They flash the sign of the horns of the devil and slash with machetes.
“And they don’t strike with a bullet, they strike with a blade.”
“They bring the guerilla warfare of Central America to the streets of the US and maybe even your hometown.”
“We’re going to multiply and we’re going to multiply in big numbers.”
“The MS-13 has a potential presence in just about every community in this country.”
“Homie.”
“Mara Salvatucha, also known as MS13.”
“We’re going to retaliate. We’re going to defend ourselves. You know what I mean?”
“Roll with one of the most terrifying and widespread street gangs in America.”
“We live the day by the day, not knowing if we’re going to be alive tomorrow.”
“And ride with the police units tasked to put the gangsters behind bars.”
“Against the wall. Put your hand on the wall.”
“Or give them a one-way ride through on Conair.”
They call themselves Mara Salvatucha, better known as MS13. They are the most violent gang in the US.
“There’s nobody that survives an MS-13 attack. You know, if they intend to kill you, you’re going to die. They pride themselves on the amount of violence that they use against their victims.”
10,000 strong, their reach extends across much of the United States. The gang’s violence is rooted half a world away and begins nearly three decades earlier during the Civil War in the Central American country of El Salvador.
In the 1980s, refugees and soldiers of that bloody conflict fled to America.
“We were running away from the war in El Salvador and we thought over here we were going to be in peace. But we arrived and it was a different kind of war.”
The already crowded Latino neighborhoods in cities like Los Angeles shun the newcomers.
“It was bad cuz when you come here it’s a different language, different culture.”
A man we’ll call Santana is a longtime MS-13 member in Los Angeles.
“I guess they see us inferior cuz you know you could tell that they thought we were nobody. So we had to kind of do something about that. You know what I mean?”
The established street gangs rob, extort, and terrorize the new immigrants. To survive, the Salvadorans form their own gang, one that’s far more violent than any rival.
“Because it misrepresent our culture, our people, not in the good way but in the bad way. Hardworking Salvadorian people represent the good side of Salvador. It means for a lot of people might represent the bad side of Salvador. But the thing that people don’t understand is when we started this back in the 80s, we did this for protection our own people. Now if you solid Dorian and you go somewhere, they’re going to think about it twice. And before they see you like a piece of shit. It’s more about dignity and pride. It’s about your country, your culture, who you are.”
It is believed they take their name from the Salvatucha gerillas who fought in El Salvador’s civil war and Mara from Lamara, a street in San Salvador. And like dozens of Mexican-American street gangs, they also claim the number 13. The meaning varies by click. For some, the number relates to the 13th letter of the alphabet, M.
To police, 13 has a more deadly interpretation.
“The significance of the 13. One shot to the head, three to the body, or vice versa. One to the body, three to the head.”
Many MS-13 members come from the farms and plantations of El Salvador and have turned a farmer’s tool into their weapon of choice.
“The machete also is one of the tools they use for butchering meat and killing goats and cattle and stuff like that. So, they’re pretty handy with machetes as well as working out in the fields, working their crops and stuff in Central America with a machete.”
“So, they’re real familiar with a machete. It’s just like an extension of their hand. Since little. Every parent gets their kids to start learning how to use one. That’s a natural thing. That’s the way I came into it. I was always chopping up wood for my grandparents out there. And I was they just stay with me. You know, they it’s an easy weapon to use if you know how to use it.”
Law enforcement suspects some gang members have extensive paramilitary training in El Salvador, which makes them a double threat.
“That’s a big fear for us when we run across a group of them cuz they have the same similar weapons that we do and similar training.”
The gang member known as Rata leads an MS13 click in Houston, Texas.
“We got to make you see us. Yeah, we’re going to make you remember. If you’re going to stay alive, we’re going to make you remember who we are, what we did. You ain’t going to even want to come back and do a revenge on us. Cuz if you do that, you know, your whole family is going to be dead. You come up running and you got a machete. That’s it.”
“You’re more of a man when you use your hands instead of a bullet. Cuz a bullet can shoot anything, hit anything. You know, I could just come behind you and cut your throat. He’s like, ‘We’ll chop you out. We chop one of your legs off. Just make yourself and put the leg right next to you.'”
Police say they are among the most dangerous criminals they have ever encountered.
“Absolutely. They do a lot of body mutilations and dismemberments and you know just making statement killings a lot of times. You know want everybody know this was an MS-13 killing. The level of violence is real high when it comes to MS13.”
Coming to America, they gravitate to the towns and suburbs, not just the big cities.
“MS-13 is nationwide. You know, they they from the west coast to the east coast, down in the south. You know, they started out in LA. They were protecting themselves from the other gangs and then they just migrated all over the United States. You know, the land of plenty.”
“No town of any size is immune to their violent ways.”
“People say, ‘Yeah, we don’t own this.’ But they don’t know what we go through every day and night. We walk these streets. We drive around these streets. We shoot, man. We shooting target. Like he said, ain’t nobody like us. They know who we are and they know what we do.”
The Harris County Sheriff’s Department also knows who they are. A cultural melting pot, Houston is home to a significant Salvadoran population.
“This is a mostly El Salvadorian Honduran neighborhood, the apartment complexes, a lot of El Salvadorian, Honduran restaurants and shops, gas station. Mostly all the business over here owned by people from El Salvador and Honduras.”
Over 90 languages are spoken in the city, but sheriff’s deputies say the streets have a cryptic code all their own. Hitting the streets, they quickly roll upon MS-13 graffiti. The gang uses these symbols to mark their turf. They also use it to communicate. Police view it as the first sign of imminent violence.
“We got to find out what’s going on as cops. They talk all the time. They pass word around. They’re talking right now when they’re doing this logo and this graffiti stuff. Somebody send it a message. We know you’re here. We don’t want you here. We’re crossing through your stuff. We blatantly disrespecting you. And come on with it.”
On this day, investigators try to crack the communication between MS-13 and its longtime rival, the Southwest Cholos. They’re equally as violent. SWC is known for running this part of town. As far as gang activity is concerned, they were here first in this area. SWC’s been here for a long time. In recent months, the turf war between the two gangs has intensified. MS-13 members slit the throat of a Southwest Cholo in the parking lot of an apartment complex. Weeks later, a 16-year-old MS-13 member was shot and killed in retaliation.
“They’re just some little punk asses. They just they like to jump people and we don’t. We like to fight oneonone. But how we told man the fuck down the mother they could die.”
“It was never going to stop when they killed my friend. You know they came and retelling we we’re coming back. They just don’t know when and how. They started, we’ll finish it.”
“No, it’s a lot of it’s a lot of violence, you know, but you know, we’re violent people. There’s no with us. That’s it. That’s all we ask. Killing doesn’t put us down for it brings us up. Makes us feel good.”
Evidence of an allout gang war covers block after city block.
“That’s the scary part. And that’s the dangerous part because they’re they’re living in each other’s backyard right now.”
1500 miles from Texas, Nassau County on Long Island is plagued with the same menacing threat. Just east of New York City, Nassau County is a world away from the congestion and crime of Gotham. But this genteel and exclusive community has an unwelcome resident, a machete wielding street gang known as Mara Salvatucha or MS13.
The gang is claiming large sections of the city. They are dealing drugs and waring over turf. Their vicious tactics make stopping MS-13 a priority for Nassau County police.
“In West, it’s just uh been stabbings. We think it’s the same group.”
“Right. We have three or four other cases.”
“All the same. All stabbings and usually in in the back, same MO, right?”
On a typical Friday night in Nassau County, the gang unit gears up to patrol MS13 territory.
“We expect that there’ll be retaliation on either end uh this weekend. There’s still a lot of activity in the county with MS18 Street. Couple shootings, couple stabbings.”
“There was a gang related killing just last weekend.”
The MS Click in Nassau County is locked in a violent rivalry with the 18th Street Gang. After the recent killing of an MS member by an 18th gangster, police fear this hot summer night promises still more bloodshed.
“The way in putting fear is really hurting people, cutting them up, letting them all know. They’ll let them know who they are. So, they’re really ruling through intimidation and fear.”
One of the suspects in a recent knife attack is an MS enforcer known on the streets as Lucky.
“Uh, right now I just saw the name Lucky. That was mentioned in a case I picked up yesterday. They can ID who this Lucky person is.”
Within minutes of hitting the streets, there’s a big MS.
“The gang unit finds graffiti. Here’s more graffiti right here. You can see right here a big M and a big S. And you can see it’s crossed out with black uh spray paint right here. And if you come over here, you’ll see the rival gang tagged over MS-13. They wrote SWP15 right here. That’s the rival gang.”
MS-13 and SWP, Salvadorans with pride, have been enemies for two decades.
“So, some sort of a beating or some sort of a shooting or uh stabbing, something will happen as uh as a result of this uh disrespect. I mean, it really it tells the story is what it does.”
Streets that are full of families by day are ruled by gangsters after dark. On this night, police hope they can stop the violence between these rivals before it erupts. At 11 p.m., officers spot a group gathered on the street and suspect it could be something more sinister.
“Hold on.”
“Open bottles or picked up something.”
As police approach,
“He’s off.”
“I got him.”
One of the suspects grabs something off the ground and takes off.
“Go, go, go, go.”
Police here. But his drinking buddies don’t have time to escape.
“Get up against the wall. Hands on the wall. Turn around. Look at me.”
“What the What is that about?”
“What happened here? How’d you get the stab on him?”
“When I was real young, I got stabbed.”
“Why’ he run? I honestly I don’t know.”
“Who was with you? What’s his name?”
“I’m so You’re telling Do you realize how absurd that is? We saw him grab something from the ground and he ran away.”
“You okay? And he’s with you and we saw you all hanging talking and then you tell me that you don’t know who he is.”
“He had a ratchet.”
“All right. But we saw you got to remember we’re watching you.”
“Okay. Okay.”
“Andy, listen to me right now. You’re going to you’re going to go to jail. Going to lock you up unless you give me your friend’s name. I want his name right now.”
“I was kind of with him then bounce in there. It’s all wooded.”
“Tough spot unless you had help.”
The officers determine it is too dangerous to chase the suspected gang member into the dark woods.
“Stop picking up all these bottles.”
“All right. You’re going to throw them in the garbage.”
But they don’t go away empty-handed.
“You should do better than that.”
“I just want to see you lay. You got anything on your legs? Any hot things on your legs?”
“Excuse me.”
“Put your hands down in the bottle.”
“I’m taking a picture. That’s for us. They can picture.”
“Instead of taking you to jail, we take a picture.”
“You know what? Um,”
“Ask MTPD. They got plenty of”
“No, no, no.”
“About them. Take this off.”
“We just sent them a message. That behavior is not going to be tolerated.”
“No, we got lucky with that. You got something.”
For police, information is their best weapon.
“The photos go into a regional database of known and suspected gang members.”
“We try to find out their nicknames, affiliates, associations, all those things. And then we will generate this report and we send this out. My function is to try and identify these individuals, try to find out what they’re involved with, and then quite possibly subsequently in the end get an arrest and a conviction.”
In the war against gang violence, police need every advantage.
“These guys are extremely dangerous. We’re starting to see an increase in in guns when in the past they were just doing a lot of stabbings, but now we’re seeing guns.”
“Don’t get me wrong, they still do the stabbings, but the guns have increased as well.”
For police, it’s a disturbing trend. The public on a whole is even more at risk when it comes down to something like that because they arbitrarily shoot and that’s extremely dangerous and that makes our job a little dangerous as well.
“All right, boys and girls. Okay,”
For gang crimes involving guns, the Nassau County police have technology on their side. A system of sensors set up in high-risk neighborhoods detect gunfire. It all happens here. This screen runs in the background at the dispatch console. When there is shots fired, there’ll be an alert that sounds. It’ll immediately pop up to the area of where the shots are being fired. And what you heard there is an actual recording of the shots that were fired. Within seconds of the shots being fired, dispatchers can send officers to the scene.
“In real simple terms, it’s something’s going bang, something’s figuring out how long it takes to get to a known point, and then it matches that against all the other known points in that sensor array, which gives us the the position of of where this event took place.”
As the police approach to gang violence evolves, so does MS-13, more experienced gang members from El Salvador are teaching new MS-13 members how to commit crimes.
“And they have the most knowledge on what to do, how to do it, and they feed the knowledge to the younger guys, like how to stab, where to get rid of the guns, how to hide the guns, how to collect the money and use the money to buy other guns and things like that. They also teach younger members how to elude police.”
“They were learning that they should have a car, a second car to jump into after shooting to change so they don’t they’re not driving around the same car that they were saw out of the shooting. They’ll change their shirts so they mix. One guy might walk away and two guys will drive away. He’ll change his shirt and walk away. So now when you’re looking for three in a car, there’s only two in a completely different car.”
In the fight against a secretive organization like MS-13, knowing who they’re dealing with is half the battle.
“In the early days of Mara Salvatucha, gang members would immerse themselves in ink. Traditionally, tattoos in the MS-13 were used as signs of power and signs of status within the gang, especially tattoos that were above the neckline and on the face and the forehead.”
Then police started documenting gang tattoos.
“See, they know they were out there doing this. So what they’re trying to do is of course try to hide their gang affiliation now. So can’t deny, oh, this is just I like the number 13. No, you’re affiliated with a gang member at some point. See, if you go to uh a recent picture of the same arm, now it’s gone cuz he covered it up with this.”
The intelligence gathered by the gang unit is collected into a central database that can be accessed by officers on patrol.
“These are the people in the first precinct that have warrants on them. We let the cops on the street know who those people are.”
Now, when police make a stop, they know if they’re dealing with a member of a violent gang. Back on the streets, with each passing hour, the danger of gang violence grows.
“The gang unit joins a massive police raid on a bar that’s frequented by MS13.”
“You can see all the police activity up here now. 311.”
“What happened here tonight? This is a known MS-13 gang location and um a couple of units from within our department did a license premise check on this. Uh they went in looking for uh any violations with the state liquor authority. They went with the um fire marshals. Uh our Bureau of Special Operations plane close details looking to um find any um any violations that were occurring inside of this license premise.”
But just as the investigation wraps up, word comes over the radio.
“A 16-year-old boy is attacked by a group of gang members and repeatedly stabbed. A vicious crime that has MS13 all over it.”
“But it appears right now that the victim uh suffered multiple stab wounds to his back and he was being rushed to trauma right now. We don’t know what his condition is, but the uh two other SAS detectives are actually on their way to the hospital right now.”
“Eddie, what’s up? Richard, how are you? Okay, I got you. Is he Is he willing to play ball or no? Okay, we’re actually right now in route to uh Winthrop Hospital. We have a uh guy who was stabbed multiple times in the back by MS-13 gang guys. So, uh we’re actually heading over there to uh interview the victim.”
If the victim talks, it could be a major break.
“Most victims and witnesses are too afraid to testify against the gang.”
“Think this group’s rust? Not related to that, is it?”
“It could be. That’s what I was afraid of.”
Within minutes, officers arrive at the hospital.
“Must have been a house.”
“Yeah.”
But they are already too late.
“This is now officially a homicide. We’ve been notified by the uh emergency staff here uh that the uh person who was the victim of stab wounds is now deceased.”
Zach Rosales, the victim, was walking home from a movie when attacked by eight Hispanic men, calling him the enemy. Witnesses identify the MS-13 gangster known as Lucky. The police put out an APB on Lucky and his accomplices.
“Know a guy named Lucky? Do you?”
“Yeah, we’re looking for him. As a matter of fact, I’ve been talking about I have his picture. I’ve been working on it tonight. We’ve been looking for How many guys did it? Three.”
“Said there was He said there was eight.”
“Wow.”
“There’s Lucky again.”
“Yep. See that? What a coincidence.”
“It’s the same guys. Boom. Boom. Boom. Lucky. Pedra.”
“Unbelievable. We were just looking at that.”
“That’s what happens. Once you run into them, they’ll go on a spree.”
“That’s the way it just always happens. All these stabbings look like it’s the same group of people. Ly’s MS. It’s the same uh one I was talking about earlier.”
“Yeah, he was 18, right? But from but the killers melt back into the streets and a community wakes up to blood stains and a shrine marking the place where a teenage boy lost his life.”
For the bloody street gang known as Mara Salvatucha or MS-13, the violence is intoxicating.
“It’s unexplainable that rush that I had each time that I did a job, but each time that I did a a drug deal, each time that I shot somebody, it was like that rush that I have in my heart. It was like it’s like being almost like in a roller coaster when you’re going up and they let you going down. All that rush that gets in your heart. That’s a rush that we have every single time we do something like that. Like mentally it changes you like why should we care? You know, everybody else trying to shoot us, you know, might as well. We got to do we got to do what we got to do, you know? It’s like kill or be killed, you know. That’s what happened, you know, everywhere.”
MS member Rata and his crew rule a slice of South Houston.
“Right here, I’m like in Hollywood being here in Houston. We’re famous over here. Anybody would like to be chilling with us. Anybody”
For his crew, guns are a part of everyday life.
“Inside my mom’s house, I got a AK in there. Anybody walks through that door, I’m blasting them. In my car, I got the shotgun. And under my pillow, I got the 22 and that’s it. So, it’s we ready.”
“And guns are easy to come by given the gang’s connections.”
“We had a friend that he was part of the army and we were using him to get the weapons that we needed. We were using him to buy the guns and he used to report him back, stole them, but he’ll just sell it to us for half of the price that he’ll buy them for. And that’s the way we got all that money. That’s the way we got the money and the guns.”
“You got to carry a gun everywhere you go.”
“I’m going to go shoot it. Let me go do it, you know.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll do it whatever, you know.”
“With the gun.”
“Yeah. It’s like It’s like a game.”
“It’s a game. It’s a game with fire. Let’s see if you can stay alive. Yep. Let’s see if we can stay alive. There’s a lot of people that the way I see him is a white is the way a white man got their job. They could work in a big company and they live it by the day. Let’s see who could get promoted the quickest and the fastest. But who could or who could pay get paid more? The way we do it is who can we control and how many hoods can we take over with the drugs and the money coming in.”
Like the majority of MS members, Rata was born in the US.
“I was born here in Houston, but when I was about 9 months old, my mom went back to El Salvador and I went back with her. So, I stood out there like until age probably like I was like one and a half. I came here on my second birthday and I stayed over here. And when I came over here is when I had came with my relatives that they were they were all involved with MS and everything. So I came down with them over here and that’s the way I got kind of got started because of my family and they’re they’re one of the original people from MS that started MS over there in El Salvador.”
As he grew older he was lured into the gang life by the perceived respect it brought his older family members.
“I did have a choice. But me seeing my cousins and my brother with all this money and they kept on saying, ‘Well, we got this. We control this.’ I felt like they have power and not wanting to feel like that.”
“You cannot blame nobody. A lot of people blame a lot of people blame, oh, I never had a father. That’s a bunch of bull. You know what you’re doing. You know,”
“Our parents might think that they failed, but no, they didn’t. It’s just that we doing it our way, not their way.”
But membership comes with a price. All MS-13 candidates must earn their place within the gang with a savage beat down lasting 13 seconds.
“When I got jumped in, oh my god, I was what, 10 years old when I got jumped in. They jumped me by with three people. They were older than me. They were probably like about 16, 17 years old. And me getting jumped in by them. It was like I won’t forget that. It was like that I took that as a blessing for me that I knew what I was going to become and I knew that I was I was heading somewhere that I was going to be known.”
Respect is almost immediate.
“Oh man, when I started getting my rep and getting my money, man, it’s like everybody knew who I was. Ain’t nobody would lay a finger on me. Ain’t nobody would look at me not even twice cuz they knew who I was and they knew what was what was I about. Don’t mess with Rata. Don’t mess with him. Don’t mess with, you know, don’t mess with none of his crew members cuz if it had to do with our family, we’ll come back and just kill whoever you with and and you.”
By the age of 12, Rata was a full-fledged member charged with the daily workings of the gang.
“I’m about to be 12 years old in a week making a thousand bucks. It’s crazy. I mean, I had a I had to do drivebys, do drug deals here, you know, I had to jack people for the money.”
While the first wave of MS-13 joined the gang for protection and a sense of family not found at home, Rata’s generation is all about money.
“Without money out there, you ain’t nothing. So, what other choice you got to get quicker money is the gang life.”
Although power is equally as important.
“To me, it’s pretty much about the power and respect. Those are the two main things. But everything else I don’t care about. But the respect and the power that I’ll have, it’s worth it. Trust me. I I’ll go anywhere around Houston and nobody will touch me.”
When it comes to MS protecting its turf, both power and respect are deemed necessities.
“We see a group of guys walking over there. If we don’t know who they are, we’re going to chase them or whatever, attack them or whatever, you know, without thinking twice. And that’s how you control your neighborhood. That’s how you control your hood, your, you know, everything.”
“But our job right here, seven days a week, this is our job. Stay on the block outside getting up every day. That’s our job right there. Getting money and being on the block.”
“We don’t need no cops. We attack. We attack.”
“We attack or either we go to him and see what he is. If you say something that’s wrong, uh, you know, like I said, we shooting target.”
Wearing the wrong color can also be a death sentence.
“Let’s say somebody’s wearing red over there, walking over here or something, and then we’re wearing blue here. You know, we’re going to say something about that. You know, they got to be wearing the right color cuz I mean, if I walk around into Chola Hood wearing all blue, they’re going to shoot me or jump me or something. I’ll get out.”
MS members proudly display blue and white. The colors of the flag of El Salvador.
In Hemstead, Long Island, thousands of immigrants gather for an annual celebration. This is the day they flaunt their pride and their massive numbers. It’s a sea of blue and white, the national colors of El Salvador, but gang members also wear the blue and white that to them represents MS13. The Nassau County gang unit also makes a show of force. They are still reeling from a brutal murder only days earlier at the hands of a suspected MS13 member.
“We want to actually let the people know that we are here. We have the Salvadorian festival here in Hemstead. And what we’re actually doing here is doing uh some uh surveillance for uh some of the gang members that we know, making sure they don’t cause any problems within the crowd. Uh we’ve been taking photos of some of the people, IDing some of the people.”
Police are on the lookout for the suspect they believe committed the murder. Even though he’s wanted for murder, the MS-13 enforcer, known as Lucky, could slip into the crowd. Police are also concerned a rival gang will show up to challenge MS-13 members.
“We have uh some information that there might be some gang violence going on today between uh MS and 18th Street gang. We definitely expect a large presence of MS-13 members here today.”
A few hours into the festival, police noticed rival gang members looking for trouble.
“One of our officers out in the street noticed a group of 18 street, probably about 15 of them walking in down in the middle and uh they started throwing some gang signs toward the MS guys.”
Signs are specific to each gang and throwing signs to another gang is seen as disrespect.
“We were lucky enough to get uh a bunch of our officers over there in time and uh get the 18th Street guys out before uh any any really trouble started.”
Police continue to look for gang members. But picking MS-13 out of a crowd of Salvadorans is harder than it’s ever been. The sea of blue envelops the patriotic and the gangsters alike in Houston. Deputy Joel Miller knows those colors are the only consistent clue in trying to identify MS13.
“The colors usually stay the same, but you know, we’re looking for bandanas, but they’re wearing belts. You know, we’re looking for tattoos and they’re wearing bracelets or necklaces or dog tags. You know, just whatever they agreed to change to to throw us off.”
All over the country, police are on alert when they see the blue symbols of the gang.
“That’s the right colors. It could be something significant to MS13. They like the blue and white, and that’s the shade of blue that uh that could probably be a possibility.”
On the streets, the gang keeps a low profile, making the job even more difficult for law enforcement.
“I think the other gangs like to be in the limelight. MS13 doesn’t, you know, they don’t do a lot of highprofile standing out. You don’t catch a group of them standing on a corner in a crowd on Friday night. You don’t catch a bunch of them riding around in cars or I hadn’t seen them on YouTube, you know, rap songs telling you where they are with license plates on there. And you just don’t see that from MS13. You got to really look and find them. They kind of hide themselves. They don’t ride around with a lot of fanfare and a lot of uh stuff on them like other members, other groups do. You know, you got to kind of read the tattoos, look for the subtle little logos on the car and and the graffiti in the area to even know that they’re around.”
In fact, it is the gang’s bold and brazen graffiti that allows police the greatest advantage.
“This is a message to us also. It actually helps us cuz we know what’s going on. Not only do they know what’s going on, we know what’s going on, too.”
Once Harris County Sheriff’s deputies identify the area as MS territory, they can look for those more subtle signs and make traffic stops.
“Where you from?”
“Uh Salvadorian.”
“You’re Salvadorian?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah. Hello.”
“Uh we saw this guy. We’re just randomly checking license plate. So we checked his license plate. It showed that he had no insurance. So that’s probably cause to stop him. We stopped him on the precept of not having any insurance. Uh he didn’t have any ID, no driver’s license, no insurance. Ask him where he was from. He was from El Salvador.”
But they cannot identify the driver as MS-13.
“Officers cite him for the violations and let him go.”
“There’s so many people you contact like that. You know, we would constantly be taking people to the lockup center to be deported. There are hundreds of thousands, literally hundreds of thousands of undocumented people here that don’t have any driver’s license, don’t have any insurance, and they’re just committing traffic violations. And we get presented with country IDs, not in the United States, all the time. And you know, we just issue a lot of citations. Citations turn into warrants, we put them in jail, they serve their fines, and they back out driving again in a couple days. The volume that we would be faced with for deportation would be overwhelming for any agency. ICE couldn’t handle it. We couldn’t handle it. None of the police agencies could handle it.”
It’s something Houston authorities deal with day in and day out. However, deportation is one of the most powerful weapons in law enforcement’s arsenal, and it’s reserved for the most violent offenders, those like MS-13.
“A lot of guys are El Salvador descent. They weren’t born here, and that makes them more dangerous just because guys that were born here know our laws. They think they’re going to spend a lot of time in jail. They think they’re going to get deported back to El Salvador. You know, um they think their life’s ruined, their life’s over with. And so that’s in my theory, that’s why I believe they’re more dangerous is because they don’t know that you get a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance with our criminal justice system here in the United States. They don’t want to get deported to go back to El Salvador. They want to stay here where it’s a better life.”
Not far from MS-13 Turf in Houston is the regional headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, where three dozen convicted criminals and nine MS-13 members go through processing prior to boarding a ConAir flight to El Salvador.
“How many you guys?”
“Two. Okay, two more.”
Someone who is MS-13 and not an American citizen can automatically be removed from the country and banned from returning for 20 years. ICE officers fingerprint the prisoners, shackle them at ankles and wrists and spell out the harsh conditions of deportation.
“Okay, this is a warning that you cannot be returned to the United States legally for 20 years. And in case you you return, you may be subject to incarceration of two to 20 years and a fine up to $250,000. You do have the option to come back.”
Several thousand gang members have been deported in this way. It is unquestionably a blow to the gangs.
“It hurts because once in a while we got to help them take care of the kids that they live here. You know, and then we got to still figure out a way how to bring them back.”
What’s also certain is that many MS-13 find their way back to the US.
“They boast about it, you know. Oh, go ahead and send me back. I’ll be back in a week. I’ll be back in a month. We just did an ICE deal a couple days ago where one of the guys was recognized by the agent as being deported less than a month ago, and he’s already back.”
“Last one coming through.”
Deportation is not a deterrent at all because it’s so easy to return. You know, it takes longer to go through the ICE system or the deportation system than it does to actually cross and come back into the country. So, it’s just a it’s a revolving door.
“If they do want to come back, we put the money together.”
“So, we all have families deported already at least once. And and it’s hard. Everybody goes through it.”
The deportees board a van for the transfer to the plane. MS13 gang members get confined to a cage-like area with metal screens. ICE officers remove nine MS-13 gangsters from the country for a time at least.
Mara Salvatucha or MS-13 has been wreaking havoc across the United States for nearly three decades. For law enforcement, deportation is one way to slow down the growth of this dangerous gang. MS-13 members who are American citizens cannot be deported. But for these gangsters, the law reserves its most potent tool, federal prison sentences.
“There’s an extra hammer with a federal prosecution. Some of the local gang members, because they’ve been in and out of the system so many times, they just don’t have that fear of local incarceration. You know, it’s a whole different ball game when they’re facing a federal prosecution. And all of a sudden when they’re federally convicted, they could find themselves in a federal institution out in Idaho or on the West Coast.”
Prosecutors charge gang members with violations under the RICO laws for racketeering and conspiracy. When convicted, they face federal stretches that are often long and always served in full.
“When an individual gets sentenced in the federal system, you know, to 25 years, they’re going to serve 25 years. So, um, they’re really removed, you know, they’re removed from the streets for a significant period of time.”
Federal prison sentences take the gang members off the streets, but the threat of lengthy jail time has not deterred the spread of MS13.
“The MS-13 has a potential presence in just about every community in this country, and the gang shows no sign of letting up.”
“I think we’re going to end up coming more powerful than any other gang in in the world. We’re going to multiply and we’re going to multiply in big numbers. We’re going to take control of everything.”
For MS, expansion is easy.
“It’s not that how can we recruit. It’s just the way we take care of each other. People see that and young little kids see that. They got we got other little kids, other family members that they don’t want to have no part about this, but their little friends see how we take care of each other. They see, oh man, your cousin is cool. He did this. They take care of each other. How can I get down with them? And that’s how it get started. They want to get down. We tell them how to get down. And they just got to put in work. Is it that we got to see you put in work? We got to see you that we got to test you out. We got to see that you’re not going to be a snitch. You’re not going to turn your back on us when hard times come around and as soon as we see that they’re worth to be with us, they they get initiated.”
Gang members say the sense of family MS-13 offers is the main draw.
“It’s the way they take care of each other. The family, it comes together. They got different systems of MS, but when it comes down to MS, MS doesn’t matter what set you on. We come together as a family and what we do that’s unstoppable.”
And they boast law enforcement is no match for a family the size of theirs.
“We’re going to end up coming more powerful than any other gang in in the world. We’re going to take control of everything. I’ll give it another 10 years and people will really know who we are.”
Rata also vows their reign of terror will never stop.
“You come at us. If you don’t kill us, we coming back at you. And we coming back strong. And it’s ain’t nobody going to feel sorry for you. Whatever you do, it comes back twice to you. Ain’t nobody will touch us. Nobody. Whoever tries, they won’t get far.”
Still, they admit the life is not without sacrifice.
“The worst I remember is when my friend died in front of me. That’s like 06. I mean, I never thought, you know, it would get to that point. That’s when it got more serious when I seen my friend died in front of my arms and his brother’s arms. You know, your head gets really messed up. You don’t you don’t feel no pity after that. You know, you have no remorse or anything no more. I mean, it just real deep. It gets deeper and deeper through the years. Like I’ve seen friends get shot. I’ve seen friends die in front of me. I I went in jail. People got in jail. People got deported, you know, things like that, you know.”
But authorities have their own philosophy.
“It’s a big cat and mouse game between law enforcement and and and the gang members and then gangs amongst themselves. How we stay on top of it. The main part is is being out here being proactive, stopping them, talking to them, talking to citizens, talking to business owners. You know, the streets talk. The streets will tell us what’s going on.”
Meanwhile, in upstate New York, luck finally runs out for the gangster they call Lucky.
“Christian Sandival is nabbed 4 weeks after the murder of 16-year-old Zach Rosales. Sandival and Fuentes Gonzalez are charged with seconddegree murder.”
“And so it is another day in the life of a Mara Salvatucha gang member.”
“We choose a life where we want to live and we choose how we’re going to live it.”
“A lot of people give a lot of excuses that they didn’t have parents, but you know, if you want to be somebody, you’re going to be somebody. If you want to succeed and go on the right path, you’re going to be somebody.”
“Doesn’t matter if I die or not, I’m I’mma be known.”
