Crime MS-13: El Salvador Arrests Over 6,000 Gang Members After Deadliest Day of Violence in 30 Years

[Arkain2K]

MS-13 gang used California farm town as a base for crime
By Sudhin thanawala, Associated Press | Aug 31, 2018

​

More than two dozen MS-13 gang members and affiliates were arrested and charged following a monthslong murder and drug trafficking investigation centered on a rural California farm city that the gang turned into a base for its operations, U.S. and state prosecutors said Friday.

MS-13 took advantage of limited resources in the city of Mendota and used it and other areas of Fresno County to "conduct their crimes, to hide out from crimes that they committed in other jurisdictions and to prepare to commit crimes in states as far away as New York," Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp said at a news conference in Fresno with state and federal officials.

Mendota has a population of roughly 11,000 people and lies 35 miles (60 kilometers) west of Fresno in California's agriculturally rich Central Valley. Nearly the entire population is Hispanic, with many immigrants from El Salvador.

MS-13 is linked to more than 12 murders in Mendota and western Fresno County over the past two years, said McGregor Scott, the U.S. attorney in Sacramento. The federal charges announced Friday include allegations that two MS-13 gang members kidnapped and murdered a Fresno County man in December.

Scott said the investigation — dubbed "Blue Inferno" — uncovered evidence tying the gang to at least 30 murders and assaults in Mendota, Los Angles, Las Vegas, New York City and Houston. The evidence has prompted additional prosecutions in other cities, he said.

"This is a good day," he said. "An extremely violent street gang which has terrorized western Fresno County has been completely dismantled and several murders and violent crimes across the nation have been resolved in a resounding way," he said.

MS-13, or La Mara Salvatrucha, was formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s by refugees from El Salvador and is linked to many slayings in certain parts of the U.S. In California, the gang has clashed with rival Nortenos gang members. It also targets its own members for violating gang rules.

Nortenos are a street gang connected to the Nuestra Familia, a prison gang that originally formed in the California state prison system in the 1960s, according to federal prosecutors.

President Donald Trump has singled out the MS-13 gang as a threat to the U.S. and blames weak border enforcement for the group's crimes. But many gang members were born in the U.S.

Other federal charges stemming from the investigation of MS-13 in Fresno County accuse three gang members of stabbing a rival gang member in the back at a Mendota intersection in August. In May, three MS-13 members attacked a man walking near an elementary school in Mendota, beating him with a metal pipe, according to U.S. prosecutors.

The group in Mendota operated in tandem with MS-13 in Los Angeles and viewed the Bulldogs street gang as rivals, according to a U.S. grand jury indictment. The Bulldogs take their name from the mascot and moniker of California State University, Fresno, and wear the school's athletic apparel.

Another 15 people affiliated with MS-13 are facing federal charges of drug trafficking in Fresno and Los Angeles counties, according to U.S. prosecutors.

Smittcamp said separate charges are pending in state court of narcotics sales, assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit murder in Fresno and Los Angeles counties. Eleven defendants are charged in state court, she said.

The investigation also included the California attorney general's office.

"Operation Blue Inferno's message: If you want to commit crimes in California, we will find you, especially if you want to terrorize our families and our communities, we will get you," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said at Friday's news conference.

Scott said in a phone interview on Thursday the crackdown on MS-13 in the Central Valley was not directed by officials in Washington, D.C. Scott said he made the investigation of MS-13 a top priority after receiving a briefing about the gang's brutality upon returning to head the U.S. attorney's office in Sacramento.

Scott became U.S. attorney there for a second time in December. He previously headed that office from 2003 to 2009.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/us-attorney-ms-13-gang-terrorized-california-farm-57532712

 

[WTF2008]

In the back of her mind she's thinking "well we teamed up with Russia to beat (literally) Hitler."

Ha ha ha. Totally. The Russia stuff is a real thing.
Ha ha ha.

 

[N13]

Ha ha ha. Totally. The Russia stuff is a real thing.
Ha ha ha.

The guilty ones will either hang or face firing squads. Just like McCain did. Pretty obvious now who these people are.

 

[Arkain2K]

Trump Critic Becerra on MS-13 Gang: Not Animals, But Not Human Either
David Taub | August 31, 2018

Left to right, front row: Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims, Fresno County DA Lisa Smittcamp, and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra
​

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra didn’t quite share President Donald Trump’s sentiments on the gang MS-13, but he came close.

“When you talk about maiming human life, scaring them to the point that you don’t recognize them, I don’t know if you would call them human beings,” Becerra said at a news conference to announce the arrest of 25 MS-13 gang members in an operation in Mendota.

Becerra spoke Friday (Aug. 31) at the federal courthouse in downtown Fresno, along with federal and local law enforcement officials, following a year-long, multi-agency investigation.

Trump notably called the gang “animals” in a White House meeting that included Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims in May. Trump’s remarks caused a backlash at that time.

Becerra, as attorney general, had led California’s “resistance” to Trump’s policies on immigration, healthcare, and the environment in speeches and in the courtroom. In 2017, California sued the Trump administration 24 times.

The 25 arrested, in what law enforcement dubbed Operation Blue Inferno, are being charged with 14 murders, as well as kidnapping and drug trafficking in the Mendota area.

“This is a good day. An extremely violent street gang, which has terrorized western Fresno County, has been completely dismantled,” U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said.

Violent Crimes

Mims detailed some of the horrific allegations against the gang.

“Most (homicides) were as a result of machete and knife attacks, rendering their victims visually unidentifiable,” Mims said. “Bodies are then left out in the open, sending a message of intimidation to our communities.”

Law enforcement served 19 search warrants on Thursday in Mendota, Kerman and Los Angeles. Also, a search of 37 cells in 11 state prisons yielded contraband such as cell phones, drugs, and weapons.

“Yesterday was D-Day for this investigation,” Scott said. “Nothing like this happens without the complete dedication, hard work, and professionalism of a core team of law enforcement professionals.”

Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp said she would prosecute 11 members in county court next week. Others face federal charges.

https://gvwire.com/2018/08/31/trump-critic-becerra-on-ms-13-gang-not-animals-but-not-human-either/

 

[N13]

Trump Critic Becerra on MS-13 Gang: Not Animals, But Not Human Either
David Taub | August 31, 2018

Left to right, front row: Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims, Fresno County DA Lisa Smittcamp, and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra
​

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra didn’t quite share President Donald Trump’s sentiments on the gang MS-13, but he came close.

“When you talk about maiming human life, scaring them to the point that you don’t recognize them, I don’t know if you would call them human beings,” Becerra said at a news conference to announce the arrest of 25 MS-13 gang members in an operation in Mendota.

Becerra spoke Friday (Aug. 31) at the federal courthouse in downtown Fresno, along with federal and local law enforcement officials, following a year-long, multi-agency investigation.

Trump notably called the gang “animals” in a White House meeting that included Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims in May. Trump’s remarks caused a backlash at that time.

Becerra, as attorney general, had led California’s “resistance” to Trump’s policies on immigration, healthcare, and the environment in speeches and in the courtroom. In 2017, California sued the Trump administration 24 times.

The 25 arrested, in what law enforcement dubbed Operation Blue Inferno, are being charged with 14 murders, as well as kidnapping and drug trafficking in the Mendota area.

“This is a good day. An extremely violent street gang, which has terrorized western Fresno County, has been completely dismantled,” U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said.

Violent Crimes

Mims detailed some of the horrific allegations against the gang.

“Most (homicides) were as a result of machete and knife attacks, rendering their victims visually unidentifiable,” Mims said. “Bodies are then left out in the open, sending a message of intimidation to our communities.”

Law enforcement served 19 search warrants on Thursday in Mendota, Kerman and Los Angeles. Also, a search of 37 cells in 11 state prisons yielded contraband such as cell phones, drugs, and weapons.

“Yesterday was D-Day for this investigation,” Scott said. “Nothing like this happens without the complete dedication, hard work, and professionalism of a core team of law enforcement professionals.”

Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp said she would prosecute 11 members in county court next week. Others face federal charges.

Immigration Status Vague

Scott did not reveal the immigration status of the 25 alleged gang members arrested. President Trump has blamed America’s immigration policies for the influx of gangs like MS-13. The gang’s history traces to Central America.

“This was not an immigration operation. This was a law enforcement criminal operation,” Scott deflected.

Homeland Security Investigation Special Agent Ryan Spradlin said his department’s role is to undertake criminal investigations.

“The victims of violent criminal organizations first concern isn’t where their assailants are from. It is that they are taken off the streets, and justice be delivered,” Spradlin said.

“Often misperceptions exist that HSI’s involvement in an operation like this is a nexus to illegal immigration,” Spradlin said. “Our partners know that HSI doesn’t initiate nor participate in criminal investigations because of someone’s citizenship, but rather the alleged criminal activity they are involved with.”

Becerra wanted the focus to remain on the criminal allegations, not MS-13’s country of origin.

“This is not an operation based on color, creed, origin or status. It was based on criminal conduct,” Becerra said.

Becerra is one of those clowns who will be found guilty in a military tribunal. He was also directly involved in the Awan sale of information to Pakistan. He thought he could cover his ass by stealing the server with all the info. Too bad, Admiral Rodgers has it all.

 

[Bacco]

I'd never imagine there would be a day when our mainstream media and civil servants on Capitol Hill would collectively stand in solidarity with a gang as brutal and blood-thirsty as the MS-13.

Welcome to 2018 western world bro

 

[Arkain2K]

Welcome to 2018 western world bro

It's going to get a whole lot more retarded before it gets better.

 

[Arkain2K]

MS-13 terrorized Mendota for nearly a decade. Why didn’t help come sooner?
By Yesenia Amaro | November 16, 2018

The graves of brothers Daniel and Rene Leon aren’t hard to find at Fresno Memorial Gardens cemetery.

Bright white and yellow flowers decorate the headstones, while two bright orange metal pumpkins hold court amid opened cans of Budweiser, Pepsi and strawberry yogurt bottles.

Daniel, 15, and Rene, 22, were killed on Sept. 11, 2011, by members of MS-13 in Mendota.

Back in August, investigators declared a major victory against the MS-13 gang in Mendota, saying 25 arrests had been made in an operation following more than a dozen killings in and around Mendota in recent years.

For Cecilia Leon, mother of Daniel and Rene Leon, the effort was too little, too late, given the threat posed by the gang in Mendota for years. “I don’t understand why it took them so long,” she said in Spanish. “Why just now?”

Leon isn’t the only one who wonders why it took so long for federal and state authorities to take the Mendota MS-13 problem seriously.

Current and former city officials in Mendota say they had been pleading for outside help to deal with the gang’s activities for more than half a decade before the August operation. They say those pleas largely went ignored.

Those calls for support to fend off MS-13 began soon after the Leon brothers’ killings, when the small rural town’s police force in California’s Central Valley had just been rebuilt two years prior – and was ill-equipped to tackle the threat of a transnational gang, former city administrators and law enforcement say.

Still, the state and the county didn’t make Mendota a priority, they say. As the gang’s violence escalated, they even sought assistance at the federal level, but again, received no response.

The problem just didn’t include the gang members killing civilians and rivals. The gang violence problem spiraled so far out of control that even police officers became targets.

Vince DiMaggio, Mendota’s city manager from April 2014 to July 2018, acknowledged in an interview with The Fresno Bee that MS-13 gang members about three years ago threatened a Mendota police officer with violence.

“At the time, it was a confidential issue,” he said. “It was an issue of officer safety ... As I understand, there were threats against him and his family.”

DiMaggio said during his time at the city, municipal leaders had sought help from both federal and state law enforcement officials since 2015. Previous leaders say they had asked for help as far back as 2011.

https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/crime/article220910125.html

 

[nhbbear]

Calling them animals is an insult


To animals! These creatures are violent slime, among the worst humanity has to offer, next to the atrocities in Africa, both do such disgusting things to other humans that such evil should never be defended, only rooted out and destroyed.

 

[Sonnyboi83]

Their fucking gang name is lame MS-13?

They must've got it from a Microsoft update patch

 

[ShinkanPo]

They must've got it from a Microsoft update patch

Heheheh.

Micro Soft

 

[MPD-Psycho]

I’m surprised that’s even controversial.

 

[Arkain2K]

I’m surprised that’s even controversial.

Common Sense is far from being common these days.

Case in point: http://forums.sherdog.com/posts/141502803/

 

[Arkain2K]

Sparks of Divinity are now roaming our national forests:

 

[Ruv]

They must've got it from a Microsoft update patch

When they become MS-14 we will see some real Anarchy. Dems will be begging Trump for help.

 

[Arkain2K]

MS-13 gang created beachhead at California high school, but authorities insisted on secrecy
By Howard Blume, Matthew Ormseth | July 27, 2019

A student at Panorama High School was killed off campus in October 2017. A month before his death, a student was stabbed and wounded as he was leaving the San Fernando Valley campus, according to a federal indictment.​

Law enforcement and school officials have defended 21 months of secrecy around the murder investigation of a Panorama High School student at the hands of MS-13 — one part of a grisly rampage that has generated national headlines and left at least 10 people dead.

They said there was no need to alert teachers, parents and students because other students were never in danger, the gang had little presence on campus, and no acts of gang violence affected the campus itself.

But a month before the October 2017 off-campus slaying of Brayan Andino, another incident linked to MS-13 erupted at the edge of the San Fernando Valley campus.

At least two MS-13 members, including two former Panorama students, are suspected of stabbing and wounding a student as he was leaving school, officials acknowledged.

According to a federal indictment unsealed this month, the assailants approached the victim, identified in court documents as B.C., and yelled, “MS!” — signifying their gang affiliation. They challenged “whether B.C. was from a rival gang,” according to the indictment.

The student “said he did not ‘gang bang,’” but the attackers paid no heed and “stabbed B.C. in the back and abdomen” as he tried to climb over the school’s perimeter fence. The injured student was enrolled in Cal Burke High School, an alternative program on the Panorama campus that has a separate entrance. The attackers fled and B.C. staggered to the school office, which called for help.

Law enforcement sources told The Times that MS-13 had established a significant beachhead at Panorama. And, although Brayan, 16, was killed off campus, it was two girls at the school who investigators say coaxed him to meet at Lake Balboa Park, where gang members, including other classmates, were waiting.

The L.A. Unified School District has denied the presence of a gang clique at the school and said it left the question of whether parents and students should have been alerted to investigators.

As details of the gang’s connections have become public over the last week, some parents and teachers have questioned why officials didn’t alert the campus community earlier.

Only after a federal grand jury indicted 22 adults on racketeering and murder charges earlier this month did officials with the Los Angeles Unified School District acknowledge that students from Panorama High had also been arrested.

Prosecutors allege that all of the accused are members of a violent subset of MS-13 that killed seven people — including Brayan — over a span of more than two years. Three more deaths linked to MS-13 are being handled in state court, officials said.

“In situations like these, we rely on the best judgment of the law enforcement experts who are working to uncover the truth and bring perpetrators to justice,” said school board member Kelly Gonez, who represents that area. “The best way to ensure the safety of our students, staff and families at Panorama High School and the broader community is to ensure that these violent criminals are arrested and put in jail.”

One result of the secrecy was that after Brayan went missing in late October 2017, school administrators said nothing about it. When his body was found in mid-December they continued to stay mum. Nor was there word about his funeral or any statements of condolence. Principal Rafael Gaeta referred to Brayan as “missing,” said staff members interviewed by The Times. The school district has declined to make Gaeta available for an interview.

Then in February 2018, a sweep netted about 10 suspects in Brayan’s killing. At least seven were Panorama High students, according to teachers, although Capt. William P. Hayes, who commands the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division, puts the number at five. That’s not including the two involved in the stabbing. Authorities kept the arrests quiet for 17 more months.

Investigators were “concerned about the flight risk of suspects and the loss of critical information,” Hayes said. He said that the February sweep brought in some suspects on lesser charges than murder — and that any publicity could have tipped off gang members about the magnitude of the investigation.

Hayes also said that it could have been risky to provoke talk about MS-13 among students while the gang might still have a presence at the school, and that he didn’t want students inadvertently making themselves targets. “You’re trying to prevent people from saying stupid things that would put them at risk,” he said.

He added that his officers were tracking potential suspects and staying in regular contact with school police and administrators to make sure Panorama students were not at risk after Brayan’s death.

One law enforcement official familiar with the investigation characterized Panorama High as “recruiting ground” for MS-13. The source requested anonymity in order to speak candidly about the case. Students later implicated in the murder had been disciplined by the school for tagging and wearing MS-13 paraphernalia, the official said.

MS-13’s foothold at the school “was something known” to school officials, the source added.

Alex Sanchez, a former MS-13 gang member and executive director of Homies Unidos, a nonprofit that provides intervention and prevention services for at-risk teenagers, said that not acknowledging that a student is killed deprives other students of grief counselors and other resources that can help them process their feelings.

“Kids will find out what happened and the word is going to spread around,” he said. “There’s no way that the kids are not going to find out.”

Labeling a school as a breeding ground for a certain gang only raises its profile and incites unnecessary fear, he said .

A former student who graduated in 2018 said there were whispers across campus.

“We knew there was somebody missing at some point,” she said. “Then the rumors came up that the person had been killed. Everybody knew something but it wasn’t the exact truth.”

She added that she never felt unsafe on campus.

The stabbing occurred on Sept. 8, 2017, shortly before Brayan’s disappearance.

The indictment identifies one of the attackers as Steven Emmanuel Linares. Unlike the juvenile suspects, Linares is named in the federal indictment because some of the crimes he’s charged with occurred after he turned 18 in 2018.

Linares is a former Panorama High student but was not attending school at the time of the knife attack, Hayes said. The same is true of another assailant.

Before The Times learned of the assault just outside the school, district officials had echoed police in saying all the trouble was off campus. The district went further in a Wednesday statement.

“We have no information that suggests a ‘clique’ was ‘operating out of school,’” a district spokeswoman said. “In fact, that statement appears to be factually inaccurate based on our knowledge of the school climate.”

On Thursday, after The Times published details about the arrests of at least six Panorama students, Gaeta sent a message of reassurance to staff.

“At no time then or now was the safety of staff or students jeopardized on campus,” the principal’s message stated in part.

Late on Thursday, after being confronted with information about the stabbing, school district officials acknowledged the earlier incident and provided the text of an alert they said they sent to parents at the time.

Hayes said Linares was connected to the stabbing months later. Prosecutors allege that he was involved in a previous assault.

On June 4, 2017 — several months before the stabbing — Linares was allegedly among about 12 MS-13 gang members who took Elvin Hernandez, 20, to the Angeles National Forest and killed him. The indictment names four assailants in particular, including Linares, who are accused of attacking him with a knife. Another gang member used a machete. Hernandez was stabbed more than 100 times, a medical examiner concluded.

Linares was arrested this month and was one of the last of those charged to be taken into custody. An attorney for Linares could not be reached Friday.

On Monday, Gaeta sent to parents, via email and phone, the first acknowledgment of Brayan’s death. The message also included a long list of resources the school provides for counseling, gang intervention and parent support.

“I want to extend our deepest condolences to the student’s family and friends on their tragic loss,” Gaeta said.

https://www.latimes.com/california/...hool-preceded-murder-of-panorama-high-student

 

[Mikeydontgiva]

#animallivesmatter

 

[Arkain2K]

Report: El Salvador’s government cut deals with MS-13 gang in bid to reduce killings
By Anna-Cathrine Brigida | September 5, 2020​

El Salvador's government cut deals with leaders of the MS-13 gang in an attempt to reduce killings and other violence, according to a news report, in a startling move to open dialogue with a group whose reach extends to the United States.

The reported talks, which the El Faro news site said began in June 2019, would contradict statements by El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, that he would not negotiate with MS-13, which El Salvador's courts have declared a terrorist group.

It also highlighted the difficulty of improving security in gang-afflicted El Salvador, where an estimated 60,000 active gang members fuel violence that has forced hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans to flee.

On Friday, a statement from Bukele’s office denied the El Faro report, saying he “has never negotiated with terrorist structures or groups that live on the margins of the law.”

The MS-13 gang, a reference to its Spanish name “Mara Salvatrucha,” has footholds across Central America, Mexico and the United States, where it is linked to human trafficking, drug networks and targeted killings. In June, U.S. authorities arrested and charged more than two dozen alleged MS-13 leaders and members, including one suspected gang boss facing terrorism charges.

El Faro cited records of prison visits and official intelligence reports apparently showing two key members of Bukele’s government — Carlos Marroquin, director of the Social Fabric Reconstruction Unit, and prisons director Osiris Luna — visited at least two maximum-security prisons to negotiate with MS-13 leadership more than a dozen times since June 2019.

The imprisoned gang members received benefits ranging from access to favorite foods to the unofficial reversal of a government policy that mixed members of the country’s three warring gangs — MS-13, 18th Street Sureños and 18th Street Revolucionarios — in prison cells, the report said.

In turn, MS-13 reportedly pledged a decrease in homicides and support for Bukele’s party, Nuevas Ideas, in February 2021 legislative elections.

Marroquin and Luna also denied the report. Neither Bukele nor the two officials responded to requests for further comment.

El Salvador’s office of the attorney general opened an investigation into the reported negotiations.

“This is a clandestine negotiation outside public scrutiny and outside all types of social or state control, which can lead to many abuses of power and illegitimate or illegal privileges,” said Manuel Escalante, a lawyer with the San Salvador-based Human Rights Institute at Central American University.

Allegations of clandestine negotiations are nothing new in El Salvador, with examples reaching back at least 15 years. Most notably, the government under President Mauricio Funes brokered a now-infamous truce in 2012 that granted special privileges to gang members in exchange for homicide reduction and support in presidential elections.

When the truce fell apart, homicides soared. El Salvador suffered one of its most murderous years on record in 2015, with 104 homicides per 100,000 people.

“Any negotiation with the gangs represents a basic recognition of them as a group of influence in national life,” said Carlos Carcach, security expert and professor at El Salvador’s Higher School of Economics and Business. “They are, in fact, groups of influence because they can easily increase homicides in a day.”

Now, some experts and citizens fear the same outcome. “It’s a really volatile and fragile equilibrium that can be reversed if something goes wrong,” Breda said.

“Realizing the government entered into an agreement with criminals makes me uneasy because I don’t know how that is going to affect me,” former police officer Marvin Reyes said. “Just because there are fewer homicides doesn’t mean insecurity is gone.”

In an attempt to deter negotiations, the country’s highest court declared gangs as terrorist organizations in 2015. The move backfired, said Jeannette Aguilar, an independent security consultant in El Salvador. “It criminalizes the possibilities of dialogue and other forms of mediation,” she said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...a-bd08-1b10132b458f_story.html?outputType=amp

 

[monster zero]

How could Trump condemn a gang that has executed babies in their cribs? Doesn't he know they are immigrants pursuing the American dream first, and brutal cold blooded killers second? Disgusting actions by Racist Trump..

 

[funcrusher2007]

Holy shit, ms-13 is back! Been awhile since we had some good ole Mexican fear mongering.

must be a slow news day.