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(AP Phto: Tattooed faces, dead giveaway, gangs go for new look.) |
By Shelley Smith
The continued criminal activities of United States and international gangs, terrorists and extremists groups are representing a tremendous threat to homeland security, global security and civil society, while lethal gangs have become a plaque to major metropolitan areas and to suburban and rural locations. As gangs and terrorism seek to recruit, they have become more dynamic, flexible and continue to adapt to environments as they plan for future activities. Gang activity in the U.S. is an extension of the gang activity that is observed in El Salvador.
The two largest Hispanic gangs in El Salvador are the Mara Salvatrucha 13 or known in the U.S. as MS-13, operates in 42 states in the U.S. and the District of Columbia. The Mara-18 or known in the U.S. as the 18th Street Gang, or Mara 18 or M-18, operates in 37 states and 11 countries. These gangs have become an international problem and have connections in the United States with counterparts throughout Latin America, Mexico and elsewhere. They are believed to number about 100,000 in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua and growing. Through deportation the gang members return home, but take the opportunity to learn and bring the knowledge back to the U.S. to distribute to their members and counterparts.
Deportation and the combating of gang members has not stopped or slowed down their activities of recruitment, violence, rape, robbery, murder and beheading victims, distribution of drugs, weapons, extortion, kidnapping, prostitution, and vehicle theft. The gang members are international in nature and their usage of the Internet and cell phones have made them a national and international problem as we have seen in the tactics of al Qaeda and other terrorist groups and organizations.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has put agents in El Salvador in order to coordinate efforts and conduct crackdowns on gangs in an effort to obstruct or shutdown the mobility of gangs. The gangs cause mayhem in cities and suburbs across the U.S., continue to operate from prisons and exploit and make rooms in MySpace.com with the intent for communication amongst gang members and for recruitment.
As narco-terrorists, Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCO), U.S. gang members, and foreign-born members who operate without borders or flags, continue to spill across the Mexico border while operating outside and inside the U.S., they are adding new twists to their tactics and techniques by lowering their profiles. They are doing makeovers by exchanging gang image for business and university images by removing tattoos, limiting tattoos and changing their attire. They are targeting high school and college students for recruitment.
In a report by Gary I. Wilson and John P. Sullivan, “On Gangs, Crime, and Terrorism”, February 28, 2007, these types of Hispanic gangs, al Qaeda and terrorist groups may be vastly different, but they share the common characteristics of transcending borders, indiscriminate violence, coercion and intimidation, recruitment, and targeting nation-states. When viewing the map “Terrorist Network in America 1991 – 2005”, page 25, from the Report to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, June 2006, “Al-Qaeda: The Many Faces of an Islamist Extremist Threat” and the map from The Southern Poverty Law Center’s annual Hate Group list, “Intelligence Project Hate Groups in 2006,” that names more than 800 groups in the country; with the problems of the gang activities in the U.S., they exhibit the tremendous dangers being inflicted on the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), through an innovative strategy named Operation Community Shield launched in 2005, have greatly increased arrests, imprisonment and/or deportation of gang members and have produced optimistic results as they struggle battling this systemic geopolitical crime that is an ongoing national and international problem. But as U.S. and Mexican counter-narcotics operations have been shifting traffic patterns across the borders, they are affecting the level of stability, while impacting the sensitive social and political issues between the two countries.
Sources:
Crackdown on Gangs Goes International
Violent Criminal Alien Gangs Target U.S.
PoliceOne.com
Tattooed Faces a Dead Giveaway: Gangs Go for New Look
About the Author
Shelley Smith is an expert in analysis and research on national and international law, foreign affairs, criminal justice systems and the psychology of criminal behavior. Smith is currently working toward a B.A in Intelligence Studies with a focus on analysis and terrorism at American Military University.
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