A task force called Operation Matador was formed after Attorney General Jeff Session visited Long Island to address the growing threat of the violent street gang known as MS-13. The gang with Salvadoran roots has been a plague on immigrant neighborhoods in America for years now.
I have been sounding the alarm on MS-13 since way back in 2011 when I wrote “Bang, You’re Dead.” Back then I warned readers about the gang formed in the 1980s by the children of Salvadoran immigrants:
In terms of home invasions, what do you think Omaha, Boston, Seattle, Alexandria, Columbus, Albuquerque, Nashville, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Baltimore, Charlotte, San Fran, and Newark all have in common? Did you mention Mara Salvatrucha? Nope, you probably missed MS-13. Mara is slang for a group of young people. Salva is short for El Salvador. Trucha means “on guard.” MS-13 is one of the nastiest, most dangerous gangs in the world. This festering crowd formed back in the early 1980s in the Pico-Union neighborhood of Los Angeles. Early members were young kids of El Salvadoran immigrants.
Home invasion is right up the alley of MS-13. If you have seen young street thugs with teardrops tattooed on their eyelids, gothic lettering tatts, and the number 666 or certainly any form of MS-13, you are likely to be a whole lot closer to a member of Mara Salvatrucha than you may wish. Trust me, MS-13 makes some of the notorious motorcycle gangs look like The Beach Boys.
Things only got worse. MS-13 is the most violent gang in America today. President Trump and Attorney General Sessions are right to bring the full weight of the federal government to bear on this scourge. The NY Post writes:
Federal officials have rounded up close to 40 accused members of MS-13 in New York City and Long Island in the 30 days following vows by Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to crack down on the gang, known for terrorizing immigrant communities.
Those who are not charged with crimes will be processed for deportation, the feds said.Of the 45 New York-area gang arrests over the last month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security, 39 were affiliated with MS-13, which has been blamed for a string of recent murders in normally placid Long Island, the feds said….
MS-13 members are known for tattooing their bodies in devil horns — a trend that is helping law enforcement properly ID them for arrest and deportation.
Twelve of the reputed MS-13 gang members arrested over the past 30 days crossed the border as unaccompanied minors, the feds said. Now, all are considered illegal immigrants.
Three of those rounded up recently had Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, an immigration classification available to certain undocumented minors who have been abused, neglected or abandoned by their parents, the feds said.
MS-13, known for drug trafficking, kidnapping, human smuggling, murder and sex trafficking, was labeled a “transnational criminal organization” by the Treasury Department in 2012.
But Sessions, who has called MS-13 “one of the most violent gangs in the history of our country,” has suggested it could be labeled a terrorist organization under the Trump administration.
Read more here.
Inside Long Island’s war with MS-13
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