United States classifies MS-13 street gang a global criminal organisation

The Guardian

The Obama administration has listed a Central American street gang as an international criminal organisation subject to US sanctions.

This is first time the designation has been given to such a group in the US. MS-13, which started as a Los Angeles gang composed largely of Salvadorian immigrants, is believed to have as many as 10,000 members across 46 US states and Central America. Members have been accused of kidnapping, murder, drug smuggling and human trafficking.  

MS-13 stands for Mara Salvatrucha, and the decision announced by the US treasury department will enable federal authorities to seize assets associated with a gang considered one of the world’s most dangerous.

Investigators from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement have long targeted the group, arresting thousands of suspected members in recent years.

The agency’s director, John Morton, described the classifying of MS-13 as an international criminal organisation as a “powerful weapon” in the continuing effort to dismantle the gang. “This designation allows us to strike at the financial heart of MS-13,” he said on Thursday.

The administration’s decision will now make it easier for Ice and other federal investigators to target and seize millions of dollars in profits from drug and human trafficking, among other crimes, Morton said, adding that those profits are routinely funnelled back to the group’s bosses in Central America.

By declaring the group a transnational criminal organisation, the government is also making it more difficult for gang members to use banks and wire transfer services to move criminal profits.

MS-13 members are known for being particularly violent and in the past have been blamed for gruesome murders, including that of a pregnant Virginia teenager who left the gang and became an informant. Brenda Paz, 17, was stabbed to death in 2003 and her body was left along the Shenandoah River, west of Washington.

Other international criminal groups that have been subject to similar US sanctions include the Yakuza, a Japanese organized crime group, and the Zetas drug cartel in Mexico.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/11/us-ms13-gang-international-criminal-organisation