From a Mark Krikorian moderated panel at CIS on August 5, 2005:
Then we have crime problems. A year back, Newsweek called MS-13 the most violent gang in American history. MS-13 deals in drugs and immigrant trafficking. An MS-13 gang member arrested in Texas was implicated in a bus bombing in Honduras that killed 28 people. MS-13 is endemic in Virginia, where there have been murders and amputation attacks using machetes. For now, most of the violence is aimed at other Hispanic immigrants and some other Hispanic gang members. That makes it easier for some officials to ignore the problem. But it’s unrealistic to expect the violence to remain self-contained, and in any event, human compassion demands that we act when MS-13 brutalizes people, regardless of their immigration status.
And then there’s this update on the Newark massacre from today:
As police continue to hunt for more suspects in the Newark schoolyard slayings that left three college students dead, investigators struggle with one of the case’s most provocative mysteries: rumored links to a notorious street gang called MS-13.
The gang, rooted in the 1980s Salvadoran civil war and dominated by Latino immigrants, is considered one of the country’s most violent criminal groups. Although MS-13 doesn’t have large numbers in Newark, residents of the Ivy Hill neighborhood where the killings took place say they’ve seen more young men enticed by the gang. That included five of the suspects in the Aug. 4 execution-style shootings.
Neighbors of three juvenile suspects say the boys claimed to be members of MS-13. At least two of them maintained MySpace pages that praised the gang. The adult suspects, Jose Carranza and Rodolfo Godinez, were active members, residents say.
Because of those reputed connections, investigators are exploring whether they played a role in the Aug. 4 attack, in which three college students died and a fourth survived a gunshot to the face.