The MS-13 and 18th Street Gangs: Emerging Transnational Gang Threats?

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What responsibilities do I have when using this report? Dates and time periods associated with this report. Geographical information about where this report originated or about its content. The MS and 18th Street Gangs: Emerging Transnational Gang Threats? Description This report provides an overview of the MS and M gangs,5 examines how MS and M gangs are different from other gangs and organized crime groups, and discusses what constitutes a transnational gang. Physical Description 20 pages. Who People and organizations associated with either the creation of this report or its content.

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About Browse this Collection. Digital Files 1 file. It afforded the MS more protection in the barrios and in prison. In return, the MS provided hitmen and added the number 13, the position M occupies in the alphabet, to their name. Thus, the MS became the MS MS13, Barrio 18, Los Perrones, Texis Cartel By the end of the s, the United States tried to tackle what they were starting to recognize was a significant criminal threat.

Partly as a way to deal with the MS13, and partly as a product of the get-tough immigration push toward the end of the presidency of Bill Clinton, the government began a program of deportation of foreign-born residents convicted of a wide range of crimes. This enhanced deportation policy, in turn, vastly increased the number of gang members being sent home to El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and elsewhere.

The MS-13 and 18th Street Gangs: Emerging Transnational Gang Threats?

According to one estimate, 20, criminals returned to Central America between and Central American governments, some of the poorest and most ineffective in the Western Hemisphere, were not capable of dealing with the criminal influx, nor were they properly forewarned by US authorities. The convicts, who often had only the scarcest connection to their countries of birth, had little chance of integrating into legitimate society.

They often turned to what they knew best: In this way, the decision to use immigration policy as an anti-gang tool spawned the virulent growth of the gang in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. This includes extortion, kidnapping and controlling the neighborhood illegal drug market. Their crimes, such as extorting the bus companies , are arguably more disruptive on a daily basis to more people than any other criminal activity in the region.

Some ascertain that the two organizations have formed a sort of international triangle of power that runs from the Los Angeles area to El Salvador and back through the Washington, DC-Virginia corridor. Though their historical roots lie in Central America and the cities of the United States, much of the recent growth of the MS13 has been concentrated in Mexico. The gang is strongest in the border region with Guatemala, especially the state of Chiapas. Thanks in large part to their shared territory, the MS13 has also begun to carve out relationships with some transnational drug trafficking networks.

In Central America, the MS13 provides crucial manpower for the foreign organizations, helping gangs like the Zetas and the Sinaloa Cartel sell drugs in the local market, intimidate rivals, and carry out executions. Perhaps the most obvious example is the aforementioned policy of deporting foreign nationals committed of crimes in the United States.

But Central American governments have also contributed: As a result, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala saw their prison populations overflow with members of the MS13 and other gangs. Because the brittle prison systems in each of those nations was unprepared for the sudden influx of thousands of violent and organized gang members, violence rose sharply inside jails.

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In response, authorities separated the gangs , but this opened up space for them to reorganize. In prison, for example, they are given a freedom and safety that is no longer possible on the outside. They frequently have access to cellular phones, computers and television.

The gang is now in its second or third generation, and the cycle appears difficult to break. Youth enter as they often see it as their only way through the rising violence around them. Older members seeking to break free find internal rules they might have created keeping many of them from separating. Some cliques, for example, penalize desertion by killing the person. Even if they can break free of their membership, their tattoos have often branded them for life.

However, some critics of the truce feared it dangerously heightened the profile of the street gangs, and provided them with the resources necessary to exert greater influence on government institutions. The United States was also reluctant to endorse the gang truce, increasing pressure on the MS13 since its implementation.

Concerns over the truce were further fueled by reports of rising extortion and disappearances during the truce period, as well as the discovery of mass graves. Additionally, homicides began rising again in mid as the truce unraveled , and continued to rise throughout and early The MS13 now finds itself locked in what resembles a low-intensity war with government security forces, though the gangs have sustained the bulk of casualties.

Compounding the pressure on the MS13 has been the emergence of anti-gang death squads composed largely of members of the military and police. However, this dialogue is unlikely to take place due to resistance to the idea among politicians and the public. On paper, the MS13 has a hierarchy, a language, and a code of conduct.

The MS and 18th Street Gangs: Emerging Transnational Gang Threats? - Digital Library

In reality, the gang is loosely organized, with cells across Central America, Mexico and the United States, but without any single recognized leader. These cliques have their own leaders and hierarchies. Some cliques are transnational; some fight with others and have more violent reputations.

Product details

Some cliques control smaller cliques in a given region.

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