MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha): Profile

During the early 1980s, a violent civil war began in El Salvador. It lasted more than twelve years. Estimates say nearly 100,000 people were killed. As a result, over one million people fled from El Salvador to the United States. Most Salvadorian immigrants settled mainly in Southern California and Washington, D.C.. Some of these immigrants had ties with La Mara, a violent street gang from El Salvador. Others had been members of paramilitary groups like the Farabundo Marti Nacional Liberation (FMNL) during the civil war in El Salvador. These FMNL members were Salvadorian peasants who were trained as guerilla fighters, and who were adept at using explosives, firearms, knives and booby traps.

After arriving in the United States, some of these immigrants, with ties to their former gangs and paramilitary organizations, formed a street gang known as Mara Salvatrucha (MS) or MS-13. MS initially formed for protection, but quickly developed into an extremely violent gang. MS-13, today continues to obtain recruits from groups like FMNL.

Since its creation in California and Washington, DC, MS has expanded into Oregon, Alaska, Texas, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Canada, and Mexico. MS maintains active ties with MS members and factions in El Salvador. Mara Salvatrucha gang members maintain contact between groups in the United States and El Salvador for several specific reasons. In El Salvador, a hand grenade sells for $1.00 to $2.00 U.S. dollars and an M-16 rifle will sell for approximately $200 U.S. dollars. The alliance to El Salvador and groups like La Mara and FMNL allows MS-13 to gain access to military-style munitions and establishes a network to traffic illegal firearms into the United States.

MS is involved in exporting stolen U.S. cars to South America. The cars are often traded for drugs when dealing with cartels. An estimated 80% of the cars driven in El Salvador were stolen in the United States. Car theft is a lucrative business for MS. Its members have also been involved in burglaries, auto thefts, narcotic sales, home invasion robberies, weapons smuggling, car jacking, extortion, murder, rape, witness intimidation, illegal firearm sales, car theft and aggravated assaults. Common drugs sold by MS members include cocaine, marijuana, heroin, crack, and methamphetamine. MS-13 gang members have even placed a “tax” on prostitutes and non-gang member drug dealers who are working in MS turf.

MS gangs now include members from Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, in addition to El Salvador. Mara Salvatrucha also has African-American members. Mara Salvatrucha members identify themselves with tattoos such as the number 13 or “Trece” in Spanish. MS gang members will also use the Spanish word “Sureno” (Southerner) to identify themselves. Sometimes Sureno is abbreviated to SUR. These terms make reference to the fact that MS gang members like to claim they are from Southern California as opposed to Northern California, and are rivals with Northern California gangs. Often, this rivalry is taken outside the state of California. Additionally, MS-13 maintains rivalries with the 18th Street gang and the Latin Kings. There is also a good chance that the member will also have the name of his particular clique tattooed on his/her body. Other tattoos encountered with MS members have included pentagrams and other occult symbols. These can be confusing when found in conjunction with gang tattoos and can cause misconceptions of satanic involvement by the gang. The most common hand sign used by MS members is the letter M formed by using three fingers and pointing the hand downward. This hand sign can resemble the pitchfork sign used by Folk/People Nation gangs from the Midwest, and can be made with the fingers pointing up or down. The symbols used as tattoos are also used in graffiti and personal writings.

Generally, Mara Salvatrucha members show no fear of law enforcement. They are not easily intimidated and frequently act defiantly. Mara Salvaltrucha gang members have been responsible for the execution of three federal agents and numerous shootings of law enforcement officers across the country. MS gang members have been known to booby-trap their drug stash houses using antipersonnel grenades on the assumption that these structures will be searched by law enforcement. MS members at one time often bragged of assaulting law enforcement officers as a means of showing their loyalty and commitment to the gang. However, these claims have never been confirmed. Today, assaults on law enforcement officers are not required for membership, but are always an option. Officers dealing with MS members should use caution.

Law enforcement and the courts have used two primary methods to deal with criminal activity by MS: arrest/incarceration and deportation. Between April 1994 and August 1995, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) arrested and deported more than a hundred MS gang members to El Salvador. Many Mara Salvatrucha gang members are currently in the United States illegally and are concerned about deportation. If a gang member is deported to El Salvador, there is a chance they will be targeted by the Sombra Negra (Black Shadow) death squad. Sombra Negra and similar groups are legendary in Central America. Gangsters and citizens alike believe that the Sombra Negra is made up of rogue cops and military personnel who target unwanted criminals and gang members for vigilante "justice." While the presence of these death squads is officially denied by the governments of Central American countries, many MS members in the U.S. believe these groups exist, and fear that they will be targeted after being deported. Honduran MS gang members have the same fear. Sombra Negra has claimed responsibility for the deaths of several MS gang members in El Salvador. The existence or belief in the existence of these death squads could also be a chief motivation for hardcore MS gang members to come to the United States.

Identifiers