Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, considered the most dangerous gang in the world. Formed in the 80s in Los Angeles, mostly from Salvadoran immigrants who fled the civil war, the gang took as its motto: mata, viola, controla - "murder, violence, control".
The gang operates both in the United States and in Central and South America.
2. 50 thousand people and 42 states
According to the FBI, there are now about 50,000 gang members. MS-13 operates in 42 states of America.
3 They Made El Salvador One Of The Bloodiest States In The World
Violence is what MS-13 is. There is another gang in El Salvador - the 18th Street Gang or Barrio 18. The showdown between these two groups turned the country into a bloody battle.
Some people think that the US has a high level of violence. But the homicide rate in El Salvador is 22 times higher than the American rate.
4. Human trafficking
MS-13 makes money in a variety of ways, including drug trafficking and human trafficking. They recruit young migrant girls or simply kidnap women from Central America, forcing them to work as prostitutes.
5. The ritual of initiation is cruel
To become a member of MS-13, you first need to kill someone from a rival gang. The MS-13 will then vote on whether or not to allow you to join them. If their answer is yes, then you will have to endure a brutal beating while the gang members slowly count to 13.
6. Deportation
When a wave of violence from the gang swept the United States, about 20 thousand members of MS-13 were deported. Of course, they continued their activities in their homeland, so the total number of gang members in the world did not change. Many later returned to the States again.
7. Month of murders
10. They will return if you denounce them.
This, of course, goes without saying, but it is not a sin to remind. So on July 13, 2003, not far from Washington near the river, gangsters from Mara Salvatrucha killed 17-year-old pregnant Brenda Paz. They learned that she, as a member of the gang, became an FBI informant and participated in the witness protection program.
11. Women in the gang
Women don't get beat up to join a gang, they have to sleep with whoever they're told to. After that, women are often involved in the sale of drugs, as they cause less suspicion. There is evidence that almost 20% of the gang members are girls.
12. Tattoos
Members of MS-13 originally covered themselves in tattoos almost from head to toe. According to the tattoos, it was possible to "read" information about a person. Now many members of Mara Salvatrucha refuse tattoos for a very pragmatic reason - it is more difficult to identify, remember and detect them.
13. Gesture "goat"
Of course, not everyone who makes the famous “goat” gesture among rockers is a member of the MS-13 gang. But this gesture was used by street gangs in El Salvador at the beginning of the civil war in the country, and Mara Salvatrucha also adopted it.
13 facts about the most violent gang in the world - MS-13 updated: March 30, 2019 by: Alina Dykhman
MS-13 originated in Los Angeles among immigrants from El Salvador who massively flooded into the United States in the early 1980s, fleeing the civil war in their home country (by the early 1990s, about 300 thousand lived in Los Angeles alone . Salvadorans). Being subjected to violence by other street gangs (primarily Latinos from the 18th street gangs and African Americans), the Salvadorans in response created their own group. With the growth in the number of immigrants and the expansion of influence, Mara Salvatrucha began to appear territorial "branches" - Holywood Locos, Sailors Locos Salvatruchos, Langley Park Salvatruchos, Teclas Locos Salvatruchos, Centrales Locos Salvatruchos, Directa Locos Salvatruchos, Chilangeras Locos Salvatruchos, Brentwood Locos Salvatruchos, Hempstead Locos Salvatruchos, Familia Mara Salvatrucha, Freeport Locos Salvatruchos, Francis Street Locos, Park View Locos Salvatruchos, Coronado Street Locos, Pee Wee Locos, Rampart Street Locos, Western Locos Salvatrucha, Normandie Locos Salvatruchos and Leeward Grandes Salvatruchos (the last two "clicks" based in Los Angeles, by 2007 were the most authoritative).
Since the early 1990s, the American police and immigration authorities began to actively practice the mass expulsion of Mara Salvatrucha members to their homeland, thus laying the foundation for the promotion of the gang in El Salvador. The American gangster subculture (style and colors of clothing, demeanor, gestures and slang, musical culture, including gangsta rap) found fertile ground in war-torn El Salvador, but, faced with local traditions, became more violent and bloody. Mara Salvatrucha began to take control of entire urban areas and prisons; gradually, former militants who went through the civil war began to adjoin it, and the gang spread its influence throughout Central America (and prisons turned into real "universities" for beginning bandits). In 1996, the first truce between the warring MS-13 and M-18 was concluded in El Salvador, but the authorities' harsh policy towards gangs broke the peace and provoked a new wave of violence.
On July 13, 2003, gangsters from Mara Salvatrucha killed 17-year-old pregnant Brenda Paz near Washington after learning that she, as a member of the gang, became an FBI informant and participated in the witness protection program (this crime was widely publicized in the press). In 2004, a representative meeting of MS-13 leaders was held on Long Island, where they tried to bring together the "cliques" of the West and East coasts of the United States. In December 2004, near the city of San Pedro Sula in northern Honduras, Mara Salvatrucha militants shot at a passenger bus, as a result of which 28 people, including six children, were killed and 14 were seriously injured. This bloody act of intimidation was undertaken by bandits in response to the plans of the country's authorities to introduce the death penalty for serious crimes. Despite the ongoing mass deportation of Mara Salvatrucha members to their homeland, many of them soon illegally return to the United States, where they rejoin the gang (in 2005-2010, American law enforcement officers arrested more than 3 thousand alleged MS-13 members).
In August 2005, Mara Salvatrucha gangsters carried out a coordinated attack on their enemies in seven Salvadoran prisons, killing a total of 35 members of rival gangs (it is not uncommon for uncooperative penitentiary officers, up to prison governors, to die at the hands of gangsters). In January 2006, in the Salvadoran city of Sacatecoluca, members of MS-13 shot seven players of one of the teams, who were allegedly members of the M-18 gang, on the football field during a match. In June 2007, two MS-13 bosses in a Salvadoran prison were accused of ordering the killings in the US. In June 2009, 18 members of MS-13, convicted of murder, kidnapping, robbery and racketeering, escaped through a 15-meter tunnel from the Honduran prison in San Pedro Sula. In the spring of 2012, in El Salvador, through the mediation of the authorities and the Catholic Church, Mara Salvatrucha concluded a truce with her eternal enemies from the M-18 gang (in response to a decrease in violence on the streets and in prisons, and also after the gangsters promised to stop the forced recruitment of teenagers, the country's authorities transferred 30 gang leaders from the maximum security facility of Sacatecoluca to the more lenient prisons). In October 2012, Mara Salvatrucha became the first street gang that the US federal authorities recognized as a "transnational criminal organization" (this allowed the authorities to freeze any financial assets of the gang and its members, and also made it significantly more difficult for financial institutions to participate in any transactions with members of MS-13 and , respectively, limited the gang's ability to transfer funds from the US to Central America).
By the end of 2012, under pressure from the police and other law enforcement agencies, Mara Salvatrucha's power over the immigrant areas of Los Angeles weakened somewhat, but the gang increased its influence on the East Coast, especially around Washington, where there is a large Salvadoran community (by 2012 in the metropolitan area of Columbia there were about a hundred "clicks" with a total number of more than 3 thousand people). In the United States, members of Mara Salvatrucha continue to often use violence against entrepreneurs, ordinary people and illegal immigrants, but there are fewer demonstrative atrocities and reprisals (in some "clicks", fearing identification, they even stopped wearing the colors of the gang, and the recruitment of newcomers moved to social networks ). In addition, despite the measures taken, MS-13 continues to maintain leadership in the criminal world of Central America.
Mara Salvatrucha which in slang means "Salvadorian wandering ants", also MS 13- a well-organized multinational international criminal group; one of the most brutal South American gangs, which is now actively operating on the territory of 6 countries (50 thousand bandits in America - Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, as well as even in Spain). The most dangerous criminal group in the United States. MS-13 originated in Los Angeles among immigrants from Latin America.
The origin of the name MS-13 is not known for certain. According to some reports, it stands for Salvadoran street gang. The number 13 is the corresponding letter of the alphabet, indicating that the group considers itself a follower of the Mexican Mafia clan (Mexican mafia), operating in Southern California.
The history of the creation of MS-13 is closely connected with the flow of migrants from Latin America, who in the last two decades of the 20th century moved en masse to the United States, fleeing poverty and civil wars that tormented their home states. During this period, approximately 2 million Hispanics moved to the United States.
Most of the migrants arrived in Los Angeles, where the community of immigrants from El Salvador increased 10 times over the 1980s and reached 300,000 people.
As the influence of the gang expanded, new formations appeared in it according to the territorial principle. This is how the Sailors Locos Salvatruchos, Langley Park Salvatruchos and Teclas Locos Salvatruchos brigades appeared.
In the late 1990s, the police launched a large-scale prosecution of illegal immigrant gangsters, as a result of which many members of MS-13 were deported to their homeland. In total, about 20,000 bandits were deported, experts believe.
MS-13 gangsters are thugs in the literal sense of the word and became famous for brutal murders not only in the United States, but throughout Latin America. The bandits used bombs for their own purposes, and also chopped their victims with a machete. When killing, gang members sometimes cut off their heads or genitals and feed them to dogs.
A distinctive feature of the members is tattoos all over the body. 
MS 13 always controls a certain city area. She is involved in almost all types of criminal business, ranging from theft, and ending with the arms trade. Street stalls typically pay half of the gang's income. MS earns the most money by working as an intermediary in the sale of drugs and receiving tribute for the right to sell drugs on its territory.
Initiation into gang members is called "jump inside" - these are random mass strikes for at least 13 seconds. There is a silent language of communication with gestures "Layout". The gang has its own system of justice: "control court". 
The gang facilitates illegal border crossings as it controls many secret US-Mexico border trails.
They immigrate and transport weapons and drugs through them.
The motto of the gangsters from "Mara Salvatrucha" sounds like this: Mata, Viola, Controla, or "Kill, rape, subdue!"
According to the FBI, MS13 collaborated with al-Qaeda and for several years supplied terrorists with various types of small arms and helped covertly cross the border with Mexico.
MS-13 is mainly for teenagers, immigrants who have not received official documents. For them MS-13 is like family. Difficult teenagers also go there. For the opportunity to get false documents and get at least some work, these people are ready for anything. Latino drug lords recruit them in batches, they also need to somehow feed their families - in exchange for services, of course. It's no secret that ALL floor polishers and other auxiliary workers in the largest nationwide supermarket chains are entirely illegal Latinos. How do they get to work? That's how they get in.
The Hispanic community itself suffers most from the actions of such gangs. Gangsters seek to recruit new members among expatriates from Latin America who speak Spanish.
The video details the actions of MS 13
Which is considered one of the most violent street gangs of our time.
This gang has been operating on the streets of several cities in the US for almost 30 years, starting in Los Angeles, California. We have collected the history of this criminal association.
In the 1980s, when a brutal civil war unfolded in Ecuador, 300,000 refugees poured into the United States, in particular Los Angeles, in search of a safe life. Like the world's most famous gangs, the Triade and Cosa Nostra, MS-13 emerged as a defensive response by Ecuadorians to harassment by locals and other immigrants. Ecuadorians were often attacked by gangs of African Americans and Hispanics. With one of them, the 18th Street Gang, MS-13 is still waging a bloody war.
The name MS-13 stands for Mara Salvatrucha and means "Salvadoran wandering ants". As for the meaning of the number 13, there are 2 options: either it is 13th Street in Los Angeles, which became the cradle of the gang, or the position of the letter M in the Latin alphabet, showing their connection with the Mexican drug cartels, because the main ally of MS-13 is the Sinaloa cartel - the oldest and largest drug cartel in the world.
To date, there are more than 10 thousand fighters of this gang in the United States, and worldwide their number is estimated from 100 to 300 thousand members, turning it into one of the most influential groups on the planet.
Recruitment and training
MS-13 usually recruits children aged 8–10. By the age of 18, they are already hardened criminals with rich criminal experience. Recruitment takes place right on the sports fields and in schools, and for refusing to join the ranks of the gang they can be killed, writes Look 3.
There are 2 main rituals when joining a gang. The first is called "jump inside" - several members of the group brutally beat the recruit for 13 seconds. After the “jump”, the future gangster is taught the basic rules: recruit and kill.
A year or two later, the time for the second ritual comes. The boy is taken to the territory of a strange gang and given a gun in his hands. There he must make his first kill by shooting another bandit. After this, the guy is taken into action, and he becomes a full member of the gang.
The group's influence extends beyond the streets. According to the FBI, several thousand members of the gang serve in the US armed forces, where they receive military education and recruit new soldiers. Prisons are a separate item. For a member of MS-13, prison is a mandatory stage in their “career” where they learn “concepts”. There are 24,500 prisoners in El Salvador, and about half of them are members of MS-13. There are prisons where 100% of the prisoners are in a gang.
It is impossible to get out of MS-13. Everyone who joins it as a child remains a member of the gang until death.
“In a gang, all roads lead to 3 places: to a prison, a hospital, or a cemetery,” its members say.
Structure
MS-13 has a very interesting structure. In fact, the entire army of many thousands is divided into separate autonomous detachments - cliques that control their own territory without going beyond it. The cabal has its own arsenal, including M-16s, AKs, grenades, and machine guns. Each clique has a leader - a representative, he travels to meetings with other representatives and resolves strategic issues. Representatives of the Los Angeles cliques are the most authoritative, as the founding fathers of the gang. The power vertical of an organization with one boss was not found, if there is one, then the structure perfectly hides any information about him.
The activity of "wandering ants" extends to 6 countries, in the USA they operate in 33 out of 50 states. The gang seizes territories in order to force businessmen in their territory to pay "tribute". The “protection tax” is usually 50% of daily income. In order to maintain order and pacify those who refuse to pay, members of the group organize demonstrative executions: they cut off the heads, hands, and cut off the genitals of those who try to argue with them.
The gang's annual income is about $30 million, according to El Salvador police estimates.
The brutality of MS-13 was added by the activities of American law enforcement officers. As soon as the gang began to grow, the US authorities decided to fight them with a cardinal method - mass deportation to their homeland, to El Salvador. Thus, the Americans, without suspecting it, helped the "ants" to cross the border and establish business in their homeland. In El Salvador, they began to recruit people with military experience who know how to handle heavy weapons. After that, the level of violence in MS-13 increased significantly, and then the cutting off of body parts began. Today, MS-13 controls all illegal routes across the border of El Salvador, drug trafficking, prostitution, kidnapping, arms trafficking.
Decals
Some of the hallmarks of MS-13 are graffiti and tattoos. They mark their streets, put gang or cabal tags to make it clear to competitors that they should not meddle in this territory. Often, graffiti is dedicated to recently killed gang members. MS-13 graffiti can be found from Spain to Alaska.
Tattoos sometimes cover the entire body of a bandit, unlike the Yakuza, who hit the tattoos exactly along the line of clothing, MS-13 often hit them even on the face to show everyone around who they are. The most common tattoo on the face is a tear under the eye, which means that the person has committed murder.
According to one of the FBI employees who investigated the activities of the group, the motto of MS-13 is: "Kill, rape, control."
MS-13 developed their own sign language. For example, stroking the belly indicates that pistols will be used, while shaking from the shoulder means knives.
The main sign of the gang is a "goat" made of fingers, resembling the letter "M". This sign was chosen by the founders of MS-13 in the 80s, who at that time were big fans of heavy metal, modern members of the gang prefer Spanish-language rap.
Terrorism
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the gang "may qualify" as a terrorist group. In El Salvador, MS-13 is already considered a terrorist organization.
MOSCOW, September 17 - RIA Novosti, David Narmania. Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, is considered one of the most violent and dangerous criminal groups in the world. She was not able to achieve such large incomes as other crime syndicates. Nevertheless, the notoriety of her atrocities spread throughout most of the American continent. After all, the main thing that gang members strive for is to instill fear in everyone who gets in their way.
Now this group operates in 42 states in the United States and in several states of Latin America. According to various sources, it consists of 70 to 100 thousand people. The main source of income for them is the drug trade, which comes from Mexico.
© AP Photo / Luis Romero
© AP Photo / Luis Romero
The gang is famous for its cruelty - the favorite (but far from the only) weapon of the members of the group is the machete. Some of the dead have their heads or genitals cut off, which are then fed to dogs. On the bodies of many victims, 13 stab wounds are found - a trademark of the bandits and a message to anyone who dares to interfere with Mara Salvatrucha. The number 13 is a reference to the group "Los Emes" or "The Ms", where "M" - the 13th letter of most Latin alphabets - means "Mara" - a gang. The name Mara Salvatrucha can be translated from slang as "Gang of Salvadorian wandering ants".
In addition to murder and drug dealing, the gang is involved in human trafficking, pimping, and racketeering. One of the most notorious crimes of members of MS-13 was the rape in 2002 in a Boston suburb of two teenage girls with disabilities. One of them was in a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy, and her friend was deaf. The anger of the gang was caused by the fact that a few days earlier the father of one of the girls entered into a squabble with the mafiosi.
In 2010, René Mejia, a member of the Mar Salvatrucha, was sentenced to death for the murder of a woman and her two-year-old daughter.
© AP Photo / Antonio Romero
© AP Photo / Antonio Romero
MS-13 is especially harsh on informants in its ranks. "If you rat, you die," says one of the rules of the group. This rule works without any exceptions. Brenda Baz, who was trying to get out of a criminal past and reported information to the FBI, was killed by her boyfriend, despite the fact that she was pregnant by him.
© AP Photo / Luis Romero
© AP Photo / Luis Romero
The brutality of the gang is manifested in everything. Even the rite of passage consists in the fact that those who wish to join are beaten by other members of the group for 13 seconds. After that, he must fulfill his first assignment: to fight, rob or kill someone. They enter Mara Salvatrucha early - sometimes eight-year-old children get into the ranks of the gang.
MS-13 does not have a single leader and a clear structure - these are disparate cells united under one "brand". The motto of the gang members from Spanish can be translated as "Kill. Rape. Manage."
© AP Photo / Ginnette Riquelme
© AP Photo / Ginnette Riquelme
Members of the Mara Salvatrucha do not try to hide their affiliation to the gang - they are easily recognizable by tattoos in the form of symbols of the syndicate. The group's trademark is also a white-and-blue checkered shirt.
At the origins of the gang were refugees from El Salvador who were forced to leave their homeland, torn apart by civil war. This war lasted from 1979 to 1992. Many residents of the country, especially those who belonged to the ranks of partisan detachments with a leftist ideology, were forced to leave, fleeing the persecution of anti-communist "death squadrons".
Refugees could not afford legal and well-paid work. In crime at that time, other ethnic groups already dominated. But none of them had what the people who stood at the origins of the Mara Salvatrucha had - they did not see a real war. What the founders of MS-13 experienced in their homeland allowed them to kill people in absolutely cold blood and with extreme brutality.