activity, including drug distribution, murder, rape, prostitution, robbery, home invasions, immigration offenses, kidnapping, carjackings/auto thefts, and vandalism. Most of these crimes, you'll notice, have one thing in common—they are exceedingly violent. And while most of the violence is directed toward other MS-13 members or rival street gangs, innocent citizens often get caught in the crossfire. MS-13 is expanding its membership at a "moderate" rate through recruitment and migration. Some MS-13 members move to get jobs or to be near family members—currently, the southeast and the northeast are seeing the largest increases in membership. MS-13 often recruits new members by glorifying the gang lifestyle (often on the Internet, complete with pictures and videos) and by absorbing smaller gangs. Speaking of employment, MS-13 members typically work for legitimate businesses by presenting false documentation. They primarily pick employers that don't scrutinize employment documents, especially in the construction, restaurant, delivery service, and landscaping industries. Right now, MS-13 has no official national leadership structure. MS-13 originated in Los Angeles, but when members migrated eastward, they began forming cliques that for the most part operated independently. These cliques, though, often maintain regular contact with members in other regions to coordinate recruitment/criminal activities and to prevent conflicts. We do believe that Los Angeles gang members have an elevated status among their MS-13 counterparts across the country, a system of respect that could potentially evolve into a more organized national leadership structure. One final word about MS-13: the FBI, through its MS-13 National Joint Task Force and field investigations, remains committed to working with our local, state, national, and international partners to disrupt and dismantle this violent gang. Note: the assessment is law enforcement sensitive and is not publicly available. 2006 FBI exec James "Chip" Burrus observes photos of detained gang members at the second annual Gang Enforcement Conference in San Salvador. The FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division chief recently did some intelligence gathering of his own on MS-13, a violent gang that is sowing fear and crime in communities in 33 states. James “Chip” Burrus spent three days in El Salvador to learn how officials there are battling the scourge before it becomes a bigger problem here. Burrus was among about 100 FBI and U.S. law enforcement officials attending the second annual Gang Enforcement Conference in San Salvador in early April. The event, viewed as invaluable for its insights into the ways of MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, was attended by top officials from Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Nicargua, Honduras, and El Salvador, where the gang originated in the late 80s. During the three-day conference, each country spoke at length about how they wage battle against MS-13 cliques, as they are called, which carve poor neighborhoods into territories and trade heavily in extortion and murder. “What it did for me is it gave me an insight of what the gang looks like not only in El Salvador and Central American countries, but what it perhaps looks like here,” Burrus said. “How do they make money down there? What is their structure? It helps me be a little more predictive in placing resources.” The FBI has been placing more and more resources on the front lines of the MS-13 problem. There are an estimated 10,000 MS-13 gang members in the U.S. and five times as many in the countries that attended the conference. In 2004, the FBI created the MS-13 National Gang Task Force. In 2005, the FBI helped create a National Gang Information Center and outlined a National Gang Strategy for Congress. Last year, the MS-13 task force coordinated a series of arrests and crackdowns in the U.S and Central America that involved more than 6,000 police officers in five countries. Seventy-three suspects were arrested in the U.S.; in all, more than 650 were taken into custody. Burrus’ visit took him beyond the conference meeting rooms where officials traded tactics and methods on panels and in break-out groups. In an armored van with a lead escort and Salvadoran sharp-shooters at the ready, Burrus rode deep into a neighborhood where the “maras,” or gang members, hold sway. “It was an eye-opening experience to see what it could come to at some point here if we don’t do our jobs correctly,” Burrus said. “It’s a much bigger problem for them because it’s rooted there. What were trying to prevent is for them to get historically rooted here in the U.S.” Burrus’ tour also took him to El Salvador’s intelligence center—where a few resourceful police enter reports, interviews, and intelligence into a handful of old computers that comprise a surprisingly effective database. Burrus is exploring ways to bolster the law enforcement link with El Salvador—with training or technology. Fingerprinting MS-13 members in Salvadoran prisons—and linking those prints to the FBI database—could go a long way to stopping them before they enter the U.S, Burrus said. “There’s such freedom of movement between El Salvador and the United States. So there’s a real need for an exchange of information between the two countries—what’s working and what’s not.”