Missionaries of the Sacred

Gang members in the USA are increasingly involved in cross-border criminal activities, such as drug trafficking, smuggling people into the US, and smug­gling weapons into Mexico.

The Mara Salvatrucha gang (or MS-13) is one of the gangs that operates across national bor­ders. It is also one of the 19 gangs reported to have mili­tary-trained members. MS-13’s founding members had fled the long, violent civil war in El Salva­dor. From Los Angeles, CA, MS-13 spread not only to other parts of the country but also to other countries, such as El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, as gang members used deportation to their advantage.Today MS-13 is estimated to have 30,000 to 50,000 members and associate members world­wide, 8,000 to 10,000 of which live in the United States.