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Dr.
Paul L. Williams, PhD
MS-13 Now Controls Mexican Border
August 1, 2009
Something bad
is taking place at the border.
"We’re seeing a lot of MS-13,” says Agent Mike Scioli of the US Border
Patrol. "They’re typically known to be guns for hire, they’re known to
smuggle narcotics and human traffic across the border illegally.”
MS-13 stands for Mara Salvatrucha, the most violent street gang in the
western hemisphere.
Last week Border Patrol agents arrested two MS-13 members: one in Tucson
and one in Nogales.
The Nogales arrestee was identified by his tattoos – the letter M on his
right bicep; the letter S on his left; the number 1 on his right
triceps; the number 3 on his left.
"He was already deported from Los Angeles back to Mexico and he was
attempting to re-enter to join back up with his gang,” Scioli says.
Tucson’s Border Patrol Sector is the busiest in the US Last year its
agents arrested about 317,000 illegal immigrants. Scioli says 16
percent, or almost 50,000, had some type of criminal record.
But the presence of MS-13 merits special concern.
They specialize in transporting arms and drugs across the border. Most
of the weapons come from El Salvador – the homeland of most of the gang
members – where a hand grenade sells for $10; an M-16 rifle for $200;
and an AK-47 for $1,500. The Maras have made a fortune by
purchasing such weapons and selling them to members of other street
gangs throughout the US.
In recent years, the Maras have taken over drug routes that had
been established by other Latino gangs. At present, nearly 90 percent of
the cocaine and marijuana that flows into the states comes from Mexico
and the lion’s share from the trafficking remains under the control of
MS. The drug business is so brisk that the gang has set up large
warehouses to store the illicit drugs in Matamoros, Mexico, just south
of Brownsville, Texas.
Along with importing, the Maras also engage in
exporting stolen goods from the US to Latin America – including massive
amounts of baby formula, health and beauty supplies, cologne and
perfume, and diabetes test strips from Texas; electronics from Arizona
and California; and automobiles from nearly every state in the
Southwest.
According to gang investigators from the District Attorney’s Office in
Orange County, California, 80% of the cars on the streets of El
Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have been stolen from the United
States by members of Mara Salvatrucha.
Thousands of MS members now occupy prison cells from Maine to California
for such crimes as trafficking in illegal narcotics, home invasion,
burglary, carjacking, extortion, witness intimidation, rape and murder,
including the assassinations of three federal agents.
Many migrants who want to cross the 1,820 mile border between Mexico and
the United States must come to terms with more than three thousand MS
gang members who keep watch over the border crossings like turkey
vultures.
The going rate for safe passage is $5,000. Families without the
requisite cash are compelled to relinquish all their possessions –
family heirlooms, gold necklaces, silver bracelets, wedding rings, even
their shoes and sombreros. Those with neither money nor tangible goods
must come up with other offerings, including the sexual favors of their
wives and children.
Those who resist payment are often hacked to pieces or tossed from
moving trains. "There are hundreds who are pushed off trains by the
Maras if they resist the robberies,” says Asdrubal Aguilar Zepeda,
the Salvadoran counsel in Tapachula, Mexico, near the Guatemalan border.
The bodies and body parts of dead migrants are often strewn along the
railroad tracks from Tapachula to the northern regions of Mexico.
By controlling the leading passageways into the US, Mara Salvatrucha
has transmogrified into a multimillion dollar enterprise, and, by so
doing, has become a leading international Mafia.
About Dr. Paul L. Williams,
PhD
Dr. Paul L. Williams, PhD, is an American
author, journalist and consultant on radical Islam and
counterterrorism. He is also an adjunct professor of humanities.
He is the author of six books, including The Day of Islam: The
Annihilation of America and the Western World, in which he
expands on the American Hiroshima scenario he believes to be
imminent, in which simultaneous nuclear attacks on 7 to 10
American cities would create havoc in American society. Prior to
this, he served for seven years as a consultant to the FBI about
terrorist and mafia criminal organizations. |
