Virginia has become stronghold for MS-13 (w/video)

MS-13 (or Mara Salvatrucha) was formed by Salvadoran, mostly illegal immigrants in the 1980’s, during El Salvador’s civil war. While the gang was originally made up exclusively of Salvadorans, they now accept all Central Americans as well as Mexicans. MS stands for Mara (slang for mob), Salva (El Salvador), Trucha (slang for on-guard).

MS-13 began in Los Angeles and as members moved deeper into the country, more loosely structured gangs or cliques were formed. However, these cliques continued to communicate with one another, and the network was formed.

Over the years, MS-13 has become better structured, and the FBI believes that the gang’s L.A. members have a higher status among the group. The gang typically targets high school and even middle school students for recruitment.

Initiation into the gang usually consists of the recruit committing a brutal attack on either a rival gang member or even upon an unsuspecting civilian. On November 26, 2008, Jonathan Retana was convicted of the murder of Miguel Angel Deras, which was part of an MS-13 initiation.

MS-13 has aligned itself with the Mexican Mafia, which has a large presence not only on U.S. streets, but is widely viewed as the most powerful prison gang. The smaller MS-13 pays the Mexican Mafia for protection, while their members are incarcerated.

According to the FBI, there are at least 70,000 MS-13 gang members operating between Central America and the United States. The FBI also reports that the gang currently operates in 42 states as well as the District of Columbia. The highest concentrations are in California, the District of Columbia, New York, and Virginia.

MS-13 set up shop in Northern Virginia during the 1990s, lured by the region's fast-growing Salvadoran population, later expanding into the Maryland suburbs of Langley Park and Gaithersburg.

The following violent acts were committed by MS-13 gang members in Virginia and the D.C. Metro area:

-In February 2011, Alexander Rivas, 18, was arrested by Alexandria police, following an investigation that began in November, when the father of a 14-year-old runaway told police his daughter was living with Rivas. Court documents state that the girl was found in the gang member’s apartment and she was being used as a prostitute.

According to prosecutors, Rivas ran a prostitution ring, operating in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, using underage runaways. The affidavit states that the business catered to “construction workers and illegal immigrants.”

On a typical Friday or Saturday night, the operation would see about 100 customers paying for sex.

Rivas typically charged $50 for sexual intercourse with the girls.

Rivas is charged with sex trafficking of children by force, fraud or coercion.

A17-year-old girl told detectives that Rivas carried a machete, he nicknamed “his wife,” when taking her to have sex with his clients. He reportedly used the machete to intimidate anyone who tried to avoid paying.

Rivas admitted to once robbing a group of men of $1,200, and telling them: “What are you going to say? That you got robbed after having sex with a minor?”

-In December 2010, Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge Thomas D. Horne sentenced Hector Valdami Campos-Aguilar, 19, to 10 years in prison for a September 2008 drive-by shooting that took place in Sterling Park. The gang-related attack wounded three people, leaving one paralyzed.

According to prosecutors, Campos-Aguilar along with two other MS-13 members drove up on a group of young men at the intersection of East Poplar Drive and Buckingham Court in Sterling, thinking they were members of the rival 18th Street gang, they turned around and opened fire on the group.

One of the victims was shot in the arm; another was shot in the back, penetrating his spleen; and another was left paralyzed from the waist down from his injuries.

As it turned out, none of the shooting victims were actually gang members.

Campos-Aguilar, came to this country illegally from El Salvador, and has a long criminal record. His record in Fairfax County alone includes convictions for receiving stolen goods, two counts of carrying a concealed weapon, trespassing and assault and battery.

-November 2011, a jury found gang member Ingmar Guandique, 29, guilty of first-degree murder in killing of D.C. intern Chandra Levy. Guandique, who speaks no English, heard the verdict through a pair of headphones on which the translation was provided.

A Salvadoran national in this country illegally, Guandique was charged in April 2009 with the murder of the missing intern, who disappeared in 2001. Her skeletal remains were discovered a year later in D.C.’s Rock Creek Park.

According to prosecutors, Guandique murdered Levy on May 1, 2001, raping her along a jogging trail in the park.

At the time of his arrest for the Levy murder, he was already in prison for assaulting two other women in the same park at knifepoint. He is serving a 10-year sentence for that crime.

In October 2009, Assistant U.S. Attorney Fernando Campoamor told a judge in D.C Superior Court that Guandique, along with members of the MS-13 gang threatened to kill a witness and his family, if he testifies at Guandique’s trial.

-In 2007, MS-13 gang member Everec Alvarez Chacon pled guilty to beating a man to death in a Suitland, MD cemetery. Two other gang members took part in the 2004 murder.

-In 2005, two MS-13 members were convicted in an Alexandria, Va. United States District Court for killing a 17-year-old pregnant girl. A rope was placed around the neck of Brenda Paz, she was then stabbed repeatedly. Her body was then left along the muddy banks of Virginia’s Shenandoah River. The murder was retribution for the girl’s cooperation with a federal investigation into the gang’s activities.

-During 2004-2005, there were two machete attacks in the Northern Virginia area. An Alexandria teenager lost four fingers during a savage encounter with MS-13 members, while a Fairfax man also became a victim of an MS-13 machete attack. Both incidents are believed to have been initiation acts.

In 2005, Michelle Malkin writing for Human Events said: "Reporting by a reliable Norfolk [VA} source indicates MS-13 members are planning to randomly attack local law enforcement officers in the Tidewater area. Threats of this nature have been termed by gang members as 'green light' notices. Green light notices have continued to increase, prompting the Virginia Gang Association to issue warnings to law enforcement in Virginia and the surrounding states. . . . Additional source information indicates local MS-13 members are equipped with weapons and ballistic vests."

The violence which MS-13 perpetrates is unprecedented in this country, and they do not limit their brutality to rival gang members. Whether a civilian or even a police officer, no one is safe as long as this gang exists.

View the video at left for a frightening look at MS-13 and their growing stronghold in Virginia:

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