HomeNewsBriefSalvador Gang MS-13 Increasing Activity in US: Reports
BRIEF

Salvador Gang MS-13 Increasing Activity in US: Reports

EL SALVADOR / 20 NOV 2015 BY MIKE LASUSA EN

Authorities have linked several recent murders in the Washington, DC area to alleged members of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS13, suggesting the organization's El Salvador-based leadership may be moving to consolidate its relationship with US-based "cliques".  

Earlier this month, the body of 22-year-old Honduran migrant Rigoberto Gutierrez Cruz was found in a wooded area near the DC suburb of Gaithersburg, Maryland. According to court documents reviewed by local journalist Armando Trull, Cruz was targeted by MS13 after he reported an earlier beating he suffered at the hands of alleged gang members.  

In September, a high school student and recent Salvadoran immigrant was shot dead in Sterling, Virginia, another suburb of DC. Several press reports have linked the suspected killers to MS13, though this has not been confirmed. The victim had no known ties to gang activity, but a number of sources suggested he may have been targeted for crossing local gang boundaries.

In June, a federal judge sentenced three Maryland and DC-based MS13 leaders to prison for their involvement in what the Washington Post described as "a two and a half year run of…killing of rivals, beating of informants, extortion and drug dealing in competition with other local Latino gangs." The US Department of Justice stated that the defendants were "among numerous individuals charged in a 2010 indictment alleging criminal acts committed between 2008 and 2010 in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and other states, as well as in El Salvador."

Last October, the Post quoted Michael McGarrity, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office, saying, "We've seen a reemergence or reconstitution of MS13 over the last year and a half. With that has come an increase in violence…They are being more organized in what they do, how they do it and what they do it for."

InSight Crime Analysis

As Salvadoran authorities continue to ramp up the fight against gangs, MS13 could be seeking to solidify its relationship with its international branches in the DC area to boost earnings. According to the Post, "experts traced the renewed activity to the gang's leadership in El Salvador trying to create a more disciplined and structured organization in order to rejuvenate its ability to make money."

Additionally, Maryland state prosecutor John McCarthy told Trull that he had seen intelligence reports "talking about a desire of MS13 under the direction and guidance of organizations coming out of El Salvador to re-establish their membership in the [DC] metropolitan area" in order to boost recruitment and revenues. In its 2012 listing of MS13 as a transnational criminal organization, the US Treasury Department indicated that US-based cliques take orders from MS13 leaders in El Salvador and contribute financially to the organization's operations there. 

SEE ALSO: MS13 News and Profile

Several law enforcement agencies, including the DC Metropolitan Police Department, declined or did not return requests for comment on this story. However, a northern Virginia law enforcement official speaking on background told InSight Crime that authorities had observed growing attempts by MS13 to recruit new members, especially minors, to local cliques. The official also confirmed receiving intelligence reports indicating the recruitment effort could be tied to the desire of MS13 leadership in El Salvador to increase their revenues from abroad.

US authorities clearly consider MS13 a serious threat both at home and abroad. In addition to targeting the group's leadership with financial sanctions, both local and federal agencies have cooperated with their Salvadoran counterparts in attempts to disrupt the group's international operations.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

EL SALVADOR / 15 JUN 2022

Flaca was devoted to the MS13. But after suffering violence, abuse and rape, she turned to the one escape open…

COCAINE / 5 NOV 2021

US prosecutors have charged an alleged MS13 leader in Honduras and another man thought to be one of his main…

CRIMINAL MIGRATION / 1 MAR 2023

US authorities have made several arrests that could strike a big blow to the MS13’s Mexico Program.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…