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U.S. NEWS Saturday 21 december 2019

MS-13 arrests deal blow to gang leadership on Long Island

By JIM MUSTIAN and MI- ficking drugs and weapons,
CHAEL BALSAMO the indictment says.
Associated Press "MS-13 is a ruthless, sav-
NEW YORK (AP) — Authori- age gang," Sini said at a
ties said Friday they have news conference, pointing
dealt an unprecedented to a machete recovered
blow to the violent MS-13 by law enforcement, the
street gang, announcing gang's signature weapon.
charges against nearly 100 "They will attempt to reca-
of the group's members librate and send individuals
and associates on Long Is- to take up leadership roles
land. in Suffolk County.
Suffolk County District Attor- That's why we have to stay
ney Timothy Sini revealed a vigilant."
sweeping indictment that Authorities said they seized
he said "decimated" the more than 10 kilograms
gang's leadership and drug of cocaine, hundreds of
suppliers on Long Island. He fentanyl pills, drug led-
described the case as the gers, long guns and other
largest of its kind against firearms, and more than
MS-13 in New York, where $200,000 cash. Those taken
the gang has been blamed into custody included the
for dozens of killings since leaders of nine so-called
2016. "cliques" — factions of MS-
The two-year investiga- 13.
tion by state and federal "What you're hearing from
authorities thwarted more us today is that we're more
than a half-dozen murder committed than every to
plots, Sini said, and also eradicate this gang," Sini
provided authorities insights said. "Is the battle over?
into the gang's structure Absolutely not."
and recruiting patterns. The MS-13, also known as Mara
investigation was bolstered Salvatrucha, is considered
by an expansive wire tap in one of the top transnational
which the authorities moni- organized crime threats in
tored calls from more than the United States. Violence
200 phone numbers. committed by the gang, in- Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini holds a machete while announcing an indictment
of nearly 100 MS-13 gang members and associates during a news conference at Suffolk County
Gang members on Long cluding the 2016 slayings of Court in Riverhead, N.Y., Friday, Dec. 20, 2019.
Island conspired with col- two teenage girls, helped Associated Press
leagues from as far away spark an aggressive ef-
as Europe and Oklahoma, fort by the FBI and the U.S. crackdown on MS-13. In the U.S. Drug Enforcement tions.
collecting cash from drug Justice Department to dis- 2017, police arrested 15 Administration in New York. MS-13 is believed to have
sales and sending that mantle the gang, MS-13 members on murder "We will continue to push been founded as a neigh-
money to the organiza- President Donald Trump, and other charges follow- them back." borhood street gang in Los
tion's leaders in El Salvador, who visited Long Island in ing a spate of bloodshed MS-13 recruits young teen- Angeles in the mid-1980s
according to the 77-count July 2017 to address the that included the massa- agers from El Salvador and by immigrants fleeing a civil
indictment handed up gang problem, has blamed cre of four young men in a Honduras, though many war in El Salvador. El Salva-
Monday. the violence and gang Long Island park and the gang members were born dor's Supreme Court de-
The gang feuded against growth on lax immigration killing of a suspected gang in the U.S. Long Island has fined the gang as a terror-
rivals and would even kill its policies. rival inside a deli. a large population of un- ist group in 2015, allowing
own members who showed Investigators have made "Their rules are violence, accompanied minors from courts there to give tougher
signs of disloyalty or failed dozens of arrests of sus- fear and control of their ter- Central America, including sentences to its members.
to perform "required tasks" pected gang members in ritory," said Ray Donovan, many who were fleeing the ___ Michael Balsamo re-
such as paying dues or traf- recent years as part of a special agent in charge of violence in their home na- ported from Washington.q