WAR: FBI goes after "World's Most Dangerous Gang"

Citing ties to international terrorism, gang murders, drug smuggling, and human trafficking, the FBI has announced the formation of a special task force targeting MS-13, which started as a street gang with members of Salvadorian descent, but has now grown into a global threat.



I heard about this gang and the growing threat it posed a couple years ago. Seems it has a base in El Salvador that grew out of the (CIA trained?) aftermath of Reagan's 'freedom fighters' and their battle with the Salvadorian government in the 1980s. These guys cycled with impunity between the U.S. and Central America, getting arrested and deported whenever they needed to go south, then sneaking back across the border with drugs or illegals to start the process all over again. Apparently, they have taken their act to the global scale and are becoming part of the international terror scene. The link below gives more info and background on MS-13.

Related News Links:
www.truthout.org

[edit on 17-8-2005 by Icarus Rising]

[edit on 17-8-2005 by Icarus Rising]

heh, without being too cyncial, sounds like it could be FBI goes after CIA

War on Terror: Internal or External?

Maybe the Government reads my Op/Ed's?

It's about time they did this, but I do not think they'll have the funding or the support. MS-13 are a dangerus organisation with as many as 10,000 members (which I have seen reported) who seem to have no problem killing a Police officer or FBI agent.

Something needs to be done to them and I hope this task force can do it.

This is an important story and you'll be hearing more about this gang, as well as a couple of others.

The "Truthout" article is pretty seriously biased in assigning "blame." If you read the whole article, you'll notice it implies in its opening that MS members were "trained by the Reagan administration," when in fact, the majority of them were actually pro-communist insurgents in both Honduras and El Salvador. Not that it matters much, but it shows how media events are ALWAYS being exploited by someone to flavor your world-view.

More importantly, is the "Conspiracy" and exploitation question:

How is this story being spun by law enforcement, the media, our own (US) and foreign governments?

Well, here's my cynical editorial take on the situation:

1. Central American governments are nervous about the amounts of US dollars flowing into the underworld in their nations, with threatens to overturn several ruling cartels.

2. The Mexican government, which has a racist attitude toward non-mexican latin americans, seeks to blame a 'non-mexican' entity for increasingly violent assaults on US border officers.

3. Liberal journalists, looking to frame Reagan-era foreign policy in a bad light, since most of the people who voted for Bush reported in exit poles that they would have preferred to vote for a candidate "more like Reagan."

4. The US federal law enforcement system, which wants more tax dollars to combat "domestic terrorism."

5. The Bush administration, which wants more money to police the border. This is really ironic: The only reason they want more money and agents, is because the MS-13 has threatened to take out members of the "border militia" groups in TX and AZ. The white house fears a bloodbath of US vigilante/civilan deaths, which in turn will FORCE them to police the border properly.

No one but ATS was paying attention to ms-13 back in March, when they threatened to "wipe out" US civilians like the Minuteman Project interefereing with their border traffic:

www.atsnn.com...

I live up north so I don’t know much about this gang but I have heard its name before.
What is really shocking is that this "gang" which is part-foreign is threatening Americans openly!! This is very shocking. I guess the Mexican border can never be fully sealed but I feel that without the connivance of locals in AZ and TX this gang would not be able to get in so easily.
Are we going back to the days of Mobs- 1920's Mafia et all? Will we live in an age of continuos fear, fear of terrorists, fear of the mob?
I wonder if FBI and CIA surveillance in the US is so high how have these people been able to move so freely into the US and threaten everybody including the FBI? Is our only hope for security a police state?

The Law Enforcement agencies do not have the money.

MS-13, openly puts out "hits" on Police Officers who arrest their members. It's been rumoured Police officers let them go if they find out they are members of MS-13.

I mean come on, they have the guys to "openly" display a Tattoo of "MS-13". They have very little fear.

Perhaps the famous villagers of Frankenstein fame might do a better job?



After all people should understand the dynamic process of such so called gangs that are trained on US military bases to fight against the drug lords but turn the other way. Whereas they are not really in the West Side Story stereotype calling them gangs ignores the fact they are troops, engaging governments with stacks of cash. Is the real reason for all such activity simply to coordinate the cut for the upper crust? Is it therefore simply good cop verses bad cop internally, not cop verses gangs? While much of this money flows into Wall street, and while the accounts of ordinary citizens are queried for every $10k in transactions, reality fits the big picture when Hegalian technique faces pretext for control. The war on drugs would be a joke were it not for the sad fact of kids going to privatized hence stolen public property prisons owned and controlled by what is for all intensive purposes the shadow drug cartel. The people behind them in business suits who you never hear about also own or heavily influence MSM news. The public "kingpins," are most all patsies who paid less than their designated cut. Does any of this make sense? Such wars are never meant to ever be won.

With all the financial odds hire some villagers and have them go to it! They do not have cell phones, and they do not take orders from higher ups to look the other way.

[edit on 17-8-2005 by SkipShipman]

Doesnt the US have anti-gang laws? We've been using them up here very successfully against the Hell's Angels and Triads as of late(mostly because they are the more visible groups) why aren't u guys using similiar tactics of arresting them because they belong to an outlaw group.

Because the ACLU will defend anyone arrested based on the content of a Tattoo, or b/c of racial profiling.

Think about it for a minute. The Irish gangs of the 19th cent, and Italian gangs of the early 20th, succeeded by bullying their own ethnic groups. That is what is going on here. The mafia's code of OMERTA only worked because the law abiding Italians didn't trust the police, and were cut off from the political system by the language barrier.

Mexican gangs are less powerful than they used to be, in part because there is a large acculturated Mexican-American community in the Southwest US, and Mexicanos simply won't put up with being victimized any more. Plus, as the gangsters themselves acculturate, they begin to covet the lifestyle of suburbia. A 10 year prison sentence is a serious threat to a Mexican American who has a job as a construction contractor. But it means nothing to a Single Male Honduran that cannot get a job in the US, even as an illegal worker because of Mexican construction "Unions." If he comes from a Honduran prison where TV and A/C were unknown, then a US jail sounds sort of fun.

What killed off the Italian mob? It wasn't the FBI; it was the desire among mobsters for their kids to go to college. Look at the Gotti trials. They threatened a couple of capos with 7 year sentences and the guys sang like choirboys. That wouldn't have happened in Capone's day.

The MS-13 succeeds in part because they are a prison-based gang. Their presence in jails in more powerful than it is on the street. Which, if you are a professional drug-runner, is the key factor. You won't squeal to the cops on a gang that can have you capped in your own cell in the solitary wing. Better to serve your few years behind bars with a shut mouth, and live to see parole.

What I'm saying is, to a 3rd worlder, whether Russian or El Salvadorean, the American police are not a credible threat.

They should simply treat them like the vermin they are.

1) See the tatoo or hear the whisper of the gang affiliation.

2) Bullet to the head.

3) bury them in unmarked grave.

Problem solved.

Screw the ACLU and everything it stands for.

Chuck Stevenson,
what if they are innocent?

I have a friend with a tattoo that looks like MS-13 should he be shot for having a tattoo?

If I mention MS-13 in a discussion should I be shot?

Also, great way for rival gangs to have each other killed off by the Government. Nice infornment tells the cops these group or MS-13 and are really no crime and you'd promote their death? (1) See the tatoo or hear the whisper of the gang affiliation. 2) Bullet to the head. 3) bury them in unmarked grave.) Great way to solve it.

Maybe they should attack the route of the problem instead?

dr_strangecraft I think you just explained it perfectly.

Another problem is young adults are growing up in this country with the thought that gangs and violence are cool and will join up with them to I shudder to say this "make something of themselves". As opposed to investing money in real estate or using the brain to constructively contribute to society. To be honest, when I do become a very wealthy person, I am going to personally hire a mercenary group to kill off all known gang members in the city I cherish most. It will probably be the city holding the majority of my assets in the form of investments. I find out any of my property gets tagged up with gang slogans, every single one, regardless if they have families or not is going down.

You cant have mercy with these people, the kids have to see that it is the wrong path and will lead to a messy death in the form of several men with assault rifles ripping your body apart.

I think its pretty silly to look at this as a problem of the gang as being well trained paramilitaries. They aren't. They're drug and human smugglers along the mexican border and a regular (but well organized) street gang in the rest of the US. In El Salvador, gang violence is wildly out of control and the police/government has to pay special attention to make sure that rival gangs don't come into contact with each other even in prison. But its not like MS-13 (which is really an amalgamation of two former gangs and simply means 'The Salvadorian Gang" or mara Salvatrucha) is going to overthrow the El Salvadorian government or conduct military exercises within the US (outside of the border anyway).

MS-13 is an international criminal organization. Just like the Mafia, but it probably won't last nearly as long. Nowadays, international criminal organizations get blasted and done away with as if they were terrorists, which is how they should be treated anyway. They're not going to focus on wiretaps, surveillance, and Rico statutes to id and imprison these guys, they're simply going to round up everyone that is supsected, deport them (they're invariablly here illegally anyway, and then work with their Home governments to put them away and snuff them out. The crackdown, infact, has been going on for a while, and its starting to work well in many areas.

Originally posted by Chuck Stevenson
Screw the ACLU and everything it stands for.

A.C.L.U. Stands for American Civil Liberties. I think we'll keep that thankyou very much.

[edit on 18-8-2005 by Nygdan]

I want a cool tattoo!

I know, in tribute to Windows 3.1 and how backwards it was, and in honor of Microsoft, MS-13!

Anyone that knows a little numerology knows why this gang is popular.

M is the 13th letter of the alphabet, by the way! So M is 13!

M S-13

Well Nygdan,

What about the "Republican Party?

Not alot of thought toward the republic now days is there?

and yes, gang affiliation should be an immediate death sentence.

anyone ever see the movie "Boondock Saints"

While I applaud the efforts made to control gangs, (especially the MS-13 because they have the potential to organize and kowtow the illegal invading army coming across our borders with intent to undermine and overwhelm our financial, social, economic and legal systems), I must say that the Feds are negligent in their efforts because they don't join Arizona and NM in declaring a state of emergency. Tightening up the borders, all borders; north, south, coastal and air, should be the logical first step in any game plan to control gangs and or terrorists, especially those coming from other lands.

Seems to me this recent announcement of gang control could be just another tool to dismantle the freedom of American citizens; afterall the term gang, like terrorist is never clearly defined. Could the term "gang" be applied to the Minute Men in the border states who have recently been monitering illegals be deemed a "gang" under this new government project? Just some food for thought.

Richard,

You make excellent points. The diffusion of the terms applied to the enemy by the forces engaged in the 'war on terror' continues to spread. Pretty soon they will have reasonable (to them) cause to round up anyone based on the 'disaffected dead-ender designation' or something.

So don't go triple d on me, ya hear?

Meanwhile, a true battle does rage out there between those who would destroy and those who would preserve liberty and justice for all. The battle lines have become blurred, and I'm not always sure who is on what side.

There are some clear-cut struggles, though. I like to see the FBI taking on MS-13, like the "Untouchable" days of old. I'm concerned as well about the precedent set of widening the 'war on terror' to include gangs, but I think this one needs to be shut down. Some THING must be done.

We could find out we are once again chasing our own tail, though, like with OBL. What tangled webs we weave.

you know what i heard in that article?.....trying to find more justification for the 'patriot act' and a way to really introduce to the sheeple.
along with the FBI saying that american groups are the biggest threat to AMERIKA www.abovetopsecret.com... now we have another imenent threat on AMERIKAN soil. the war on terror is coming to a small town near you —"has a significant presence in Northern Virginia, New York, California, Texas, as well as places as disparate and widespread as Oregon City, Oregon, and Omaha, Nebraska."
the stage is being set...............