Hector Portillo, a member of the international MS-13 street gang, was sentenced to 38 years’ imprisonment by United States District Judge Sterling Johnson at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn. Portillo previously pleaded guilty to racketeering, including predicate acts of murder and attempted murder. After serving the term of incarceration, Portillo is subject to deportation to El Salvador.The sentencing was announced by Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.As detailed in the superseding indictment and other court filings by the government, beginning in 2000, Portillo was a soldier of MS-13, also known as “La Mara Salvatrucha,” and engaged in a series of violent crimes in Flushing, New York, including conspiracy to murder and assault members of rival gangs, such as the Crips, the Bloods, and the Latin Kings. At his previous guilty plea, Portillo admitted that he and other gang members sought to retaliate against members of the Bloods gang for an earlier altercation, during which Portillo was stabbed. During the early morning hours of Christmas Eve 2006, Portillo and another gang member approached a group of youths whom Portillo believed to be rival Bloods gang members, including the person who had stabbed Portillo. Portillo shot Pashad Gray multiple times at close range, only later learning that Gray was not the individual who had stabbed him. Gray died of his wounds. Portillo was also convicted of participating in a drive-by shooting in February 2006, during which a teenager was shot, but survived.“Violent street gangs such as MS-13 prey on our community and relish the beating, stabbing, and shooting of perceived rivals, with disregard for bystanders caught in their cross-hairs,” stated United States Attorney Campbell. “Today’s sentence reflects the severity of such crimes and affirms our unwavering commitment to dismantle street gangs street gangs and bring their members to justice.” Mr. Campbell extended his grateful appreciation to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, the New York City Police Department, and the New York City Department of Probation for their assistance in this case.MS-13 is the largest street gang on Long Island. Over the past five years, investigations by the United States Attorney’s Office, ICE, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the NYPD have solved multiple murders on Long Island and in New York City, and resulted in felony convictions of more than a dozen MS-13 leaders and 120 MS-13 soldiers.The government’s case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jason A. Jones, Ali Kazemi, and Marshall L. Miller.

Albuquerque Police confirmed that suspect Pablo Ortiz is a member of the national gang, and are probing suspect Marvin Aguilar-Lopez to see if he's connected as well.Up to 10,000 people across the country belong to the MS-13 Gang, according to the FBI. The FBI labels the group as exceedingly violent."We have not had a confirmation yet, but if he hangs out with him, if he associates with him, we can probably assume he has some kind of affiliation with them as well," Albuquerque Police Department Officer Nadine Hamby said.When police arrested Ortiz, they noticed the digits "503" were shaved into the back of his scalp. 503 is the country code for El Salvador.The FBI claims that gang members identify themselves through 503 or gang tattoos on their chest.The gang was formed in Los Angeles by refugees who fled El Salvador, after a brutal Civil War in the early 1980s.Membership is believed to be growing in Southern California and urban areas in the northeastern U.S.
A former Bernalillo County Sheriff's Deputy with knowledge of gang activity said MS-13 might target Albuquerque."MS-13 specializes in drug transportation, human trafficking, and smuggling in the Mexican-Rio Grande Corridor," Robb Hamic said.
However, sources with the local FBI and the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office claim that MS-13 is not organized in the metropolitan area, and has very few members.
Police said they don't consider this weekend's shooting gang related."They committed a heinous crime. And the fact that they killed someone while they were committing that crime, I think that's more important than what gang affiliation they have," Hamby said.Police said they believe that Aguilar-Lopez and Ortiz were involved in several other armed robberies in the past five weeks.The FBI said MS-13 members recruit Hispanic men by using the internet to glorify gang lifestyles.

Oscar "Taz" Fuentes, 28, of Huntington Station, and Julio Chavez, 23, of Huntington, killed Maurice Parker, 21, in a random drive-by shooting in front of a Flushing storefront on May 18, 2007, to maintain and increase their position in MS-13, an international gang with roots in El Salvador and a strong presence in Queens and on Long Island."Prosecutors said.On a night when gang members decided to go hunting for a victim on the streets of Queens, Maurice Parker was murdered simply for standing in the wrong place at the wrong time," said U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell. "These gangs have no place in our communities."Fuentes, whom prosecutors described as the New York gang leader in a press release, was wheeled into his arraignment handcuffed to a wheelchair, slumped over and appearing disheveled. Prosecutors said he had resisted coming to court, but Fuentes said he wanted to represent himself and plead guilty."I make my choice, your honor," he told Judge Sandra Townes. "If I make something wrong, something illegal, I want to pay for it."Fuentes' lawyer, Michael Hurwitz, questioned his client's competence and asked for a psychiatric exam. Townes refused to accept the guilty plea, entering not-guilty on his behalf, and persuaded him to allow Hurwitz and a court-appointed death-penalty specialist to represent him until the Justice Department decides if it is going to seek his execution.Both Fuentes and Chavez, who will be arraigned later, have been imprisoned since last year. Hurwitz said Fuentes has been facing a gun charge and he has also been pushing to plead guilty on that count.Prosecutors said Parker was shot six times, including three times in the head, by Chavez and another unnamed gang member while Fuentes was driving them.Parker's mother and other family members were in court Thursday. They declined to comment, but a family adviser, the Rev. Nicholas Tweed of the Macedonia AME Church in Flushing, said, "I'm not in favor of the death penalty, and neither is the mother."

Ten foreign-born gang members with ties to local violent street gangs were arrested Charlotte, NC, Wednesday following an Immigration and Customs Enforcement led operation, according to reports obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police's Liaison Committee.The operation, dubbed Community Shield, was a multi-agency effort spearheaded by ICE. Among the participating agencies were the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD); the United States Marshals Service and the North Carolina Department of Crime Control and Public Safety's Alcohol Law unit (NC-ALE).The operation targeted foreign-born members and associates of MS-13, Surenos, Brown Pride, SUR-13 and Latin King street gangs. Those arrested were illegally present in the United States and are now in ICE custody; however, four of them, although administratively arrested, were referred to the United States Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina for possible criminal prosecution due to criminal offenses that include possession of marijuana, re-entering the United States after deportation, and possession of a firearm."We will continue teaming with our law enforcement partners to target those terrorizing our communities," said Joan Nash-Scavazzon, acting assistant special agent in charge of ICE's Office of Investigations in Charlotte."Through these partnerships, we will use all of our combined law enforcement tools to thwart the criminal efforts of street gangs."

Transnational gangs pose a growing public safety threat to communities throughout the country. It is estimated that there are over 900 different criminal gangs in the United States. These gangs no longer own turf in just the inner city but have spread their criminal networks throughout suburban and rural communities.

Charged Hector Portillo, a member of the international MS-13 street gang and seven others with multiple crimes, including 29 counts of murder, attempted murder, assault, racketeering, and illegal use of firearms. The charges were announced by Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Peter J. Smith, special agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office of investigations in New York City; Richard A. Brown, Queens Country District Attorney, and Raymond W. Kelly, Commissioner, New York City Police Department. The indictment alleges that on December 24, 2006 three of the defendants, Hector Portillo, Javier Irheta and Luis Bonilla, murdered 15 year-old Pashad Gray in Flushing.Beginning in 1998, the defendants served as members and associates of MS-13, also known as "La Mara Salvatrucha," and engaged in a series of violent crimes in Jamaica and Flushing, New York, including conspiracy to murder and assault members of rival gangs, such as the Crips, the Bloods, and the Latin Kings. During one particularly violent 13 month period, the defendants allegedly assaulted or attempted to murder seven victims by stabbing and shooting.Portillo, who was previously charged with racketeering and murder conspiracy, is now charged with a pattern of violent attacks, including, in addition to the Pashad Gray murder, the non-fatal shooting of a teenager on February 17, 2006, and the stabbing and beating of two teenagers in August 2006."The indictment of this dangerous MS-13 gang member is a positive step toward ridding our communities of the violent transnational street gangs that have instilled fear in our citizens and taken our communities hostage for far too long," stated ICE Special Agent-in-Charge Smith. "Through Operation Community Shield, ICE and its law enforcement partners will continue to conduct aggressive enforcement actions against members and associates of violent street gangs like MS-13.""The defendants have spread fear in our community through wanton violence, including shooting, stabbing, and beating their victims," stated United States Attorney Campbell. "Today's charges reflect our unwavering commitment to bring members and associates of violent street gangs to justice." Mr. Campbell thanked the New York City Department of Probation for its assistance.
Queens County District Attorney Brown stated, "Rivalries among criminal street gangs all too often turn neighborhoods into urban battlefields with innocent victims being caught in the crossfire. Only through the joint and committed efforts of law enforcement on all levels of government can we reduce gang-related violence and reclaim our streets for law-abiding residents."NYPD Commissioner Kelly stated, "New York City has not experienced the explosion in gang violence experienced elsewhere, in part, because of continued, successful crime suppression and arrests by the NYPD with support from our federal partners."If convicted, the defendants face maximum sentences of life imprisonment.The MS-13 is comprised primarily of immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, many of whom are in the United States illegally. With hundreds of members locally, it is the largest street gang on Long Island and has a major presence in Queens, New York. Over the past four years, the coordinated efforts of United States Attorney's Office, ICE, the NYPD, and the Queens District Attorney's Office have resulted in felony convictions of nearly two dozen New York City members of the MS-13.

murder conspiracy investigation and culminate in GTA-wide raids on a suspected local faction of the MS-13, which stands for Mara Salvatrucha-13, one of the world's most vicious gangs. Eventually the case would build to 13,000 pages of evidence against 17 suspected gang members, including surveillance reports, arrest and occurrence reports, synopses of each facet of the case, digital number recorders that detail the calls made between cellphones and the criminal histories of all of those involved – but no transcripts or tapes of intercepted conversations."There are no conversations in which anyone agreed to do anything," said criminal lawyer Jeffry House, who represents Luis Salas Reyes, one of the accused."I've dealt with more than 60 conspiracy cases in my 30-year career and that's commonly done to build a case."That case has now all but fallen apart. Conspiracy to commit murder charges have been stayed for Hector Sanhueza, 32, Manual Pasos, 19, Ronald Morataya-Cruz, 27, and Luis Salas-Reyes, 32. Only Jorge Salas, 29, the man involved in the initial conversation at Maplehurst, remains charged in the murder plot and for uttering death threats. During a series of pre-dawn raids across the GTA on June 5, those five individuals and another four people were charged with participating in a criminal organization. All of those charges have been stayed, the Ontario Crown attorney's office confirmed yesterday. All that remains of the once sweeping investigation are a handful of drug offences, such as simple possession, and a number of firearms offences. Court documents say the conspiracy came to light in March when a jailhouse informant told a correctional officer of a plan to murder him, his wife or his children. On Jan. 8, the documents say, the officer had taken pictures of Salas' tattoos. At the time, that didn't seem to be a problem.
But on March 20, the documents say, the informant, an inmate named Maxwell Robinson, told the officer Salas said he had spoken to his "boss," who was angry that his tattoos had been photographed. To appease his boss, Salas said, he had to "deal with" the officer who took the pictures. Robinson then asked, the documents say: "What do you mean, do you have to kill him or his family?" And the accused responded, "That's it, I'll have to kill him or a member of his family." "How real is this threat?" House asked yesterday. "This doesn't prove anything. And jailhouse informants are generally known to be quite deceptive. It all comes down to just the words of this one guy in jail."
According to House, court documents also show that while Robinson "asked for nothing in return for the statement," he was an agricultural labourer and Jamaican immigrant with no legal status in Canada, possibly fighting deportation.
Robinson was in jail for assaulting his girlfriend with a weapon, House said.
In terms of evidence linking his client or any of the others to membership in the MS-13, there was "nothing" contained in the voluminous evidence file that proved anything more than a tenuous connection, House said. More than 100 surveillance and search videos contain little more than the odd frame of the word "MS-13" written on the wall of a home, or on the side of a building.

Alejandro Enrique Ramirez Umana, a/k/a "Wizard" and "Lobo," intentionally killed brothers Ruben Garcia Salinas and Manuel Garcia Salinas on Dec. 8, 2007, in Guilford County, N.C., in aid of an enterprise engaged in racketeering activity. The Department filed a notice of intent today to seek the death penalty against Umana for the killing of these two individuals in aid of racketeering and during and in relation to a crime of violence. Also according to the additional criminal counts, Elvin Pastor Fernandez-Gradis, a/k/a "Tigre" and "Flaco," intentionally caused serious bodily injury that resulted in the death of Ulises Mayo on April 12, 2008, in Mecklenburg County, N.C., in aid of an enterprise engaged in racketeering activity.
The first superseding indictment, with an additional fifteen counts, was returned today by a federal grand jury in Charlotte, N.C., and alleges that the 26 defendants conspired to commit violent crimes in aid of racketeering, resulting in murder during the course of their alleged participation in a racketeering enterprise, MS-13, in the United States and El Salvador.
The superseding indictment also carries new charges including: use and carrying of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison; use and carrying of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence resulting in death, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison or death; murder in aid of racketeering, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison or death; use and possession of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence resulting in death, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison or death; accessory after the fact to murder, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison; reentry after deportation, which carries a maximum prison sentence of two years; felon in possession of a firearm, which carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison; illegal alien in possession of a firearm, which carries a maximum prison sentence of ten years; and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
As alleged in the superseding bill of indictment, the murders committed by MS-13 members occurred in Greensboro, N.C., and Charlotte. Those involved in the murders allegedly received assistance from other MS-13 members in avoiding detection from law enforcement. In addition, MS-13 members are alleged in the superseding indictment to have discussed plans to murder an individual who they believed was cooperating with law enforcement.
Those charged in the 70-count superseding indictment include: Umana; Fernandez-Gradis; Manuel de Jesus Ayala, a/k/a "Chacua"; Heverth Ulises Castellon, a/k/a "Misterio" and "Sailor"; Julio Cesar Rosales Lopez, a/k/a "Stiler"; Juan Gilberto Villalobos, a/k/a "Smoke" and "Smokey," "Juan Alberto Irias" and "Freddy"; Juan Ruben Vela Garcia, a/k/a "Mariachi"; Jose Amilcar Garcia-Bonilla, a/k/a "Psicopata," "Sicario" and "Lucio Caesario"; Yelson Olider Castro-Licona, a/k/a "Diablo"; Carlos Ferufino-Bonilla, a/k/a "Tigre"; Nelson Hernandez-Ayala, a/k/a "Sixteen"; Mario Melgar-Diaz, a/k/a "Nino"; Alexi Ricardo Ramos, a/k/a "Pajaro"; Carlos Roberto Figueroa-Pineda, a/k/a "Drogo"; Cesar Yoaldo Castillo, a/k/a "Chino"; Edgar Miguel Granados-Alvarez, a/k/a "Gorilon" and "Alexander Granados"; Michael Steven Mena, a/k/a "Cholo"; Johnny Elias Gonzalez, a/k/a "Solo"; Jaime Sandoval, a/k/a "Pelon"; Santos Canales-Reyes, a/k/a "Chicago"; Jose Efrain Ayala-Urbina, a/k/a "Peligroso"; Oscar Manuel Moral-Hernandez, a/k/a "Truchon"; Santos Anibal Caballero Fernandez, a/k/a "Garra"; Manuel Cruz, a/k/a "Silencioso"; Javier Molina, a/k/a "Big Psycho" and "Gringo"; and Mario Guajardo-Garcia, a/k/a "Speedy," "Iran Guerro-Gomez" and "Luis Angel Galindo." All of the defendants except for Ayala, Castro-Licona and Ferufino-Bonilla, who remain fugitives, are currently in federal custody where they have remained since being arrested on the original indictment charges in June 2008.
An indictment is merely an allegation. Defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in a court of law.
The charges that resulted from the alleged conspiracy span two countries, three states, four federal districts and several North Carolina cities. The charges stem from a long-term investigation initiated by the FBI "Safe Streets" Gang Task Force from North Carolina, which is composed of the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department; and the Gastonia, N.C., Police Department. Additional law enforcement investigative support was provided by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, as well as the Greensboro Police Department and the Durham, N.C., Police Department. Substantial assistance has been afforded by the U.S. Marshals Service for the Western District of North Carolina; the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office; the Raleigh, N.C., Police Department; the Durham County Sheriff's Office and the North Carolina Highway Patrol.
The FBI's MS-13 National Gang Task Force played a significant role in coordinating the international aspects of this case, with additional critical assistance provided by the Transnational Anti-Gang (TAG) Center. TAG was created in 2007 by the Department of Justice, including the FBI's MS-13 National Gang Task Force and the El Salvador National Civilian Police (PNC) with funding provided by the Department of State. TAG is comprised of experienced FBI anti-gang agents and PNC investigators in El Salvador. FBI anti-gang agents serve at the TAG center in San Salvador, side-by-side with PNC officers and analysts and El Salvadoran prosecutors, to combat transnational gang activity that affects the United States and countries in the Central American region.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kevin Zolot, Jill Rose and Adam Morris from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of North Carolina and Trial Attorney Sam Nazzaro from the Criminal Division's Gang Squad Unit.

Three men -- described by police as MS-13 gang members -- have been charged with first-degree gang assault in connection with the attack on Marin Morales, which took place around at Antojitos Bar on Main Street, police said.Marin Morales was stabbed around 3:20 a.m. Sunday after he went outside the bar to help a friend who was getting beat up by a group, Det. Sgt. Gregory Quinn of the Homicide Squad said at a news conference.Part of the group then turned on Marin Morales, ripping off his shirt and chasing him into the bar's kitchen, Quinn said."Our victim exited the kitchen area a short time after and collapsed," he said. Marin Morales sustained stab wounds to the torso and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The assailants fled the bar and ran north on Main Street to a parking lot at Fulton Avenue, where they victimized a third man, smashing a broken bottle into his temple, police said. The victim, in his early 20s, is hospitalized at Nassau University Medical Center. His injuries are not considered life-threatening, police said.
The identity of the first assault victim is as yet unknown to police, Quinn said.David Sosa, 25, of 218 Lincoln Ave., Roosevelt, and Josue Gallegos, 21, of Hempstead, were each charged with one count of gang assault. Juan Cardona, 19, of 200 Hempstead Ave., West Hempstead, faces two counts of gang assault, the second in connection with the attack on the third victim, police said. They are scheduled to be arraigned Monday at First District Court in Hempstead.
About 30 to 40 people were in Antojitos bar at the time of the crime, Quinn said.
"We believe that this bar is a hangout for members of MS-13," he said, asking anyone with information about the case to call Crime Stoppers at 800-244-TIPS.Marin Morales was a former Hempstead High School student, and was believed to have been working for a Hempstead contractor at the time of his death, police said.

``Murdering someone is not a concern to them, it's a cost of doing business almost," Scioli said. ``Just their initiation to get into the gang is pretty aggressive." One of the fastest-growing and most violent gangs in the world is showing up in Arizona. Mike Scioli with the Border Patrol said members of MS-13, well-known for being ruthless, are coming to Arizona because its position on the border makes it a hot spot for drugs and human smuggling. MS-13 comes from El Salvador and has an estimated 100,000 members throughout Latin America and the United States. Many of the gang's founding members had experience or training in guerilla warefare in El Salvador. It's one of the fast-growing gangs in the world. Scioli said the presence of MS-13 gang members is making federal agents along the U.S.-Mexico border nervous. ``It's not uncommon for a single agent to run into a group of 10 to 13 people and make the arrest alone, on his own, with backup maybe a half-hour away," he said. Many of the gang's founders are highly-trained rebel fighters from El Salvador, he added.

Twenty-six alleged members of a street gang said to be among the deadliest in the United States faced arrest after indictments were returned against them.
Prosecutors said the indictments were returned by a grand jury in Charlotte, N.C., and accuse 26 alleged members of the Hispanic gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, of crimes ranging from murder to drug activity.
Law enforcement officials say MS-13 is based in Charlotte and has up to 50,000 members worldwide, about 10,000 of whom are believed to be active in at least 38 U.S. states and is so big that 2004 the FBI created a task force that focuses specifically on it.An official report on the gang said members smuggle illicit drugs, primarily powder cocaine and marijuana, into the United States and distribute the drugs throughout the country, with some gang members also involved in alien smuggling, assault, drive-by shooting, homicide, identification theft, prostitution operations, robbery and weapons trafficking.The 26 were charged under the federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act and authorities began executing the arrest warrants Tuesday, CNN reported. Four North Carolina slayings were included in the indictments.

Who are they? Members of Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, who are mostly Salvadoran nationals or first generation Salvadoran-Americans, but also Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, and other Central and South American immigrants. And according to the FBI's recent national threat assessment of this growing, mobile street gang, they could be operating in your community...now or in the near future. Based on information from their own investigations, from state and local law enforcement partners, and from community organizations, FBI concluded that while the threat posed by MS-13 to the U.S. as a whole is at the "medium" level, membership in parts of the country is so concentrated that they have labeled the threat level there "high."
MS-13 operates in at least 42 states and the District of Columbia and has about 6,000-10,000 members nationwide. Currently, the threat is highest in the western and northeastern parts of the country, which coincides with elevated Salvadoran immigrant populations in those areas. In the southeast and central regions, the current threat is moderate to low, but recently, FBI see's an influx of MS-13 members into the southeast, causing an increase in violent crimes thereRight now, according to the FBI MS-13 has no official national leadership structure. MS-13 originated in Los Angeles, but when members migrated eastward, they began forming cliques that for the most part operated independently. These cliques, though, often maintain regular contact with members in other regions to coordinate recruitment/criminal activities and to prevent conflicts. The FBI believes that Los Angeles gang members have an elevated status among their MS-13 counterparts across the country, a system of respect that could potentially evolve into a more organized national leadership structure.MS-13 members engage in a wide range of criminal activity, including drug distribution, murder, rape, prostitution, robbery, home invasions, immigration offenses, kidnapping, carjackings/auto thefts, and vandalism. Most of these crimes, you'll notice, have one thing in common—they are exceedingly violent. And while most of the violence is directed toward other MS-13 members or rival street gangs, innocent citizens often get caught

in the crossfire. MS-13 is expanding its membership at an "alarming" rate through recruitment and migration. Some MS-13 members move to get jobs or to be near family members—currently, the southeast and the northeast are seeing the largest increases in membership. MS-13 often recruits new members by glorifying the gang lifestyle (often on the Internet, complete with pictures and videos) and by absorbing smaller gangs.Speaking of employment, MS-13 members typically work for legitimate businesses by presenting false documentation. They primarily pick employers that don't scrutinize employment documents, especially in the construction, restaurant, delivery service, and landscaping industries.The FBI, says through its MS-13 National Joint Task Force and field investigations, remains committed to working with local, state, national, and international partners to disrupt and dismantle this violent gang.
Mexican drug cartels responsible for recent border violence have also cemented ties to street and prison gangs on the U.S. side. U.S. gangs retail drugs purchased from Mexican traffickers and often work as cartel surrogates or enforcers on U.S. soil. Intelligence suggests Los Zetas have hired members of various gangs at different times including the Mexican Mafia, Texas Syndicate, MS-13, and Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos to further their criminal endeavors.Just this week over a dozen people were either shot or beaten to death in separate incidents in Mexican border cities. Over the weekend in Juárez Mexico, just across the Rio Grande River which is all that separates Mexico from the U.S. border city of El Paso Texas. Also, in Juárez an 8-year-old girl at a road side cafe was shot in the ribs apparently by a stray bullet during a fight between street gangs, officials said. At about 2:20 a.m. Sunday, Juárez officials said, Javier Leal Saucedo, 33, was found dead near Zaragoza Boulevard and Rayon Street. He had been beaten to death by border gangs doing the dirty work for the powerful Mexican Cartels.
Later the same day at about 9 a.m., the bodies of two men were found shot in the head in Ejido Jesus Carranza, a suburb of Juárez. The victims have not been identified, but authorities said, they found two 9 mm shells near the bodies. Also on Sunday, a 30- to 35-year-old man was found dead in his car, the victim of still another gangland type killing. The cause of death and the name of the victim are not known. The incident took place near Paseo de la Plaza and Paseo de los Arcos streets in downtown Juárez. In January of this year in Tijuana Mexico not far from the American city of San Diego, officials said they found six executed kidnapping victims inside a Tijuana house where gunmen took refuge during a chaotic three-hour shootout with Mexican soldiers and police. The victims, all male, were blindfolded and gagged wrapped in blankets and had been shot in the head, although it was unclear if they were killed before or during the gun battle. said Edgar Millan, a spokesman with the federal Public Safety Department. According to Gen. Germán Redondo Azuara, commander of the second military zone said Mexican soldiers, state and local police were sent in to help control the firefight that began when federal agents prepared to raid a house in the Tijuana neighborhood of La Mesa. Police now say that it was a shelter for a cell of the Arellano Felix drug cartel.
Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, the state secretary of public safety indicated to the press that three nearby schools were evacuated. Television showed police running with small children in their arms while shots rang out. Edgar Millan a top official with Mexico's federal Public Security Secretariat said, the shootout killed two gunman and one police officer and wounded three other police officers, in the latest outbreak of violence across the border from San Diego. As a result of the Mexican Government siege four gunmen were arrested – one is a well known state police investigator and another is a local Tijuana police officer. The four arrested gunmen have been flown to Mexico City for questioning. Millan said officials recovered 11 automatic rifles and three bulletproof vests inside the house. Rommel Moreño Manjarrez, Baja California's attorney general said already this week, gunmen shot and killed eight people in Tijuana alone, including three local police officers, as well as a district commander, his wife and his 12-year-old daughter. The gun battle shocked even crime-weary Tijuana residents. Many argued President Felipe Calderón should step up a yearlong crackdown on gangs, drug traffickers and other organized criminals that has sent soldiers into cities across the nation.The San Diego Tribune further reported, a Mrs. Padilla spent the three-hour shootout hiding in the closet with her 19-year-old daughter. As they crouched in the dark, they started to think they wouldn't escape alive. Gunmen across the street shouted that they would drop bombs unless police backed off.

"The gunfire was terrible," she said. "It made the walls shake. I really didn't think we were going to get out." Less than two blocks down the street, police were rushing children from a school vulnerable to gunfire from men holed up on the roof and top floors of the besieged brick safe house.
Some of the children were carried by officers who crouched and pressed themselves up against the building to avoid the bullets. Other children ran out onto the sidewalk in groups under armed guard, their eyes wide with terror. "I could hear the hail of gunfire, and it was really strong," Rico Espinosa said. "I didn't feel fear until we had evacuated all 65 kids that were under my care, and then my legs started to shake." Rico and the children were all safely removed from the school, but Rico's husband, Jorge Espinosa, stayed in a back room to take calls from worried parents.

"It was like being in Beirut," he said. Residents said soldiers, sent in to help overwhelmed police, swarmed rooftops. The gunmen refused to back down, shouting obscenities at the police and taunting them. Recently in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo assailants killed the director of public safety for the town of Tulancingo. Jose Alvarado was shot more than 20 times, Hidalgo state police director Ahuizotl Figueroa said.Many on both sides of the border have been killed or wounded and the terror goes on with authorities unable to control the gangs that kill and traffic in drugs and humans for the wealthy Mexican cartels.

Gen. Germán Redondo Azuara says he believes many of the drugs raised in Afghanistan, finds its way via smuggling routes into markets in both Europe and the United States where they are peddled by gang members. In turn millions of dollars and Eros are used to fund terrorist and their terror activities not only in Afghanistan but around the world. Most of these same terrorist drug organizations, that fuel the terror network also help to fund the Taliban attacks in Afghanistan. Part of this illicit cash provides operating capital for international terrorist Osama Bin Laden and others. The Columbian and Mexican drug cartels now believed to be working with international terrorist is the most pervasive organizational threat to the United States according to one D.E.A. agent. murder money & mexico: tijuana cartelThese new combined international drug trafficking organizations are complex organizations with highly defined command-and-control structures that produce, transport, and/or distribute large quantities of Afghanistan illicit drugs. Global Terrorist And Drug Trafficking CartelsA high ranking ICE official claims the Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTO´s) are perfect for the terrorist because they are active in every region of the country and dominate the illicit drug trade in every area in both Mexico and the United States. Because of this new alliance Mexican DTOs are expanding their operations dramatically in order to gain a larger share of the drug market. Colombian DTOs are dominant cocaine and heroin traffickers, particularly in the Northeast; however, they are increasingly relinquishing control to Mexican DTOs in order to shield themselves from law enforcement detection. The Mexican DTOs are already major transporters and distributors of cocaine and South American heroin into the U.S. They also distribute cocaine and other drugs to numerous other DTOs and criminal groups that are also active in the United States, the world´s largest users of cocaine and heroin.Other reasons the terrorist have chosen the Mexican DTOs is they control the transportation and wholesale distribution of most illicit drugs in every area of the western hemisphere, exerting unrivaled control over transportation and wholesale distribution of cocaine, Mexican heroin, Mexican marijuana, and ice methamphetamine. Their established overland transportation routes and entrenched distribution networks enable them to supply primary and secondary drug markets throughout these regions. Mexican DTOs are further expanding their influence throughout the world.
The drug distribution is even involving gangs in America and they in turn sale to the street dealers. The street dealers than get the products to the smaller dealers to distribute to our neighbors. All of this creates an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. And that is exactly what the terrorist want.
In a recently released FBI report on gangs operating both in Mexico and the U.S which was meant for law enforcement eyes only says and we quote: That these gangs on both sides of the border perpetrate violence—from assaults to homicides, using firearms, machetes, or blunt objects—to intimidate rival gangs, law enforcement, and the general public. They often target middle and high school students for recruitment. And they form tenuous alliances...and sometimes vicious rivalries...with other criminal groups, depending on their needs at the time.

Youths as young as 12 have been identified as members of the Young Bloods, Hanover Boyz, MS-13, the Almighty Latin King Nation, Laos Pride, Tiny Raskal Gang, Original Crip Gang, Oriental Rascals, Providence Street Boys, Dark Side Rascals, 18th Street Gang and the Asian Outlaw Boyz.
The Latin Kings are involved in drug trafficking, but most of the gang members are not in it for the money. They join for a sense of belonging and to protect themselves from other youths. They have little sense of history and often no idea why they fight, except to avenge slights, with rival gangs.
Police Maj. Stephen M. Campbell, who oversees the detective division, says that monitoring gang activity is a department priority.
“It’s a constant back and forth between warring gangs,” he says. “The potential for a violent outburst that could take multiple lives is always there.”
The police, with the help of two FBI agents and a state trooper assigned to the gang unit, have created a database identifying 1,400 gang members and their associates. Some of them live in Massachusetts or other Rhode Island cities such as Cranston, Woonsocket, Pawtucket, Central Falls and West Warwick. Nonetheless, they frequent Providence and have come across the radar of the police gang unit.
Last year, one in five shootings in the city was gang-related. The police recorded 14 murders and 59 instances in which people were shot, up from 47 in 2006. Gangs were responsible for 2 of last year’s murders, 12 shootings and dozens of drive-by shootings where shots were fired, but nobody was hit.
Last month, the new year began with a flurry of shootings between the Hanover Boyz and the Oriental Rascals. A 20-year-old woman was wounded, but nobody was killed. The vast majority of nonfatal shootings go unsolved because gang members refuse to file police complaints or cooperate with investigators. They prefer to take justice into their own hands.
Overall, the police identify a dozen gangs of significance in the city, about twice as many as when the gangs first arrived in the early ’90s. Wheeler says it was easier to track six large gangs with hundreds of members. Today, there is a proliferation of smaller gangs who are constantly feuding with each other.
The police say that in the past the older gang members, called OGs, kept the “juniors” or young gang members in check. That’s no longer the case. The OGs are less involved in the day-to-day workings of the gang, and the juniors have little respect or interest in the old days.
Gang initiation almost always requires a “jump in,” a beating administered by members of the gang who often line up in a gauntlet, striking and kicking the rookie gang member for anywhere from 10 to 90 seconds.
When someone leaves a gang, usually there’s a “jump out.” A gang member is beaten and must suffer bleeding or a broken bone to be set free.
Female gang members also are jumped in and, in some cases, they are “sexed in.” One female gang member had to roll dice and have sex with the same number of male gang members — 2 to 12 — that appeared on the dice. In another jump in, a former MS-13 gang member said that a group of gang members stood before her and she had to select 13 of them and have sex with them in succession.
Many of the gang members are brazen about their gang affiliation. They adorn their bodies with elaborate tattoos that announce their gang allegiance, and they boast about their toughness on Web sites such as MySpace.com.
Most of the violence is gang-on-gang disputes, but gang members also have been arrested for dealing cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana. They are regularly picked up on firearms charges and for armed home invasions.
The gang activity is not limited to the streets. Officials at the Adult Correctional Institutions keep close tabs on gang members who enter the prison system. Tracking them is good for the safety of the prisoners, as well as the safety of the guards. Right now, 250 of the state’s 3,500 male prisoners, 8 percent of the population, have been identified as gang members.

David Rivera, 33, a member of the MS-13 gang, has alleged links to several murders and prior arrests on sexual assault and drug charges as well as a conviction for gun possession.
He was arrested in an apartment complex in the Rampart section of Los Angeles by ICE agents and detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart Division.
Rivera attempted to escape out the back of the property before agents nabbed him, ICE said.
In addition to Rivera, officers also arrested two other suspected gang associates on immigration violations.
Rivera had been deported and illegally re-entered the country, ICE alleged. If convicted, Rivera could receive up to 20 years in federal prison.
He had been sought by authorities for four years and is expected to make his initial court appearance this afternoon in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles, ICE said.
“This arrest is the pay-off for perseverance, great police work and partnership with local law enforcement,” said Jennifer Silliman, deputy special agent in charge of the ICE office of investigations in Los Angeles.
“We will continue to work closely with our law enforcement counterparts in Los Angeles to target gang members like this man who put our communities and neighborhoods at risk,” she said.