MS-13 : Why America is failing to eliminate the international gang called Mara Salvatrucha?
At 8 am. on January 19 a man was searching through a pile of trash on-side of a road in La Tuna Valley in Los Angeles. What he found among the furniture tires & other debris thrown into ditch was a human body.
Deceased was later identified as 20 year old Brian Kahn Tuyk a Guatemalan construction worker.
After Brian Kahn body was found police arrested 19 year old Gabriel Orellana who police say was a member of MS-13 a notorious US gang on suspicion of murder. This gang is also known as Mara Salvatrucha & Gabriel who belongs to this group was wanted by the police for kidnappings & murders.
It should be noted that the news about the crimes of the so-called Mara Salvatrucha gang often adorns the American media and the incidents of this gang continue to appear in the form of headlines in newspapers.
This gang emerged in Los Angeles in the 80s.
Group which includes criminals from the Central American countries of El Salvador Guatemala & Honduras has+been involved in crimes from Los Angeles and the Bay Area to the United Kingdom Germany & Spain including murders. Crimes like kidnapping money laundering drug trafficking human trafficking are included.
Almost 40 years after its establishment united state US President Donald Trump tasked federal agencies with eradicating the gang during his administration. Thus after this presidential order the US United States Department of Justice declared the eradication of this group as its 1st priority.
But the important question here is that despite all the resources & efforts the United States could not eliminate the groups involved in such organized crimes in Central America and why is it failing?
One of thousands of groups
It's a really complicated question a former FBI prosecutor told British News Mundo on condition of anonymity.
He agreed with the opinion of other experts & said that this group is not the only gang in the US United States nor are its operatives the only ones involved in violent crimes.
According to Department of Justice there are currently more than 20,000 criminal gangs in US United States with more than one million members spread across all 50 states District of Columbia & its territories.
Regarding MS-13 in particular Department of Justice estimates that the group has 10,000 members in the U.S. United States & that the group has taken over cities & suburbs in California New Jersey Maryland Virginia including Massachusetts New York Ohio North Carolina. Texas & Georgia with branches operating somewhat smaller & independent of each other.
This is stated in the latest report on the subject published in October 2020. This report reviewed the steps taken by Department of Justice & various agencies since 2016 to eradicate this gang.
Steven Dudley who researched & wrote a book on the group says that members of this group have-been assessed in a very superficial way and no empirical methodology has-been adopted so there is no real understanding of what it means. After all how serious is this matter.
They agree that MS-13 has the strongest roots in the metropolitan areas of New York, Washington, Virginia and, above all, in Los Angeles, where the group originated.
Mara Salvatrucha gang was formed in the 1980s when thousands of Salvadorans displaced by civil war settled in some of the central districts of the California city.
Some of the boys who migrated to the most densely populated & poor areas of city began to unite in gangs with the need to protect them selves from Mexican American criminal gangs & in time they formed a single organization Mara Salvatrucha. or merged into MS-13.
When some members of group were exiled the rest of the gang dispersed & spread to Central America where the group established itself & then emerged as an organized group but that another story.
From local fighting to joint forces
Initially local police of the US United States were responsible for fighting this gang but in 2005 a special unit was needed to fight this group & thus the joint task force against the MS-13 gang was formed.
Counter terrorism expert Robert Clifford was tasked with taking down group by then FBI director. He cites difficulties initially in convincing local authorities of the nature of the problem & the existence of a large scale network.
You are exaggerating the problem he told British News Mundo.
Even within the government itself officials were reluctant to believe that there could be a gang that originated in Los Angeles & had such control over the East Coast.
During his tenure as head of the unit Clifford cooperated with authorities in El Salvador & made a number of arrests internationally.
Former United State President Donald Trump highlighted this gang in his speeches during his presidency. Often naming group he also made clear references to migration & the famous wall on the southern border between US United States & Mexico. He ordered federal agencies to implement strategies specifically to arrest members of the group.
In response to an executive order from president Attorney General Jeff Sessions created a task force in October 2018 & his successor William Burr in August 2019 to coordinate between various departments & law enforcement agencies with goal of dismantling the group. Formed a Joint Task Force Vulcan' for coordination.
Federal prosecutors from the department National Security Division & Criminal Division & prosecutors from ten states were made part of the force tasked with monitoring progress toward that goal at all times.
Goal of taking down the group was to enlist the help of the DEA FBI & other agencies. The force goals included the complete elimination of the group through coordination training & joint operations with Mexico & Central American countries.
According to a 2020 report after the creation of the force since 2016 Department of Justice has prosecuted 794 gang members of whom 500 were sentenced to prison terms including 37 who received life imprisonment. was sentenced.
International trend
According to Robert Clifford this is an international problem & he compares this challenge to another problem asking Why has America not ended radical Islamic terrorism on its soil ?
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This is because a large number of terrorists as well as gang members are based outside the united state US. This is a problem that goes beyond our borders and that is why international cooperation is so important.
But at the same time he warns of the implications of labeling it as a purely external phenomenon rejecting the idea that deporting members of the group will solve the problem.
According to him In 2005 when I asked my intelligence staff to find out who were the ten most influential gang members in the country we found that 4 of them were united state US citizens or they were were legally authorized to reside in United States.
A social criminal organization
Other experts when asked about the U.S United States strategy to counter Mara Salvatrucha & its results are more critical.
Researcher Stephen Dudley says The United States & countries following its model have-always seen MS-13 1st as a criminal organization and immediately put resources into combating its criminal side. have-been allocated.
But what they deny or at least systematically ignore is that it is a social criminal organization he says. It's a community.
It may be a misguided community fueled by violence & criminal activity but it still a community he warns. Therefore until it is not understood in this way this problem will continue to exist according to them it is not something that can be eliminated with a single stroke of prison.
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