{"id":6479,"date":"2018-03-20T06:56:29","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T10:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=6479"},"modified":"2018-03-20T07:14:34","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T11:14:34","slug":"ms-13-is-a-street-gang-not-a-drug-cartel-and-the-difference-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=6479","title":{"rendered":"MS-13 Is a Street Gang, Not a Drug Cartel \u2013 and the Difference Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/211001\/original\/file-20180319-31633-1izml7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1012&amp;h=668&amp;fit=crop\" width=\"1012\" height=\"668\"><\/p>\n<p>In October 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/speech\/attorney-general-sessions-delivers-remarks-international-association-chiefs-police\">announced<\/a> that pursuing the Mara Salvatrucha, a Salvadoran gang also known as MS-13, was \u201ca priority for our Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDrugs are killing more Americans than ever before, in large part thanks to powerful cartels and international gangs and deadly new synthetic opioids like fentanyl,\u201d Sessions told the International Association of Chiefs of Police on Oct. 23. He concluded that \u201cperhaps the most brutal of these gangs is MS-13.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump also cites MS-13 to justify his administration\u2019s crackdown on illegal immigration from Latin America. In his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/01\/31\/nyregion\/ms-13-gang-trump.html\">2018 State of the Union address<\/a>, Trump threatened to \u201cdestroy\u201d the group, which is responsible for a spate of brutal, high-profile murders in Boston, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnewyork.com\/news\/local\/MS-13-Gang-Arrests-Long-Island-New-York-NY-Police-Murder-468791273.html\">Long Island<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/public-safety\/bodies-found-in-holmes-run-park-are-missing-fairfax-county-teens\/2017\/12\/08\/b2420ef4-dc15-11e7-b1a8-62589434a581_story.html\">Virginia<\/a> and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a problem here \u2013 and it\u2019s not just MS-13\u2019s violent ethos. It\u2019s that the Trump administration is getting this gang all wrong.<\/p>\n<p>I spent three years at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.american.edu\/centers\/latin-american-latino-studies\/\">American University\u2019s Center for Latin American and Latino Studies<\/a> chronicling the MS-13\u2019s criminal exploits for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nij.gov\/Pages\/welcome.aspx\">National Institute of Justice<\/a>. Our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insightcrime.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/MS13-in-the-Americas-InSight-Crime-English-3.pdf\">study<\/a> proves that MS-13 is neither a drug cartel nor was it born of illegal immigration.<\/p>\n<p>That misconception is fueling failed U.S. policies that, in my assessment, will do little to deter MS-13.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Together, we&#39;re going to restore safety to our streets and peace to our communities, and we&#39;re going to destroy the vile criminal cartel, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MS13?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MS13<\/a>, and many other gangs&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#39;Hundreds arrested in MS-13 crackdown&#39;<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Mp268d8RaU\">https:\/\/t.co\/Mp268d8RaU<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mrynwnTuoO\">pic.twitter.com\/mrynwnTuoO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/931538234169069568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 17, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>MS-13 is no Yakuza<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration is not the first administration to mischaracterize MS-13, which conducts vicious but rudimentary criminal activities like extortion, armed robbery and murder across Central America, Mexico and the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>In 2012, the Obama-era <a href=\"https:\/\/www.treasury.gov\/press-center\/press-releases\/Pages\/tg1733.aspx\">Treasury Department put the group<\/a> on a organized crime \u201ckingpin\u201d list with the Italian mafia Camorra, the Mexican criminal group the Zetas and the Japanese mob known as the Yakuza.<\/p>\n<p>That designation gave the group a rarefied status in the underworld, which must have pleased its leadership.<\/p>\n<p>But our research found that MS-13 is hardly a lucrative network of criminal masterminds. Instead, it is a loose coalition of young, <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/central-american-gangs-like-ms-13-were-born-out-of-failed-anti-crime-policies-76554\">often formerly incarcerated men<\/a> operating hand to mouth across a vast geographic territory.<\/p>\n<p>MS-13 was born in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, when scores of Salvadorans, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.migrationpolicy.org\/article\/salvadoran-immigrants-united-states\">many of them fleeing<\/a> the country\u2019s civil war, arrived to California. Like other Latino immigrant groups, the new arrivals formed a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/la-me-gang-violence-boyle-20151103-pg-photogallery.html\">youth gang of the sort proliferating in L.A. at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Then as now, MS-13 acted as a surrogate family for its members, though not a benign one. MS-13 created a collective identity that was constructed and reinforced by shared experiences, particularly expressions of violence and social control.<\/p>\n<p>It has since spread to at least a half-dozen countries on two continents and has become a prime source of destabilizing violence, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2018\/01\/01\/the-teens-trapped-between-a-gang-and-the-law\">particularly extortion<\/a>, in Central American countries like El Salvador and Honduras.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Inept at drug dealing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What MS-13 has not done is establish any real foothold in the international drug trafficking market.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not for lack of trying. Our study found that MS-13 leaders have made several attempts to get into the business of running illicit drugs.<\/p>\n<p>In the early 2000s, one MS-13 boss named Nelson Comandari <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insightcrime.org\/investigations\/ms13-drug-trafficking-project-entrepreneurism\/\">tried to use the gang\u2019s national criminal infrastructure<\/a> to establish a drug distribution network. Comandari was well positioned to do it. He was powerful in L.A., had underworld family connections from El Salvador to Colombia and enjoyed strong ties to the feared <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-ln-mexican-mafia-jail-assault-charges-20170630-story.html\">Mexican Mafia<\/a>, a U.S.-based prison gang with connections to Mexican cartels.<\/p>\n<p>Yet within a few years Comandari was frustrated. MS-13 members turned out to be inept at drug smuggling and resistant to the whole idea. Our research found that the gang frowns upon those who put their personal business above the collective\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Comandari eventually went into the drug business on his own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/feds-have-been-hiding-evidence-wiretap-courts-their-war-gangs\/\">and was captured<\/a> along the Texas-Mexico border in 2006.<\/p>\n<p>A few years later, one of Comandari\u2019s former lieutenants <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insightcrime.org\/investigations\/how-the-ms13-got-its-foothold-in-transnational-drug-trafficking\/\">also tried to establish<\/a> an international distribution pipeline between MS-13 and the Mexican drug cartel La Familia. The deal was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-cdca\/pr\/13-linked-mexican-mafia-and-la-familia-indicted-after-investigation-reveals-plot-join\">thwarted by U.S. law enforcement in 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Subsequent efforts have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insightcrime.org\/investigations\/how-ms13-tried-failed-create-single-gang-us\/\">gotten nipped even sooner<\/a>. In 2015, a midlevel MS-13 leader named Larry Naverete \u2013 spelled Navarrete in some federal documents \u2013 began smuggling small loads of methamphetamine into the U.S. via an MS-13 member operating from Tijuana.<\/p>\n<p>Within two years, police on each side of the border had captured Navarete, who was operating from the California State Prison System, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insightcrime.org\/news\/analysis\/mexico-arrests-ms13-leader-busting-up-latest-gang-trafficking-ring\/\">his Mexican partner<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why MS-13 fails at drug trafficking<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One reason MS-13 has failed so roundly at becoming a drug cartel is that it is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insightcrime.org\/investigations\/ms13-gang-truce-social-criminal-capital\/\">more of a social club<\/a> than a lucrative criminal enterprise. Its members benefit from the camaraderie and support that comes with membership \u2013 not the heaping monetary rewards that never arrive.<\/p>\n<p>Entrepreneurs who hope to leverage its network for their personal financial gain see the same strong resistance that scuttled Comandari\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps more critically, MS-13 is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insightcrime.org\/investigations\/ms13-case-studies-hierarchy-federation\/\">decentralized organization<\/a> with no clear hierarchy. The gang is broken into local cells called \u201ccliques\u201d \u2013 or \u201cclicas\u201d in Spanish \u2013 that are more loyal to each other than to the various leadership councils that operate around Central America and the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Put simply, it has no leader. So what looks on paper like a tremendous built-in infrastructure for moving illicit products across borders is actually a disparate, federalized organization of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insightcrime.org\/investigations\/ms13-case-studies-hierarchy-federation\/\">substructures with highly local, even competing, interests<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, MS-13 is mostly about immediate gratification. It helps members eke out a living and get some perilous criminal thrills. That\u2019s why extortion is a staple. Complex supply chains? Not so much.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Failed US policies<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>These findings suggest that the U.S. could <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/daily-comment\/former-gang-members-offer-advice-on-how-to-combat-ms-13\">fight MS-13 by better protecting the vulnerable young Latino kids who become its recruits<\/a> \u2013 funding social and educational programs in immigrant neighborhoods, for example, or financing more early child intervention programs.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the Trump administration has used MS-13 as a foil to push its political agenda.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"align-left \">\n<figure style=\"width: 237px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/211002\/original\/file-20180319-31624-1waa2sd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip\" alt=\"\" width=\"237\" height=\"316\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">MS-13 members allegedly killed several people on Long Island, New York, in 2016. AP Photo\/Claudia Torrens<\/figcaption><\/figure><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>To justify imposing draconian immigration restrictions, Trump and Sessions <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/made-by-history\/wp\/2018\/03\/07\/the-dangerous-game-donald-trump-is-playing-with-ms-13\/?utm_term=.844f20b8d9e8\">link MS-13\u2019s crimes to the issue of illegal immigration<\/a>. Their rhetoric suggests that the group is staffed with undocumented migrants, thus proving that migrants are dangerous. In fact, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sentencingproject.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Immigration-and-Public-Safety.pdf\">statistics<\/a> confirm that immigrants commit crimes at far lower rates than native-born U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n<p>Conflating the gang with the sophisticated cartels currently waging a bloody war in Mexico likewise serves the administration\u2019s goal of tightening border controls. It makes MS-13 seem like a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pri.org\/stories\/2018-01-31\/alien-threat-street-gang-ms-13-was-actually-made-usa\">foreign invader<\/a>, not a homegrown threat. I suspect this rhetoric may also help Trump make the case <a href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/5205467\/donald-trump-death-penalty-drug-traffickers-opioid\/\">that the U.S. should impose longer jail sentences for drug trafficking-related crimes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/92702\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\">What harsh law enforcement tactics aimed at ending immigration and breaking up drug cartels won\u2019t do is address the real problems posed by MS-13 and other very violent, very American street gangs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/steven-s-dudley-448639\">Steven S. Dudley<\/a>, Senior Fellow, Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, <em>American University<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This article was originally published on The Conversation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In October 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that pursuing the Mara Salvatrucha, a Salvadoran gang also known as MS-13, was \u201ca priority for our Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces.\u201d \u201cDrugs are killing more Americans than ever before, in large part thanks to powerful cartels and international gangs and deadly new synthetic opioids like&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":7218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/211001\/original\/file-20180319-31633-1izml7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&#038;q=45&#038;auto=format&#038;w=1012&#038;h=668&#038;fit=crop","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security-public-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6479"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6482,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6479\/revisions\/6482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}