History Commonly referred to as MS-13 (its original name being Mara Salvatrucha 13), it represents one of the most violent and dangerous gangs in the United States. The gang is also one of the most organized gang around the United States. MS-13 even has cliques in different regions of the world. It is known for being widely international and may soon become one of the first gangs to be considered as an “organized crime” unit to the FBI. With the gangs tremendous growth over the past 40 years, it is scary to think where this gang will be in 10 years from now. The gang began shaping in El Salvador and originated in 1980s with violent guerrillas that fought in the civil war of El Salvador (hence the gang name, “Mara Salvatrucha”). The name came from a street in El Salvador call “La Mara and the word Salvatrucha means street tough Salvadorians” in colloquial Spanish. When the war started to come to an end in El Salvador, the gang decided to move to Honduras. Once the gangs traveled to Honduras, it grew tremendously, and they were able to get about 36,000 people to join. Since the gang grew greatly in a sort amount of time, the Honduras government passed a law so that anyone associated in a gang could be in prison for up to 9 years. When the gang felt that they were recognized and had major impact in Honduras, they moved to Mexico. The same pattern continued in Mexico. The gang had a strong impact on drug trading and trafficking of fire arms across the United States. In the late 1980s, the gang had already made their way into the United States. Mara Salvatrucha was originally brought in to Los Angeles to prevent other violent LA gangs from messing with immigrants that were from El Salvador. That’s where the gang came up with the nick name MS-13. MS is from the word “Mara Salvatrucha” and the number “13” is from the thirteenth letter of the alphabet which is “M. This decision to add 13 to their name was after a bitter feud between The Mexican Mafia and Mara Salvatrucha. It ultimately resulted in the gang showing allegiance to The Mexican Mafia.The Mexican Mafia is technically an organized prison gang, but according to law enforcement, controls many Southern California Hispanic gangs, including powerful ones such as MS-13. Once they arrived in the United States they began to live in many poor communities and did not seek employment. They were despised by the Mexican population mostly because they gave them a bad name when coming to the area. Not too long after getting settled in the areas, they became involved with drug trafficking and committing brutal murders. Mara Salvatrucha began to even kill in many Salvadorian communities, even though they originally came to help them out. Once the gang made their presence known the cliques started to spread out, and by the 1990s they were located all over the United States. With cliques now in more than 75% of the United States, Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and several other South American countries, the gang has become well known as an international gang. Below is a picture of where the gang is now located. The darker the area,the more concentrated the gang is.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 10:44:56 +0000
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