https://www.usnews.com/news/nationa...10-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-ms-13-gang
1. MS-13 stands for "Mara Salvatrucha," but the gang is also known as "MS" and "Mara" and its members are known as "Maras." The exact origins of the name are disputed.
2. The gang is traced back to Central American (primarily Salvadoran) refugees in
Los Angeles in the 1980s. MS-13 began among the members fleeing a U.S.-backed civil war at home.
3. Membership is now widespread. Gang members are reported in Canada, Central America, Mexico and elsewhere. The group is said to have leadership in El Salvador, and the FBI reports the group's influence continues to expand in the U.S.
3. The U.S. Treasury Department
declared the group a transnational criminal organization in October 2012. While declaring the group a TCO, the department linked MS-13 to drug trafficking, kidnapping, human smuggling, sex trafficking, murder, assassinations, racketeering, blackmail, extortion and immigration offenses.
4. The gang is known for its brutality, which is reflected in one of its mottos: “Mata, roba, viola, control a,” or, “Kill, steal, rape, control.”
5. Gang members have been linked to a number of high-profile killings in the U.S., including the September 2016
deaths of two teenage girls killed with baseball bats and a machete and a March 2017 killing tied to
satanic sacrifice.
6. MS-13 members are known for using a group-specific sign language and sporting tattoos across their bodies that display their gang name and symbols. A common symbol is the "devil's head." Some members, though, have been instructed to
limit public visibility of their tattoos.
7. In 2004, then-President George W. Bush supported an FBI task force formed to combat MS-13 crimes and growth. The
MS-13 National Gang Task Force coordinates
national and international investigations.
8. Attorney General Jeff Sessions vowed that the
Justice Department will crack down on violent crime while meeting with federal law enforcement on ways to combat organized crime. Sessions named MS-13 when he said gangs "represent one of the gravest threats to American safety."
9. President Donald Trump mentioned the gang in a
tweet. Trump said weak Obama administration immigration policies allowed more gangs to form nationwide.
10. The Treasury Department reported in 2012 that there were at least 8,000 MS-13 members in more than 40 states and the District of Columbia, and 30,000 members internationally.