Will Federal Designation of Mara Salvatrucha as a Criminal Organization Really Break the Violent Transnational Gang?

A couple of weeks ago, the Feds announced a new crackdown on the Mara Salvatrucha as being a “criminal organization”.  It is the first time that a street gang has received such a designation from the government.  This new effort gives the U.S. Treasury Department the power to freeze financial assets of MS members and bars banks from engaging in any transactions with members of the group.

On the surface, this order against the transnational MS gang may sound like a major victory against organized crime, but the MS gang usually wires money in small amounts via low key Latino stores and outlets or launders money out of the country in other ways often via non-gang involved couriers.  In L.A., the Salvadoran and Latino community have expressed concern the order may stifle and tarnish the reputation of law abiding businesses or people suspected, but not proven, to have ties to MS.   Officials have said the move is designed to reduce the flow of gang money within the United States and across our borders.  Authorities believe money generated by MS clicas here is often funneled back to the group's leadership in El Salvador as well as other countries where they are very active like Honduras and Guatemala.

MS was originally predominately Salvadoran and MS members were treated as outsiders by the Mexican/Chicano gangs of L.A.’s Westside.  About 1994, they made a truce with the Mexican Mafia, also called La EME, and used MS13 as a sign of loyalty.  Most Southern California Hispanic gangs commonly referred to as Sureños use the code number 13 for the 13^th letter of the alphabet “M” or “EME” in Spanish.  MS even paid taxes to La EME and several MS members were considered Camaradas or EME Associates.  But, the gang has always been looked down upon by much larger L.A. gangs such as Eighteenth Street or Florencia 13.  Recently some MS have advised members, especially ones who live far away from L.A. and further away from the rath of La EME, to drop the 13 again.  At one time, most MS had to get a MS or MS13 tattoo to be recognized as being in la clica, now some MS are refraining from doing so in an attempt to evade law enforcement detection.    

Various MS clicas often do network with each other, but MS is set up more horizontal than the vertical nature of traditional organized crime.  Each clica is run by a Shotcaller known as a “Ranflero”.  MS is believed to have as many as 30,000 members worldwide with approximately 8,000 operating within the U.S.  In places like L.A. and Seattle, MS actually has less influence than they did 10 years ago, but is still a viable threat on the East Coast.  Newly organized MS cells in El Salvador soon established beachheads on the East Coast, especially in suburbs of northern Virginia and Maryland.  Many younger generation MS that currently live on the East Coast have never even been to L.A. which was the gang’s birthplace in the early 1980s.

In great part due to deportations, Central American MS clicas have far greater influence on society and operate in more sophisticated ways than most groups there.  It has been reported that older veterano MS in Central America are now dressing more like business men and have diversified from mainly dealing drugs, into ventures like kidnapping, extortion, human trafficking, sex trafficking young girls, working as hired assassins, and other forms of racketeering.  MS in Central America do not hesitate to use vicious machete attacks, dismember their victims, and commit violent rapes.  The gang’s informal motto is “Mata, Controla, y Viola” (Kill, Control, and Rape).  MS in Central America also have far greater control in jails and prisons then they do in the United States.

There have been past documented reports of some MS members working for drug cartels like the Zetas.  But now some experts fear there may be an alliance between the violent cartel and the violent street gang.  Zetas have branched out from their original turf in northeast Mexico in states like Tamaulipas and expanded down to Chiapas and even into Guatemala.  A merger with MS would make sense to move drugs north through Mexican corridors and into the U.S. as Zetas move most of their dope loads via the Tex-Mex border and up through the Mid-West and East Coast.

This alliance was recently revealed by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.  In a report written by Adam Elkus and John P. Sullivan they stated, “The relationship between the Zetas and MS-13 is an alliance, and one that increases the Zetas’ ability to leverage new skills and markets, exploit gaps and vacuums, and extend their reach...It should be understood that MS-13 and the Zetas joining together is not equivalent to a signed treaty that facilitates formal cooperation between two groups...It is not known how such a deal was conducted, but it is sure to be something other than a literal declaration of fealty.”

Gangs are very competitive to protect their reputation and in fighting for their share of the drug market and other criminal enterprises.  Another side effect of this competition may be that the rival Barrio Diesiocho, also known as 18^th Street, may form an alliance with “Chapo” Guzman and the Sinaloa Cartel.  The 18^th Street gang is far bigger than MS on the West Coast and the Sinaloans control most of the drug trade on the West Coast of Mexico so 18^th Street may see such an arrangement as an ideal "win-win situation"?  

On the positive side, the new U.S. order does give law enforcement another tool to disrupt MS activities.

You can read more about MS and 18^th Street in the new book BEST:

http://www.gangpreventionservices.org/merchandise.asp#book