“Significant Immigrant Populations from Central America” Fueling Violent Gang MS-13

A major bust involving the nation’s most violent street gang reveals that the criminal enterprise—known as Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13—continues to be energized with new recruits provided by the steady flow of illegal immigrant minors entering the U.S. through Mexico.

The affiliation between gangs and the hordes of Central American illegal immigrants who continue invading the U.S. is a story Judicial Watch has been reporting for more than a year. The Obama administration calls them Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) and tries to portray them as innocent, desperate kids fleeing violence and famine in their homeland. The reality is much different, as top Homeland Security sources have told JW in the course of an ongoing investigation into the dangerously porous southern border.

As soon as the UACs started arriving in the summer of 2014, Homeland Security sources told Judicial Watch that many had ties to gang members in the U.S. In fact, JW reported in 2014 that street gangs—including MS-13—went on a recruiting frenzy at U.S. shelters housing the illegal immigrant minors and they were using Red Cross phones to communicate. The MS-13 is a feared street gang of mostly Central American illegal immigrants that’s spread throughout the U.S. and is renowned for drug distribution, murder, rape, robbery, home invasions, kidnappings, vandalism and other violent crimes. The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) says criminal street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.

Just a few months ago JW reported that the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed that the MS-13 is a top tier gang thanks to the influx of illegal alien gang members that crossed into the state. The number of MS-13 members encountered by U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley sector has increased each year, accelerating in 2014 and coinciding with increased illegal immigration from Central America during the same period, the agency disclosed in a report linked to JW’s story. This clearly refers to the UAC crisis that saw over 60,000 illegal immigrants—many with criminal histories—storm into the U.S. in a matter of months.

Now we learn that dozens of MS-13 members were recently indicted in Boston for serious crimes including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, drug trafficking, firearm violations, federal racketeering and immigration offenses. Several of the defendants are responsible for murdering at least five people since 2014 and the attempted murder of at least 14 in Chelsea and East Boston, according to the federal indictment. MS-13 members also sell cocaine, heroin and marijuana and commit robberies to generate income to pay monthly dues to incarcerated gang leadership in El Salvador, federal prosecutors say. The money is used to pay for weapons, cell phones, shoes, food and other supplies for MS-13 thugs in and out of jail in El Salvador.

In their announcement of this substantial gang bust, federal prosecutors in Massachusetts reveal that MS-13 actively recruited prospective members in high schools situated in communities with “significant immigrant populations from Central America.” The recruits are known as “paros” and they are typically 14 or 15 years old, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The perspective members then must engage in violent criminal activity before becoming a full-fledged MS-13 member. With a direct line of access to thousands of new recruits, Obama’s ongoing flow of UACs, it’s logical to conclude the problem will only get worse. Authorities in Texas predict the gang problem will grow. “Gang members from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador could be destined for locations in Texas with large Central American communities, including the Houston and Dallas areas,” the Texas Department of Safety writes in the report JW cites above. Even if that doesn’t materialize, the state already has a serious gang crisis as do other border states with high illegal alien populations.