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U.S. NEWSSaturday 29 April 2017
MS-13 street gang grips Long Island suburbs in violence
CLAUDIA TORRENS since the start of the school But its true rise began after
FRANK ELTMAN
COLLEEN LONG year.
Associated Press
BRENTWOOD, N.Y. (AP) — The bloodshed in the blue-
Late at night, when heli-
copters thrum overhead collar towns has gotten
and spotlights beam down
onto lawns, many people the attention of President
here know exactly what’s
going on. Donald Trump, who says
“You just think, ‘Oh, God,
whose child is it now?’” it’s the result of lax immi-
said Stephanie Spezia, a
longtime resident of this gration policies that let too ed a migration of people
suburb in the heart of Long
Island that’s caught in the many criminal “scum” slip
grip of a violent street gang
with Central American ties, through.
MS-13.
MS-13 has been blamed Attorney General Jeff Ses-
for a trail of 11 corpses of
mostly young people dis- sions on Friday gave a
covered in woods and va-
cant lots in Brentwood and speech about the violence
neighboring Central Islip
to law enforcement of-
ficials near a park where
the bodies of four young
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone speaks at a press con- men were found this month
ference in Hauppauge, N.Y., where he vowed to take action
against the MS-13 street gang. MS-13 has been blamed for a bearing MS-13’s hallmarks:
trail of nearly a dozen corpses of mostly young people dis-
covered in woods and vacant lots in Brentwood and neigh- repeated slashes from a
boring Central Islip since the start of the school year. At right is
Evelyn Rodriquez whose daughter, Kayla Cuevas, was killed blade that left them nearly
in September 2016 in what prosecutors said was one of those
killings. Central Islip School District Superintendent Dr. Howard unrecognizable.
Koenig is at center.
Some parents say they’re
(AP Photo/Frank Eltman)
afraid to let their children
go to school. Teens say
any perceived slight to a
gang member, especially
a refusal to join, can mean
death.
After one high school
warned parents not to let
their kids wear anything
gang-affiliated, gang
members started deciding
on a daily basis what colors
were off-limits, leaving stu-
dents to guess what not to
wear.
“Kids are losing their child-
hoods,” said Jennifer Su-
arez, whose 15-year-old
niece was beaten and
hacked to death last year.
“You can see the stress
on their faces as they get
ready. It’s like, you know,
they’re suiting up for bat-
tle.” So how does a street
gang with ties to Central
America gain such an ag-
gressive foothold in the
suburbs of Long Island?
MS-13, or the Mara Salva-
trucha, is believed by fed-
eral prosecutors to have
thousands of members
across the U.S., primar-
ily immigrants from Central
America. It has a strong-
hold in Los Angeles, where
it emerged in the 1980s as a
neighborhood street gang.
members were deported
back to El Salvador in the
1990s. There, the gang
thrived and spread to
Honduras. MS-13 and rival
groups there now control
entire towns, rape girls and
young women, massacre
students, bus drivers and
merchants who refuse to
pay extortion and kill com-
petitors.
That violence has prompt-
trying to escape, espe-
cially children, who have
streamed north because
of a U.S. policy allowing
people under 18 who ar-
rive without parents to stay
in the country temporarily
with relatives or friends.
Since the fall of 2013,
the U.S. has placed 165,000
unaccompanied minors.
Long Island has been a
frequent landing spot. Suf-
folk County, which includes
Brentwood and Central Is-
lip, has gotten 4,500. Neigh-
boring Nassau County has
received 3,800.
Sessions, speaking at a
courthouse in Central Is-
lip, said he believes gang
members used this system
to come north, too.
“Bad guys know how the
system works, and they
have exploited it,” he said.
He later met with parents
of some of the teenagers
killed.
In a recent roundup of 13
MS-13 gang suspects ac-
cused of murder and other
crimes, seven had entered
as unaccompanied minors.
MS-13 is recruiting the un-
accompanied children,
Suffolk County police Com-
missioner Timothy Sini said.
The youngsters, he said,
“don’t have an established
social network, at least
many of them don’t, and
MS-13 is providing that net-
work.”
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