U.S. government makes moves to seize MS-13 assets in U.S. and elsewhere

[catzmeow]

MS-13, Notorious Central American Street Gang, Targeted By U.S. Government As An 'International Criminal Organization'

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration declared the ultra-violent street gang MS-13 to be an international criminal group on Thursday, an unprecedented crackdown targeting the finances of the sprawling U.S. and Central American gang infamous for hacking and stabbing victims with machetes.

The Treasury Department formally designated MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, a transnational criminal organization. The aim is to freeze it out of the U.S. financial system and seize what are estimated to be millions of dollars in criminal profits from drug and human smuggling and other crimes committed in this country.

Good move, I think.

 

[Toro]

Yup.

 

[Againsheila]

MS-13, Notorious Central American Street Gang, Targeted By U.S. Government As An 'International Criminal Organization'

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration declared the ultra-violent street gang MS-13 to be an international criminal group on Thursday, an unprecedented crackdown targeting the finances of the sprawling U.S. and Central American gang infamous for hacking and stabbing victims with machetes.

The Treasury Department formally designated MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, a transnational criminal organization. The aim is to freeze it out of the U.S. financial system and seize what are estimated to be millions of dollars in criminal profits from drug and human smuggling and other crimes committed in this country.

Good move, I think.

What took them so long?

 

[catzmeow]

MS-13, Notorious Central American Street Gang, Targeted By U.S. Government As An 'International Criminal Organization'

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration declared the ultra-violent street gang MS-13 to be an international criminal group on Thursday, an unprecedented crackdown targeting the finances of the sprawling U.S. and Central American gang infamous for hacking and stabbing victims with machetes.

The Treasury Department formally designated MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, a transnational criminal organization. The aim is to freeze it out of the U.S. financial system and seize what are estimated to be millions of dollars in criminal profits from drug and human smuggling and other crimes committed in this country.

Good move, I think.

What took them so long?

It takes a lot of documentation to prove that this is a single criminal entity, versus a lot of small splinter groups operating autonomously under the same name (which has generally been the law enforcement take on MS-13). You also have to make a case for the group operating in a hierarchical fashion and having jointly held assets.

Any kind of criminal conspiracy is hella hard to prove and requires a lot of documentation. When you're documenting an international criminal organization, it gets even harder.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right the Donald gonna put a stop to dem Hispexican gangs...

Trump Lauds Officers, Calls MS-13 a Scourge
May 16, 2017 - WASHINGTON — Law enforcement officers are the “thin blue line between civilization and chaos,” President Donald Trump said yesterday before a sea of uniformed men and women assembled at the Capitol to honor police lives lost in the line of duty.

Trump said he envisions a country completely devoid of crime and cited MS-13 street gang as a scourge, speaking to frequent applause at the annual National Peace Officers Memorial Day service. “Freedom includes the right to be free — and I mean totally free — from crime and from violence,” he said. “MS-13 is going to be gone from our streets very soon, believe me.” Authorities say the MS-13 gang, which has a national presence, is responsible for a series of savage slayings in Brentwood and Central Islip, with the local body count of victims in incidents linked or thought to be related to gangs rising to 11 in the last year.

The president, who has enjoyed broad support from police, received standing ovations when he was introduced and when he took the stage. “We love you, Donald!” a man in the audience shouted at one point. Earlier Monday in the Oval Office, Trump signed a proclamation noting that he has directed the Justice Department to “better prevent and prosecute acts of violence” against police. He spoke about the 118 officers who died last year in the line of duty. Trump was joined by members of the Ulster County Sheriff’s Department, the New Jersey State Police and the Phoenix Police Department, all of which lost officers last year.

Trump said he envisions a country completely devoid of crime and cited MS-13 street gang as a scourge, speaking to frequent applause at the annual National Peace Officers Memorial Day service.​

In the shadow of the Capitol, he stressed that he believes police risking their lives deserve more respect because they have been subject to vilification. “It is our duty as a people and as a nation to prove worthy of their sacrifice,” Trump said of the fallen. “That begins with showing our police the appreciation they have earned a thousand times over.” Vice President Mike Pence had said Trump makes “no apologies” for his unwavering backing of police, and Trump added: “I will always support the incredible men and women of law enforcement as much as you have always supported me.” The president said he has witnessed, as a New Yorker, how the NYPD keeps communities safe. He spoke also about the sacrifice of officers during the 9/11 terror attacks.

NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill has criticized the Trump administration for a budget proposal that O’Neill said would eradicate counterterrorism funding and for a Justice Department news release that called the NYPD “soft on crime” when it comes to illegal immigration. But the leader of the sergeants union has said Trump has the support of rank-and-file NYPD members. The White House was lit Monday in blue to honor fallen police officers, and flags were flown at half-staff.

Trump Lauds Officers, Calls MS-13 Gang a Scourge | Officer.com

 

[waltky]

Say what???...

Judge Frees Illegal Immigrant MS-13 Member Because Of ‘Rights Violations’
June 22, 2017 | An Obama-appointed federal judge in Virginia early this month released a Honduran teen who sold drugs, illegally crossed the U.S. border, and was a member of the violent street gang MS-13.

U.S. District Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon ordered the 17-year-old to be released because his “rights had been violated” after he crossed the Rio Grande and turned himself in to U.S. Border Patrol, the Washington Post reported. “The judge ruled that, by holding the illegal alien gangbanger without a hearing, the government violated his rights to due process and family unity,” according to Judicial Watch. The former gang-member’s identity has not been revealed due to his status as a minor. The teen claimed to have sold drugs and witnessed several murders during his time with Mara Salvatrucha, the gang better known as MS-13, but that he had never participated in a killing. He will be living with his mother and half-siblings in their home in Kentucky.

During the Obama administration, more than 150,000 minor aliens entered the country illegally by way of the southern border. The Department of Homeland Security has said that unaccompanied alien children (UACs) pose several threats to the United States, and that violent street gangs like MS-13 actively recruit new members in units where UACs are held. “Both the MS-13 and the 18th Street gangs embarked on a recruiting frenzy at the various facilities housing the newly arrived illegal aliens,” said Judicial Watch, citing law enforcement sources. “The UACs also brought in dangerous diseases – including swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus and tuberculosis – and occupied the nation’s military bases as shelters.” Gang members were also reportedly using phones provided by the Red Cross to communicate.

A tattooed member of the notorious MS-13 street gang.​

The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) has said that MS-13 and other violent street games are responsible for “the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.” “A year after the Obama administration began allowing droves of UACs to remain in the U.S., the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed that the MS-13 emerged as a top tier gang in the Lone Star State thanks to the influx of illegal alien gang members that crossed into the state the previous year,” Judicial Watch reported. “Last month, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) sent a letter to the ORR [Office of Refugee Resettlement], demanding to know if it had released any unaccompanied minors with admitted gang ties,” according to the Washington Post. “This teen may be the first known case, but he is not the only one. In a statement to The Washington Post, the agency said it had released ‘a small number’ of children with ‘minimal’ gang affiliation to live with relatives.”

In April, Attorney General Jeff Sessions voiced concern about UACs and gang members crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. “If they come as undocumented minors, the federal government transports them wherever in the interior they say they’d like to go,” he said. “The bad guys know how this system works, and they have exploited it.”

Judge Frees Illegal Immigrant MS-13 Member Because Of ?Rights Violations?

 

[waltky]

A priority for a DoJ program that combats drug trafficking and money laundering...

Department of Justice Expands Fight Against MS-13 Street Gang
October 23, 2017 | WASHINGTON — U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday formally designated the El Salvador-based street gang known as MS-13 as a priority for a Department of Justice program that combats drug trafficking and money laundering.

The designation will allow the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces to target MS-13 with an array of laws, from the anti-organized crime law known as RICO to tax and firearms statutes, Sessions told the International Association of Chiefs of Police. "Now they will go after MS-13 with a renewed vigor and a sharpened focus," Sessions said at the annual conference of IACP in Philadelphia.

Program's mission

The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces program is the centerpiece of the attorney general's drug policy. Established in 1982 to combat drug trafficking and money laundering, it is comprised of Justice Department prosecutors as well as agents from 11 federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, DEA, IRS, the Secret Service and the Coast Guard. "And they all have one mission: to go after drug criminals and traffickers at the highest levels," Sessions said.

Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang members wait to be escorted upon arrival at the maximum-security jail in Zacatecoluca, El Salvador​

Based in El Salvador

With an estimated 30,000 members worldwide, including 10,000 in the United States, MS-13 is the only street gang designated by the Treasury Department as a transnational criminal organization. The organization’s leaders are based in El Salvador, often directing members in the United States from prisons. Law enforcement officials say gang members operate in "cliques" in at least 40 states and engage in a wide range of criminal activity from illegal drug distribution to money laundering and a string of grisly homicides. Monday’s announcement marks the latest step by the Department of Justice to fulfill President Donald Trump’s vow to root out MS-13. In February, Trump issued an executive order to "dismantle and eradicate" the transnational gang.

Justice Department's motto

Repeating a refrain he’s often used as he's promoted the Justice Department’s anti-gang campaign around the country, Sessions said that while MS-13's motto is "kill, rape and control," the Department has "a motto too: justice for victims and consequences for criminals." "This is our motto and that is our mission," Sessions said, calling MS-13 the "most brutal of international gangs." Last month, the Department of Justice announced criminal charges against 3,800 members of MS-13, as well as another transnational gang — 18th Street — operating in the United States and Central America.

Department of Justice Expands Fight Against MS-13 Street Gang

 

[waltky]

Another MS-13 gang sweep nets over 200 gang members...

More than 200 arrested in US crackdown on MS-13 gang
Nov 16th 2017 | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 200 alleged members and associates of the violent Mara Salvatrucha gang, better known as MS-13, have been arrested in a crackdown across the United States, federal officials said on Thursday.

The Oct. 8 to Nov. 11 sweep was the second phase of Operation Raging Bull, which had previously netted 53 arrests in El Salvador, officials from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency told reporters. MS-13 was founded in Los Angeles in the 1980s in part to protect immigrants fleeing civil war in El Salvador and has since grown into a sprawling cross-border criminal organization. U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to crack down on criminal gangs, especially MS-13, and has referred to gang members as "animals" and "thugs." "We are not done. We will not be done until we have totally dismantled this organization. The president of the United States has made this a priority and ICE joins him in this," Tom Homan, deputy director of ICE, told reporters. "So we'll continue to look at arresting every member, every leader and every associate of this criminal gang," Homan added.

In the latest effort, 93 were arrested on federal or state criminal charges, while the rest were charged with immigration violations. Of the 214 people arrested, 16 were American citizens and 198 were foreign nationals, of whom five were legal residents. More than 60 of those arrested had entered the country as unaccompanied minors, ICE officials said. "With more than 10,000 members across 40 states, MS-13 is one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the United States today," U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. The group and its rival the 18th Street Gang are battling for control of extortion, drug trafficking and robbery networks in Central America.

In September, the U.S. Justice Department and authorities from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras announced criminal charges against more than 3,800 members of the two gangs, 70 of them in six U.S. states. In July, U.S. immigration agents launched raids on suspected gang members that for the first time included teenagers, reversing the practice of the previous administration.

More than 200 arrested in crackdown on MS-13 gang

 

[TheOldSchool]

MS-13, Notorious Central American Street Gang, Targeted By U.S. Government As An 'International Criminal Organization'

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration declared the ultra-violent street gang MS-13 to be an international criminal group on Thursday, an unprecedented crackdown targeting the finances of the sprawling U.S. and Central American gang infamous for hacking and stabbing victims with machetes.

The Treasury Department formally designated MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, a transnational criminal organization. The aim is to freeze it out of the U.S. financial system and seize what are estimated to be millions of dollars in criminal profits from drug and human smuggling and other crimes committed in this country.

Good move, I think.

Impossible. Until Trump, the U.S. declared all MS-13 activity as perfectly legal, and even desirable.