MS-13
MS-13, short for Mara Salvatrucha, is an international criminal gang that began in Los Angeles, California, in the 1980s. In 2018, its membership in the United States was put at up to 10,000 people. That was less than 1 percent of the 1.4 million gang members in the country, and it accounted for a similar small share of gang murders. Yet few gangs have drawn as much attention from presidents, prosecutors and film-makers. How did a group first organized to protect Salvadoran newcomers grow into a name recognized on several continents? Why did sending its members away from the United States help it spread? And how much of what is said about it is documented fact, and how much is political argument?
In Caliche slang, the word mara means swarm, and it comes from marabunta, the name of a fierce kind of ant. The rest of the name is disputed. Some sources say it honors La Mara, a street in San Salvador, together with the Salvatrucha guerrillas of the Salvadoran Civil War. Salvatrucha may combine Salvadoran with trucha, a Caliche word for being alert. Another explanation points to Salvadoran peasants trained as guerrilla fighters, tied to the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front. The 13 is usually read as the letter M, the thirteenth in the alphabet. A rumor holds instead that it pays tribute to the Mexican Mafia prison gang.
The Pico-Union, Westlake and Rampart neighborhoods of Los Angeles were where Salvadoran immigrants founded the gang in the 1980s. They had come north after the Central American civil wars of that decade. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the United States refused asylum to Salvadorans and classed them as undocumented immigrants. So more of them arrived without papers, settling in cities with large undocumented populations, such as Los Angeles. Their asylum claims were neglected until a 1991 case, American Baptist Churches v. Thornburgh. The settlement required Guatemalan and Salvadoran claims to be reevaluated, provided the applicants had entered the country by 1990. Before that ruling and after it, Salvadoran immigrants stayed highly vulnerable to exploitation.
At the very start, MS-13 was a loose group of young, delinquent heavy metal fans. The city's undocumented community faced severe prejudice and persecution, and under that pressure the group began to turn into a gang. Its first purpose was to protect Salvadoran immigrants from older, more established gangs, which were mostly made up of Mexicans, Asians and African-Americans. Some of the original members followed Satanism. Most members today do not, though traces of it survive in some of the gang's symbols.
The rivalry with the 18th Street gang took shape in these same years. At first the two were friendly, because they were among the only gangs willing to admit Salvadorans. What broke the alliance is uncertain. Most versions point to a fight over a girl in 1989, in which an MS-13 gangster was killed. A cycle of revenge followed and hardened into a broad, intense hostility between the two groups.
Ernesto Deras changed the gang's character. He was a former member of the Salvadoran special forces, trained in Panama by United States Green Berets. When he took over an MS-13 clique in 1990, he used that military training to bring discipline and better logistics. It was after he took charge that the gang began to grow in power.
Jose Abrego, a high-ranking member from the Los Angeles area, was deported four times. His case reflects a wider pattern. Large-scale deportations of ex-convicts began soon after the Salvadoran Civil War ended in 1992. The deportees recruited new members in their home countries, and MS-13 took root in El Salvador, where there had been no significant gang activity before. The Los Angeles Times argues that deportation policies increased the gang's size and influence in both the United States and Central America.
The war itself had lasted more than 12 years. Government death squads trained by the United States deliberately terrorized and targeted civilians, including prominent clergy of the Catholic Church. Child soldiers were recruited, and other human rights violations were committed, mostly by the military. All of this left the country open to gang infiltration.
The Chapultepec Peace Accords required the post-war government to stop using the army as a police force and to build a new national police service. The ruling party, ARENA, descended from the wartime military government. To favor its military allies, it delayed the creation of the National Civil Police, known as the PNC. When the PNC was finally organized in 1993, parts of it were formed by absorbing members of the armed forces. Some of the new officers were known war criminals. With no capable police force, the deported gangsters met little opposition as they set up MS-13 in El Salvador.
Uncontrolled weapons left over from the conflict were plentiful, and they made MS-13 a significant arms trafficker. That trade remains one of its main sources of revenue today, alongside extortion and assassination. Economic struggles after the war, combined with neoliberal trade reforms, likely contributed to the gang's growth as well.
Aspirants to MS-13 are beaten for 13 seconds in an initiation ritual known as jumping-in. At least one faction, the Fulton clique in Los Angeles, has required prospective members to commit a murder before they are considered for full membership. The gang is notorious for its violence and for a subcultural moral code built on merciless retribution.
Membership consists mainly of Salvadorans and Salvadoran Americans, along with Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans and other Central and South Americans. Central Americans are also the main targets of the gang's violence and threats, and many victims are minors. Minors make up the majority of suspects arrested for killings attributed to MS-13. Members typically reach the United States from Central America as unaccompanied minors. Many school districts hesitated to admit these teenagers, which left them at home and vulnerable to recruitment. Recruitment is often forced. In El Salvador, children are recruited on the way to school, church or work, and incarcerated youth are usually pressed into the gang during their sentences.
Most members are impoverished young men and teenagers, often homeless and estranged from their families. They get by on minor drug dealing, theft, and extortion of street vendors and other small-time criminals. Abandoned buildings in urban areas, called destroyers, serve as homes and as places for clandestine meetings, parties and drug deals. Members who hold jobs usually work in construction, restaurants, delivery services and landscaping, presenting false documentation to employers.
Tattoos mark many members, including tattoos on the face. Common designs include the letters MS, the word Salvatrucha, the Devil Horns and the name of the member's clique. By 2007, the gang was moving away from face tattoos so that members could commit crimes without being noticed. Hand signs serve for identification and communication, as in most modern American gangs. One common gesture holds both index fingers up beside or in front of the face to mimic devil horns. Another resembles the rock-music sign of the horns, but with the fingers splayed apart and held close to the face.
Mara Salvatrucha has traditionally been a set of loosely affiliated, clandestine cells called cliques. In the United States, cliques are loosely tied to one another, and local circumstances mostly decide what each one does. Law enforcement officials have reported growing coordination among cliques in the Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York areas. In El Salvador, the gang is more centralized and cohesive. In 2002, several high-ranking members began building the Ranfla Nacional, its command and control structure, which has directed killings in both El Salvador and the United States.
The 2009 National Gang Threat Assessment put worldwide membership, including associates, at 30,000 to 50,000, with 8,000 to 10,000 of them living in the United States. Other estimates placed the international total near 30,000. In Los Angeles, around 15 to 20 cliques are active, and the gang claims parts of Westlake, MacArthur Park, Pico-Union, Koreatown, East Hollywood, North Hollywood, Panorama City and Van Nuys. One 2008 report placed its New York base mainly in the Queens areas of Woodhaven, Jamaica, Flushing and Rockaway, as well as on Long Island.
The gang has cliques in about ten American states and activity in at least 42, plus the District of Columbia. The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported in 2008 that the highest threat lay in the Western and Northeastern United States, matching areas with large Salvadoran immigrant populations. In early 2018, the Nassau County district attorney said an investigation had found "a structured network of MS-13 operations" stretching from New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Texas to a Mississippi prison cell. She added that it reached countries including Mexico, Colombia, Korea, France, Australia, Peru, Egypt, Ecuador and Cuba.
In Central America, MS-13 is strongest in the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. By 2020, it and the 18th Street gang were estimated to employ some 60,000 people in El Salvador between them, making the two the country's largest employers. By 2023, after President Nayib Bukele's State of Exception crackdown and updates to the data collection system, the national police database listed more than 120,000 gang members, aspiring members and collaborators.
In Mexico, the gang expanded significantly at the direction of the Ranfla Nacional, which the source also calls its board of directors. Its leaders there have brokered deals with the Zetas, Gulf, Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels to obtain narcotics and firearms. The cruelty of its members led the Sinaloa Cartel to recruit some of them during its fight against Los Zetas in the Mexican drug war. As of 2007, the gang was also reported to be violent toward migrants on Mexico's southern border.
On the 3rd of November 2021, the FBI added Yulan Adonay Archaga Carias to its Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, with a reward of $100,000. He is the alleged leader of MS-13 for all of Honduras. He is charged in the Southern District of New York with racketeering conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and possession of machine guns. On the 8th of February 2023, the State Department raised the reward to five million dollars, and the Treasury Department placed him under sanctions.
In 2008, Robert Morales, a prosecutor in Guatemala, told The Globe and Mail that some gang members were seeking refugee status in Canada. He said: "We know that there are members of Mara 18 and MS-13 who are in Canada and are seeking to stay there." John Robin, a superintendent with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police gang task force, suggested why. He said: "I think gang members have a feeling that police here won't treat them in the harsh manner they get down there." On the 4th of June 2008, Toronto police made 21 arrests after a five-month investigation. In May 2018, Canadian federal authorities warned police that gang members were trying to flee the United States into Canada.
Spain hosted five cliques before a 2014 crackdown: Providence in Madrid, Normandi in Girona, Dementes Locos and Demonios Locos in Barcelona, and Big Crazy in Ibi. They were part of an expansion plan called Programa 34, or Program 34, backed with money and logistical support from the leadership in El Salvador. The cliques ran legitimate businesses such as bars and restaurants, which could launder money and provide jobs and visas for formerly incarcerated Salvadoran gang members. Sales of marijuana and cocaine and monthly member dues paid for the operation.
Spanish police opened an investigation called operation Cruasan, meaning Croissant, in late 2012, after a young man was stabbed in a fight involving rival gangs. On the 24th of March 2014, it ended with the arrests of 35 members in the provinces of Alicante, Barcelona, Girona, Madrid and Tarragona, involving about 300 officers. The charges included money laundering, conspiracy to murder, drug trafficking and illegal firearms possession. Esteban Arnulfo Naviti Mejía and Pablo Antonio Naviti Mejía, who led the Big Crazy clique, faced the most serious charges. The trial of the 35 accused began in Alicante on the 20th of February 2018.
On the 13th of July 2003, Brenda Paz, a 17-year-old former member turned informant, was found stabbed to death on the banks of the Shenandoah River in Virginia. She was four months pregnant, and she had been giving the FBI information about the gang's criminal activities. Two of her former friends were later convicted of the murder. In 2007, the History Channel series Gangland devoted an episode, titled "You Rat, You Die", to her story.
On the 23rd of December 2004, an intercity bus was stopped in Chamelecón, Honduras, and sprayed with automatic gunfire. Twenty-eight civilians were killed and 21 wounded, most of them women and children. MS-13 organized the attack as a protest against a proposal to restore the death penalty in Honduras. Two men, Juan Carlos Miranda Bueso and Darwin Alexis Ramírez, were found guilty in February 2007. Juan Bautista Jimenez, accused of masterminding the massacre, was later killed in prison. Authorities said fellow MS-13 inmates hanged him.
On the 13th of May 2006, Ernesto "Smokey" Miranda was murdered at his home in El Salvador. He was a former high-ranking soldier and one of the founders of Mara Salvatrucha. A few hours earlier, he had declined to attend a party for a gang member just released from prison. He had begun studying law and working to keep children out of gangs.
Red clothing has cost bystanders their lives. In 2007, a Long Island member allegedly killed a man because his red sweatshirt led the member to mistake him for a Bloods gang member. On the 22nd of June 2008, in San Francisco, Edwin Ramos shot and killed Anthony Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16, as they drove home from a family barbecue. Authorities believe they were mistaken for gang members in retaliation for an earlier shooting that day. In February 2012, a federal judge convicted three members of murdering Moises Frias Jr., who was mistaken for a member of the rival Norteños.
In late 2017, Madeline Singas, the district attorney of Nassau County, New York, described the gang's methods to the interviewer Bill Ritter. She said: "The crimes that we're talking about are brutal. Their weapon of choice is a machete." The choice stands apart from other gangs, which prefer guns. Police on Long Island linked the gang to 17 murders between January 2016 and April 2016. Prosecutors said that in one case the motive was to gain reputation.
In November 2009, the Daily News learned of an alleged contract on the federal immigration agent who led the crackdown on the gang's New York factions. The plot came to light through Walter "Duke" Torres, a Virginia clique member, who told police he had information after an encounter in Queens. He was debriefed on the 22nd of October at Rikers Island. He said the order came from gang leadership in El Salvador. Members were trying to obtain a high-powered rifle to penetrate the agent's bulletproof vest. The gang was reportedly angry at the agent for arresting many members over the previous three years.
Alejandro Enrique Ramirez Umaña, known as Wizard, became the first MS-13 member sentenced to death by the United States federal government. A jury later found that he killed Jose Herrera and Gustavo Porras in Los Angeles in 2005 and aided in the killing of Andy Abarca. Witnesses said he then came to Charlotte, North Carolina, to reorganize the gang's cell there. At Las Jarochitas, a family-run restaurant in Greensboro, he shot Ruben and Manuel Garcia Salinas after they called the gang's signs fake. Ruben died in the shooting, and Manuel was shot in the head. Umaña was arrested five days later with the murder weapon. Evidence showed he coordinated attempts to kill witnesses and informants while awaiting trial. Marshals found a knife he tried to bring into the courtroom.
The jury convicted Umaña on the 19th of April 2010. On the 28th of April, a 12-person federal jury in Charlotte voted unanimously for the death penalty. Chief U.S. District Judge Robert J. Conrad Jr. formally imposed it on the 27th of July 2010, and the sentence was upheld in April 2014. On the 23rd of December 2024, President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of Umaña and 36 other federal death row prisoners to life without parole. The wider Charlotte investigation produced charges against 26 members, with seven trial convictions in January 2010 and 18 guilty pleas.
In 2021, police reports and victim interviews described a weekly tax charged to transgender women for the right to be left alone in MacArthur Park, Los Angeles. Daniela Hernandez, a Salvadoran who had immigrated illegally, struggled to pay the $20 fee after losing her job as a janitor. After about three months she stopped paying, and she was assaulted and stabbed near a lake. She resumed paying, but four weeks later she was attacked again and suffered 15 stab wounds. Publicity about the attacks brought heavy police presence, and much of the gang's activity in the area moved to 10th Street.
Gang violence in El Salvador peaked in the 1990s and declined somewhat in the early 2000s, but it became a central theme of political debate. ARENA presidents introduced the Mano Dura and Super Mano Dura policies against gangs. External observers and gangsters themselves believe these policies increased the gangs' power.
In 2004, the FBI created the MS-13 National Gang Task Force to help local and state agencies cooperate in dismantling the gang. Its strategies included deporting members to their home countries, an effort that instead worsened the problem by spreading the gang internationally. In February 2005, the FBI opened an office in San Salvador and began working with police in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. The next year it helped create a National Gang Information Center, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched Operation Community Shield.
In 2008, the task force coordinated arrests and crackdowns involving more than 6,000 police officers in five countries. Seventy-three suspects were arrested in the United States, and more than 650 were taken into custody in all. By 2011, the operation had produced over 20,000 arrests, including more than 3,000 of alleged MS-13 members. In October 2012, the Treasury Department froze American-owned assets controlled by the gang and listed it as a transnational criminal organization.
After the Mano Dura years came a truce between MS-13 and the 18th Street gang. President Mauricio Funes, the first Salvadoran president from the FMLN party, oversaw unofficial talks between government and gang representatives. The gangs were to lower the homicide rate in exchange for transfers to lower-security prisons. They would also receive benefits for every firearm they surrendered. Homicides fell, but with turf wars quieter, the gangs focused on recruitment, organization and extortion. The truce did not protect most Salvadorans from extortion, and reports of leniency toward imprisoned gangsters made it highly unpopular.
Salvador Sánchez Cerén, Funes's successor as the FMLN candidate, campaigned on a return to a tough approach. When he took office in 2014, the truce was understood to be over. Police extrajudicial killings then grew dramatically. The gangs had used the truce to build up their forces, and violence returned at record levels. In 2015, El Salvador had the highest national homicide rate per capita in the world, largely because of fighting between MS-13 and 18th Street. Later trials of the negotiators revealed significant corruption, including government negotiators urging the gangs to raise the homicide rate to keep everyone at the table.
Three leaders, José Luís Mendoza Figueroa, Eduardo Erazo Nolasco and Élmer Canales Rivera, kept giving orders from prison in El Salvador. In 2015, the Treasury Department imposed further sanctions that allowed the seizure of all assets they controlled. In January 2016, over 400 Boston police officers took part in arrests of 37 members, and 56 people were charged altogether. Massachusetts State Police Lt. Col. Frank Hughes said: "In my 30 years of law enforcement, I've never seen a more violent gang out there." On the 16th of November 2017, officials announced Operation Raging Bull, with 267 arrests. The first phase in September 2017 brought 53 arrests in El Salvador, and the second brought 214 in the United States.
On the 27th of July 2017, Salvadoran authorities arrested 113 suspected members. In January 2021, Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen announced terrorism charges against fourteen Ranfla Nacional leaders imprisoned in El Salvador. In June 2022, César Alfredo Romero Chávez was sentenced to 1,090 years in prison for twenty-four counts of aggravated homicide committed in 2017 and 2018. By January 2025, over 80,000 Salvadorans had been detained under the State of Exception. About 8,000 of them were found innocent and released, while 15,000 gang members were held in the new Terrorism Confinement Center.
In June 2025, ProPublica reported that Bukele's government had blocked American extradition requests for MS-13 leaders whom investigators saw as potential witnesses. It also reported that a multiagency team, Joint Task Force Vulcan, had suspected that USAID funds sent to El Salvador were diverted and laundered to benefit MS-13 leaders. The team asked to review American financial records for evidence of corruption.
MS-13 has been a recurring theme in Republican campaigns, and especially in Donald Trump's, during debates on immigration. Republicans have accused Democrats of being responsible for MS-13 violence and called for stricter immigration policies. Some argued that sanctuary cities, which do not prioritize enforcing immigration law, feed MS-13 activity. Studies of sanctuary status and crime found either no effect or lower crime rates.
During the Trump administration, MS-13 became a top priority for the Department of Justice. Trump falsely claimed that towns had been "liberated" from MS-13 rule. He also falsely claimed on several occasions that his administration had deported "thousands and thousands" of members. His 2018 State of the Union Address featured Evelyn Rodriguez, whose child had been killed by MS-13 members. She died soon afterward of a cause unrelated to the gang. When defending family separation of migrants, Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of Homeland Security, said MS-13 used child migrants to cross the border. There is no evidence that members falsely claimed custody of children at the border.
On the 2nd of February 2019, an MS-13 member fatally shot a member of the 18th Street gang at the 90th Street-Elmhurst Avenue subway station in Queens. Trump mentioned the incident in his 2019 State of the Union Address. The administration also said there was a "surge in MS-13 gang members" fueled by weak immigration enforcement. No evidence supported either claim. An FBI assessment did warn that Sureño gangs, including MS-13, 18th Street and Florencia 13, were expanding faster than other national-level gangs.
Film and television have pictured the gang in several ways. National Geographic made a 2005 documentary titled World's Most Dangerous Gang. A 2008 documentary by Christian Poveda also portrayed it. The 2009 feature Sin Nombre follows four members in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico, including the protagonist Willy, known as El Casper, played by Edgar Flores. La vida precoz y breve de Sabina Rivas, released in 2012, shows violence against migrants on the Guatemala-Mexico border through Jovany, a teenage member. The 2019 action film We Die Young stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and follows two members of the gang's Washington branch.
On the 15th of July 2020, at a White House press conference, Attorney General William Barr announced terrorism charges against Armando Eliu Melgar Diaz, a Honduran who had moved home from the United States in 2016. The Washington Post reported it was the first time the Justice Department had used terrorism charges against MS-13. Barr also announced the arrests of 21 other suspected members in New York and Nevada. He said drug money was not a substantial source of revenue or an objective for the gang. Of its violence, he said: "It's about honor of being the most savage, bloodthirsty person you can be and building up a reputation as a killer." Trump added: "We're using 'terrorism' which gives us extra strength."
On the 20th of January 2025, Trump signed an executive order starting the process of designating drug cartels and transnational gangs, including MS-13, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The order was officially enacted on the 20th of February 2025, making these groups officially terrorist organizations. Years earlier, the Supreme Court of El Salvador had authorized classifying gangs as terrorist organizations after attacks on police officers, government officials and community organizations.
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What is MS-13 and where did it originate?
MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, is an international criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles, California, in the 1980s. Salvadoran immigrants founded it in the Pico-Union, Westlake and Rampart neighborhoods, originally to protect Salvadoran immigrants from other gangs.
What does the name MS-13 mean?
The name Mara Salvatrucha is disputed. Mara means swarm in Caliche slang and comes from marabunta, a fierce type of ant, while Salvatrucha may combine Salvadoran with trucha, a word for being alert. The 13 is believed to stand for the letter M, the thirteenth letter of the alphabet.
How did MS-13 spread to El Salvador?
Large-scale deportations of ex-convicts began soon after the Salvadoran Civil War ended in 1992, and deported members recruited in their home countries. A weak post-war police force and many leftover weapons let MS-13 take root in El Salvador.
Who are MS-13's main rivals?
MS-13's longtime and biggest international rival is the 18th Street gang. The two were first friendly, and most versions of the split point to a fight over a girl in 1989 in which an MS-13 gangster was killed. Other rivals include the Bloods and the Latin Kings.
How many members does MS-13 have?
The 2009 National Gang Threat Assessment estimated 30,000 to 50,000 members and associates worldwide, with 8,000 to 10,000 in the United States. In 2018, the US membership of up to 10,000 was less than 1% of the 1.4 million gang members in the country.
How does a person join MS-13?
Aspirants are beaten for 13 seconds in a ritual known as jumping-in. At least one faction, the Fulton clique in Los Angeles, has required prospective members to commit a murder. Recruitment is often forced.
When was MS-13 designated a terrorist organization by the United States?
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on the 20th of January 2025 starting the process of designating cartels and transnational gangs, including MS-13, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The order was officially enacted on the 20th of February 2025.
All sources
220 references cited across the entry
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- 8National Gang Threat AssessmentNational Gang Intelligence Center
- 10MS-13 in the United States and Federal Law Enforcement Efforts20 August 2018
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- 16NewsZetas and MS-13 Join Forces in GuatemalaFox News Latino — April 7, 2012
- 20Executive order list: What executive orders did President Trump sign and what to knowAvery Lotz — January 22, 2025
- 22America's Most Dangerous GangDomash, Shelly Feuer — apfn.org
- 23MS-13: Gangs infiltrating the suburbs of Washington, DCDC Spotlight Newspaper
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- 26BookCrónicas negras: desde una región que no cuentaAnderson, Jon Lee — Aguilar — 2014
- 27MS-13 gang members convicted by S.F. jury - SFGateAugust 30, 2011
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- 32NewsMexico: can the war on drugs be won?Javier Farje — Latin American Bureau — March 24, 2010
- 33Always on guard in Nuevo LaredoKevin Johnson — Usatoday.com — May 17, 2006
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- 36Interview with Madeline SingasBill Ritter — December 18, 2017
- 37NewsReward Offered As Deadly MS-13 Gang Orders Long Island Cops ShotLisa Finn — April 20, 2018
- 38Wilber, Del Quentin. (August 20, 2018). "MS-13 Gang tries to organize an unruly young membership". Wall Street Journal. p. A1, A10.
- 39FBI Targets MS Street GangZach Werner — October 5, 2005
- 40NewsTattooed faces a dead giveaway: Gangs go for new lookCNN — December 16, 2007
- 41Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13) Intelligence ReportCommonwealth of Virginia, Department of State Police — July 2008
- 42Gang Awareness Guide: Recognize the SignsNew Jersey Office of the Attorney General, Juvenile Justice Commission — May 2006
- 43NewsFive myths about MS-13Jose Miguel Cruz — 2018
- 45MS-13, explainedFebruary 26, 2018
- 46Trump addresses 'menace' of MS-13 at Long Island roundtableMeredith McGraw — May 23, 2018
- 48NewsDeadly MS-13 gang has infiltrated Australia: US probeSBS — January 13, 2018
- 49NewsWhy Are People Fleeing Central America? A New Breed of Gangs Is Taking Over.Robbie Whelan — November 2, 2018
- 50Gang members on the run: MS-13's exodus from El SalvadorRedacción Regional — 2024-06-10
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- 58NewsIn N.Va. Gang, A Brutal Sense Of BelongingMary Beth Sheridan — June 27, 2004
- 59News'You feel that the devil is helping you': MS-13's satanic historyMichael E. Miller — December 21, 2017
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- 61I. El origen del odioCarlos Martínez et al. — August 6, 2012
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- 63Second High-Ranking MS-13 Gang Member Arrested In Santa CruzKSBW — June 8, 2010
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- 72MS-13 National Gang Task ForceU.S. government
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- 74How We're Ganging Up On MS-13 And What You Can Do To HelpFBI.gov — July 13, 2005
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- 765 in Somerton arrested in national gang sweepGilbert James — Yuma Sun — March 1, 2011
- 77JournalMS-13 gang labeled transnational criminal group, a first for US street gangHoward LaFranchi — CSMonitor.com — October 12, 2012
- 79NewsU.S. Imposes Sanctions on 3 Leaders of Gang Based in El SalvadorElisabeth Malkin — April 16, 2015
- 80Federal Authorities Charge 56 MS-13 Gang Members in Boston AreaJanuary 29, 2016
- 82Operation Raging BullNovember 14, 2017
- 83NewsFederal government announces hundreds of arrests in MS-13 crackdownPhil McCausland — November 16, 2017
- 85113 suspected MS-13 gang members arrested in El SalvadorNicole Rojas — July 28, 2017
- 86NewsUS prosecutors: Jailed MS-13 bosses behind wave of violenceJanuary 14, 2021
- 89MS132025-04-03
- 90News"Delay, Interfere, Undermine"T. Christian Miller et al. — June 12, 2025
- 98Senior leader of transnational criminal organization MS-13 arrested after 4 years on the run, court documents sayJohn Miller — March 21, 2024
- 100Fugitive MS-13 leader arrested on terrorism charges in TexasStephen Sorace — June 12, 2024
- 102'Historical loss': Alleged gang leader evades US justice with deportation to El SalvadorPriscilla Alvarez et al. — March 24, 2025
- 106Mexico arrests alleged MS-13 leader on FBI's most wanted listMarlon Sorto et al. — March 17, 2025
- 109Gonzalez Medina, Jose OrlandoAugust 16, 2022
- 111Iraheta, Jose RaulAugust 16, 2022
- 112Serrano, Jesus Guillermo AlvaradoAugust 16, 2022
- 113Hernandez, Ingrid EstelaAugust 16, 2022
- 114Why Trump's focus on MS-13 might be making them strongerFebruary 6, 2018
- 115NewsTrump's focus on MS-13 risks bolstering gang's fearsome image, study saysOliver Laughland — February 12, 2018
- 116Searches spike for MS-13 as Trump makes gang a focusLiz Johnstone
- 117NewsMS-13 is scary, but Trump may be exaggerating the threatJune 23, 2018
- 118NewsRepublican attack ads echo Trump's anti-immigration message to whip up fear among supportersSabrina Siddiqui — October 18, 2018
- 119Republican ads feature MS-13, hoping fear will motivate votersAnthony W. Fontes — November 2, 2018
- 121NewsG.O.P. Sees Trump's Playbook as Best Hope in Some Tight RacesJeremy W. Peters — November 3, 2018
- 122Republican Closing Ads: ImmigrationEugene Kiely et al. — November 2, 2018
- 124Chris Cuomo confronts GOP lawmaker over claim that Dems support MS-13Aris Folley — June 27, 2018
- 127NewsEd Gillespie's 'Sanctuary Cities' AttacksAnnenberg Public Policy Center — September 26, 2017
- 128NewsTrump backs Republican for Va. governor, accuses the Democrat of enabling 'violent MS-13 killer gangs'Fenit Nirappil — October 6, 2017
- 129JournalProviding Sanctuary or Fostering Crime? A Review of the Research on "Sanctuary Cities" and CrimeDaniel E. Martínez et al. — 2018
- 130NewsRepublicans in Virginia and nationwide are using 'sanctuary cities' as a weapon against DemocratsDavid Weigel et al. — November 2, 2017
- 131Fact check: 7 things Trump got wrong about the border and immigrationNovember 27, 2018
- 132NewsHas Trump 'Watched ICE Liberate Towns From the Grasp of MS-13'? No.Jacey Fortin — July 1, 2018
- 138I've Been Reporting on MS-13 for a Year. Here Are the 5 Things Trump Gets Most WrongHannah Dreier — June 25, 2018
- 139He Drew His School Mascot — and ICE Labeled Him a Gang MemberHannah Dreier — December 27, 2018
- 142AP FACT CHECK: Trump's week of faulty claims: MS-13, RussiaHope Yen — June 30, 2018
- 145NewsEl Tren de la Muerte (the Death Train)Megan Feldman — July 26, 2007
- 152NewsGunmen Kill 28 On Honduran BusEllen Crean — CBS News
- 154NewsMS-13 blamed for massacre on busChris Kraul et al. — May 22, 2005
- 155NewsHonduras massacre 'leader' heldFebruary 24, 2005
- 156Countries at the Crossroads 2007freedomhouse.org
- 160NewsHouston gang killing suspect to be freed on bondDale Lezon — Hearst Newspapers, LLC — August 14, 2006
- 161NewsGang Lite?Chris Vogel — August 15, 2007
- 162NewsMurderer yelled 'the beast has eaten!'John Marzulli — March 4, 2011
- 163NewsVietnam Memorial Defaced AgainPaul Bass — January 5, 2008
- 164NewsWidow pleads for death penaltyJaxon Van Derbeken — Hearst Communications, Inc. — June 27, 2008
- 165Mistaken ID killings often matter of wrong place at wrong timeAldax, Mike — SF Examiner — September 2, 2011
- 166NewsMan, 18, gets life in prison for murderSharon Coolidge — GateHouse Media, Inc. — November 26, 2008
- 167News20 alleged Hispanic gang members indicted in ColoradoFebruary 24, 2009
- 168NewsSuffolk victims linked by gang violenceAndrew Strickler — July 26, 2009
- 169NewsMS-13 gang leaders puts out hit on ICE agent assigned to crackdownJohn Marzulli — NYDailyNews.com — November 4, 2009
- 170MS-13 gang members convicted by S.F. juryEgelko, Bob — SFGate.com — August 31, 2011
- 172MS-13 Members Plead Guilty To Using Facebook To Kidnap And Murder VictimFebruary 1, 2019
- 173Court denies motion, reviewing venue change and use of photos for alleged MS-13 memberTaylor Johnson — January 8, 2019
- 174Alleged MS-13 gang member, charged with killing local teen, could face death penaltyElizabeth Tyree — January 25, 2019
- 178Michael O'Keefe, "Alleged East Coast MS-13 kingpin arraigned", Newsday, April 20, 2018
- 179Gang members and deportation from CanadaJune 18, 2018
- 183US Justice Department seeks death penalty for Virginia MS-13 memberAnna Sturla — January 7, 2020
- 184DOJ pursues death penalty against MS-13 gang member in VirginiaLorenzo Hall — January 7, 2020
- 189Agent: Central Islip gangster said he killed mom, not sonKessler, Robert E. — Newsday — August 20, 2013
- 190Michael O'Keefe, "Man sentenced to 27 years in prison for MS-13 killing," January 24, 2019
- 191Trump to Visit Long Island in Wake of MS-13 Gang ArrestsHilary Swift — July 25, 2017
- 192Officials: MS-13 members lured, killed NY teen to boost stature in gangAugust 17, 2017
- 194MagazineLong Island Woman Known as 'La Diablita' Convicted of Luring Young Men into Deadly MS-13 AmbushApril 11, 2022
- 196Fatal subway shooting in Queens was 'gang-related': copsTina Moore et al. — February 4, 2019
- 197Queens Subway Shooting: MS-13 Member Is Arrested, Police SayFebruary 4, 2019
- 199NewsWhat Trump Left Out About MS-13's Rise in New YorkAli Winston et al. — February 6, 2019
- 200ICE: MS-13 gang member arrested in subway shooting is undocumentedFebruary 3, 2019
- 202MS-13 Associate Sentenced to 292 Months for Sex Trafficking Teenage Runaway GirlsFederal Bureau of Investigation — 2011
- 203Leader of MS-13 Gang Sentenced to 50 Years in Prison for Sex Trafficking Multiple TeensStaff — FBI — June 1, 2012
- 204NewsMS-13 Leader Gets 50 Years For TraffickingNBC4 Washington — June 2, 2012
- 205MS-13 Leader Pleads Guilty in Juvenile Prostitution CaseFairfaxNews — September 11, 2012
- 2074th Circuit upholds MS-13 member's death sentenceApril 23, 2014
- 209NewsMS-13 suspect is charged as terroristRachel Weiner — July 16, 2020
- 211MS-13 member charged with terrorism-related offenses for first timeOlivia Beavers — July 15, 2020
- 213Attacks on transgender women expose MS-13 gang's grip on MacArthur ParkMatthew Ormseth et al. — August 26, 2021
- 214World's Most Dangerous GangNGHT Inc.
- 215MS13: World's most Dangerous Gang - Watch Free Documentary OnlineTopdocumentaryfilms.com — August 18, 2010
- 216Gangland (1x02) You Rat, You Die - Video DailymotionHistory Channel — November 16, 2012
- 217Gangland (1x13) Root of All Evil - Video DailymotionHistory Channel — November 19, 2012
- 218War Vet Jean-Claude Van Damme Fights PTSD and MS-13 on the DC StreetsFebruary 19, 2019
- 219Season 7Paramount+ — 20 May 2025
- 220JournalHow the Street Gangs Took Central AmericaAna Arana — 2005