A SOUTH AMERICAN
IMPORT
by Investigator Al Valdez
Orange County District Attorney's Office
Street gangs form for a
variety of reasons. The United States has experienced the
growth of many types of street and prison gangs within the
last 20 years. During this time period, influxes of legal
and illegal refugees into the United States have had a documented
effect on the formation of new street gangs.
In the early 1980s, a violent civil war
began in El Salvador which would last more than 12 years.
Approximately 100,000 people were killed in the war, and
more than one million people fled from El Salvador to the
U.S. The Salvadorian refugees and immigrants initially settled
primarily in southern California and Washington, D.C.. Some
of the refugees and immigrants had ties with La Mara, a
violent street gang from El Salvador. Others had been members
of paramilitary groups like the Farabundo Marti National
Liberation Front (FMNL) during the civil war. FMNL was made
up of Salvadorian peasants who were trained as guerilla
fighters. Many were adept at using explosives, firearms,
and booby traps.
Most of the Salvadorian refugees settled
in the established Hispanic neighborhoods of the "Rampart"
area of Los Angeles. However, Salvadorians were not readily
accepted into the Los Angeles Hispanic community, and were
frequently targeted by local Hispanic gangs. As a result,
in the late 1980s, some refugees and refugee members of
La Mara and FMNL formed what is now known as the Mara Salvatrucha
(MS) street gang in Los Angeles. Like many other street
gangs, MS initially formed for protection, but quickly developed
a reputation for being organized and extremely violent.
MS membership continues to be fed by refugees from groups
like FMNL.
Since its inception in California and Washington,
DC, Mara Salvatrucha has expanded into Oregon, Alaska, Texas,
Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Maryland,
Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Canada, and Mexico. MS is unique
in that, unlike traditional U.S. street gangs, it maintains
active ties with MS members and factions in El Salvador.
Mara Salvatrucha is truly an international gang.
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-$2.00 U.S. currency and an M-16 rifle will
sell for approximately $200.00-$220.00 U.S. dollars. This
communication and alliance provides a mechanism for MS gang
members to access military-style munitions and also establishes
a network to traffic illegal firearms into the United States.
Although military weapons seem to be readily
available to this gang, street intelligence indicates they
often have difficulty obtaining handguns, which are not
readily available in El Salvador. This creates a demand
for small arms by MS members in the U.S. and El Salvador.
This demand is so high that MS members will often take handguns
as payment for drug transactions. The guns are then sent
back to El Salvador, or used in the United States.
MS is also involved in exporting stolen
U.S. cars to South America. The cars are often traded for
drugs when dealing with cartels. It is estimated that 80%
of the cars driven in El Salvador were stolen in the United
States. Car theft is a lucrative business for MS.
The Mara Salvatrucha gang is involved in
a variety of criminal enterprises. As with members of other
gangs, MS members seem willing to commit almost any crime,
but MS gang members tend to have a higher level of criminal
involvement than other gang members. MS members have 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. In terms of drug trafficking
activities, common drugs sold by MS members include cocaine,
marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine. Mara Salvatrucha
gang members have even placed a tax on prostitutes and non-gang
member drug dealers who are working in MS "turf."
Failure to pay up will most likely result in violence.
Originally, only Salvadorians could become
members of Mara Salvatrucha. However, MS now includes members
from Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. Mara Salvatrucha
also has a few African-American members. MS has broken the
race barrier for membership, but most new members are still
selected because of their ethnic (Central American) background.
The majority of MS gang members are between the ages of
11 and 40 years old.
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, meaning
"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,
Mara Salvatrucha gang members have several ongoing rivalries
with large southern California gangs, including the 18th
Street gang, and in California, commonly attack 18th Street
gang members on sight. There are many Hispanic gangs, including
MS, which use the number 13," and the terms sureno
and SUR as identifiers, including street/prison gangs outside
of California. Thus, it is important to identify specific
tattoos used by the Mara Salvatrucha gang, which include
M or MS, in addition to the 13 or SUR identification. Another
common tattoo seen is Salvadorian Pride. 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.
In general, Mara Salvatrucha members show
no fear of law enforcement. They are not easily intimidated
and frequently act defiantly. Mara Salvatrucha 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. Thus, officers dealing with MS members
(or any street gang members, for that matter) should always
use extreme 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 100 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.
Al Valdez is currently employed as a
District Attorney Investigator for Orange County, California.
Valdez has a total of 21 years of experience with a special
emphasis on narcotic and gang investigations and prosecutions.
Currently, he is assigned to the North County T.A.R.G.E.T.
(Tri-Agency Resource Gang Enforcement Team) Gang Unit for
Orange County.
Copyright © 2000 Al Valdez. All Rights Reserved.
