In prison, every day is a fight for survival. An inmate's most important weapon may not be a shank, but instead a gang membership.
Mara Salvatrucha (commonly abbreviated as MS,
Mara, and
MS-13) is a transnational criminal gang that originated in
Los Angeles and has spread to other parts of the
United States,
Canada, Austrialia, and
Central America.[1] The majority of the gang is ethnically composed of
Central Americans and active in urban and suburban areas
. In the U.S., the MS-13 specially has a heavy presence in
Los Angeles County and the
San Francisco Bay Area in
Northern California; the
Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas of
Fairfax County, Virginia,
Montgomery County, Maryland, and
Prince George's County, Maryland;
Long Island, New York; the
Boston, Massachusetts area;
Charlotte, North Carolina; and
Houston, Texas. There is also a sizable presence of MS-13 in
Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Members of MS distinguish themselves by tattoos covering the body and also often the face, as well as the use of their own
sign language. They are notorious for their use of violence and a subcultural moral code that predominantly consists of merciless revenge and cruel retributions. This excessive cruelty of the distinguished members of the "Maras" or "Mareros" earned them a path to be recruited by the
Sinaloa Cartel battling against Los Zetas in an ongoing drug war south of the
United States border.[2][
3][4] Their wide-ranging activities and elevated status has even caught the eye of the
FBI and
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who recently initiated wide-scale raids against known and suspected gang members netting hundreds of arrests across the country.
The Mara Salvatrucha gang originated in Los Angeles, set up in the
1980s by
Salvadoran immigrants in the city's Pico-Union neighborhood who immigrated to the United States after the
Central American civil wars of the 1980s.[5][6]
Originally, the gang's main purpose was to protect Salvadoran immigrants from other, more established gangs of Los Angeles, who were predominantly composed of
Mexicans and African-Americans.[7]
Many Mara Salvatrucha gang members from the
Los Angeles area have been deported after being arrested.[8] As a result of these deportations, members of MS have recruited more members in their home countries.
The Los Angeles Times contends that deportation policies have contributed to the size and influence of the gang both in the United States and in Central America.[8] According to the 2009
National Gang Threat Assessment, "The gang is estimated to have 30,
000 to 50,000 members and associate members worldwide, 8,000 to 10,000 of whom reside in the United States."[9]
In recent years the gang has expanded into the Washington, D.C. area, in particular the areas of
Langley Park and
Takoma Park near the
Washington border have become centers of MS gang activity.[10]
Sinaloa Cartel hierarchy in early 2008
MS-13 presence -- darkness indicates strength
In
August 2011, six
San Francisco MS-13 members were convicted of racketeering and conspiracy, including three murders, in what at the time was the city's largest-scope gang trial in many years. Another 18 defendants reported to have ties to the gang plead guilty before trial.[36]
In
2011, the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial in
New Haven, CT was vandalized on multiple occasions with the "MS-13 tag" and "kill whites" in orange spray paint.
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- published: 02 Apr 2014
- views: 1052253