How The MS-13 Gang Actually Works | How Crime Works | Insider

my name is Alex Sanchez I was involved with MS13 and this is how crime Works gam violence comes in all shapes and forms I ended up going to prison I got shot at I got reported the crimes that I committed took me to a place that's ugly but I learned and came out [Music] strong I came to the United States in 1979 and uh experienced a culture shock and then a culture clash with other ethnic groups especially even Mexican uh among Latino groups um I started seeking ways in which to defend myself and in middle school I was introduced to the mara Salva Stoners 13 the initiation into the gang it always is through a beating they call it jumping in in English or in Spanish blink which is getting beaten up right by four or more people this is part of what you expect if in the Warfare is that you will get beat up you will suffer violence right and that's the initiation of getting jumped in is violence I ended up joining What's called the Normandy local click initially it was all about protection being there for each other it was seven of us two women and and five guys and we were all homeless uh shortly thereafter we have our first uh friend that was killed uh we called him Rocky from the Normandy local click and that basically brought in this element of Vengeance of getting back to those that hurted [Music] us around 85 886 uh there was an influx of of weapons coming into the United States especially Los Angeles with the crack epidemic it was the first time you saw the uzi uh the AK-47 MS13 didn't have the the funds to get those type of weapons so for us the the the cheapest uh thing that we can use was the machete it was something culturally relevant to us it was a tool for harvesting in our country and eventually we were known as a gang that that the machete in Gag Warfare we would go and fight in rumbles in the park in the street you know some of us will carry knives back in the day a chain right I myself got arrested for crimes carrying a concealed weapon you know I was on my way to shoot somebody and I got stopped by the police and they found a gun I will say divine intervention I don't know I probably would have killed somebody or probably would be in prison doing life like many of the folks that I go see the violence that I used was the way that I used to release that pain that I fell inside I was that angry boy and I became an angry man and it took me a long time to realize that I can make a [Music] change I had tattoos on my body on my fingers on my arms and up getting three dots which was like la loca the crazy life then I ended up getting the gang name tattooed across my chest for more traditional gangs they would put uh their gang name or a girlfriend's name on their eyebrows but to start getting tattoo all your face for the MS13 was something different the more tattoos you had on is the more committed you were to letting people know that I'm here I'm in your face I went through the painful process of getting tattoo removal you know it was difficult for me because I felt like a coward doing it that I was letting go of so many things that I have done and things that I believed in but that was part of the [Music] process you know the relationship that MS13 with the vario 18 Street um goes way back to the80s we for the most part were in the same blocks as their neighborhood was but we also maintained close relationship it was mostly because the 18th Street neighborhood uh in the area was composed from a lot of immigrants mostly Central American and Salvadoran but in 1992 Shaggy from the Western locals was shot and killed by uh members of the 18th Street and that's severe the relationships many people started dying primarily because everybody knew each other's hideouts 18th Street was a lot bigger than MS13 uh still is in the area uh and and and so uh they were more connected with other gangs as well they brought in other Cho neighborhoods uh to Target us I I got called in and said hey Alex be ready because you can't you know don't trust them anymore because they're going to want to kill you guys it was a cruel War it was a difficult War there have been points where they're like being called like a temporary truce and whatnot especially in El Salvador but also in 1993 in Los Angeles there was a truce amongst all the Latino gangs that actually reduced violence but the violence has not gone back to the levels we saw prior to 1993 [Music] in if you just live on the sides and do what you're told and and and and represent the the neighborhood well then you know you you'll be okay if you break the rules right then there is punishment there are some that are judged to death especially those that collaborate with law enforcement those that become snitches or tell on their brothers but I have not seen that there's like a uh a task force of of gang members that are going around and looking at every address that you lived in to go Target you and kill you most of the time folks that die that way are because they come back to the [Music] block MS13 is is known as Mar salvatrucha you could say MS13 Ms lamara right you you can have different references to it uh even uh alluding to like dagara or the claw which is the uh the gang sign right well you have the devil's horn the two fingers that is used to also in the heavy metal Rock scene people have trans transform it they put both hands to make an M or S and so on MS13 or mss3 during the time was into that heavy metal scene whether it was Slayer Iron Maiden or or Mega Death that music really was how we let out it wasn't that we were evil devil worshippers there were some individuals within the gang structure that were into Santa Muerte for instance you have people from all the dominations in the game some people that believe in Christ so it's a community overall that's what you call the vario so in some ways you know being in the gang you know is like being some sort of [Music] religion in ' 86 I ended up getting arrested and went to Central juvenile hall once you're in prison you have to defend yourself and you're known by other rival gang members as somebody that stood up for himself so it became a rights of Passage to rise up through the ranks like that eventually I made it to prison in 1991 um and went back to prison at least three times and in 1994 I ended up getting deported after 12 years of a Civil War the war was over in El Salvador uh so many people were getting deported my first thought was uh I'm going to start fresh uh I don't have a criminal record I speak English so maybe I could get into the tourist business or something to that nature right I wasn't planning on going over there and gang banging or getting caught up or dying down there but that changed immediately once I got to the airport as I was going to the terminal I saw the gang riding on the hillside and the set ATS 13 but as we go down the highway I ended up seeing on the wall on the brick wall the Roman numerals XV I I I which means 18th Street and then I realized wow they're here too so the Rivalry must continue and I started to start looking around and being more alert uh as to where I was at and who was beside [Music] me so shortly after arriving in El Salvador I ended up getting uh death threats a death squat came out called the Sombra Negra or the the black shadow and their mission was to eradicate the gang violence that was Rising I had two people with me two gang members that were young they had been child soldiers in the in the war and they were looking up to me I had two grenades and I gave them to them I've never used a grenade and I said I probably blow my myself up but these two guys they know how to use a grenade so I carry my gun and they carry the grenades and that's how we went to different places because I was under the threat that I could be killed or shot at or even try to be kidnapped from this death squads the level of violence was probably quadruple from whatever I had experienced in the United States and that was residue from the war so you would see gang members you know using that type of in your face violence you know that uh was used during the War I couldn't go uh to my home anymore so I was on the run I ended up uh eventually deciding to to flee El Salvador because I felt Death Around Me coming up as a as another immigrant I got kidnapped in Waka by the federales and and and almost died in the desert and and and Crossing Matamoros into into Brownsville Texas so um I I have this uh this knowledge of of of tragedy of of what I saw of other migrants coming up all the way from South America it's not something that I would wish on anyone to be targeted kidnapped held for ransom and possibly killed just for coming into the United States but the desperation of what the country our countryes go through you know forces people to have to have to put themselves in such an ordeal the only place that I could go back was to my old block I was tired of going to prison I was tired of a life of violence and looking over my back and I was able to uh to uh talk to the neighborhood and and and and they gave me a pass cuz they seen that I was I was working and taking care of business and I kind of um still lived in the block but I wasn't getting involved in in none of their gang [Music] activities there is an in a specific I would say leadership structure but it's whoever feels that void in that moment in the neighborhood where there's no clear individual most of the time nobody really wants to take a leadership of a gang because you become a prime target by law enforcement they're not a secret group of people that are trying to make millions and millions of dollars they're disorganized structures that work on what crimes they could benefit from in Central America Honduras Guatemala you know you have individuals that might take on you know uh into a criminal entity such as you know being part of a cartel or or or or getting involved in in human trafficking but it's not something that's a direct uh goal of the gang to be something like [Music] that so what El Salvador has done right now with creating the biggest prison in the continent in the smallest country in the continent is that it fits over 40,000 people uh in a place called teola uh the prison's called seot and there have been transferring all these people there that they have designated as gang members to be incarcerated for life these individuals will never set foot out of those prisons but in the coffin and that's what their message has been from the president we have seen this before El Salvador uh has had uh Zero Tolerance initiatives with the uh zot tolerancia manura initiatives that created mass incarceration and it didn't reduce violence this prison is basically uh going to be holding all this people um that have been judged unjustly uh based on just their affiliation they being and sentenced to life in prison in the history of mass incarceration especially in California that has over 33 prisons this has been a failure in regards to reducing reducing violence so we know that mass incarcerating people is not going to bail us out of the problems that created all this problem in the first place at this moment uh we have the military of El Salvador tackling the problem they arrest ing they're on the streets they have roadblocks and every other mile you know to see who goes by uh you have local police the national civil police but you also have underground organizations such as the death squads the exterminators that they call themselves before it was the black shadow uh now is this exterminadores that are are social cleansing groups that Target a specific people for assassination basically so I think that politicians really need to start thinking what is the exit strategy out of this mass incarceration and having the the country militarized as they do right now and start really focusing also in the prevention piece that has always been neglected uh by every politician every presidency before [Music] that the mar salvatrucha started in the late 70 into the early 80s and what's considered the Korea Town Pico Union area of Los Angeles and it started because of the mass migration of immigrants coming from Central America on accompany Miners and children who came here and uh suffer this culture clash with different ethnicities right the migration flow started impacting other states into like Long Island you know in the 2000s the Washington DC metropolitan area places like Houston Texas where there's a big Salvadorian community in the United States prison became part of that uh of the continuation of Engagement of the gang it didn't stop the gang by incarcerating all these people but it influenced the gang now to grow and connect once the war ended in in in El Salvador the government of the United States started mass deporting people to not only El Salvador Guatemala and Honduras and that's what started the expansion of MS13 in those [Music] countries hom unido started in El Salvador in 1996 by members of gangs that have been deported to El Salvador many of the members I knew them from the neighborhood from the gang or they I had done time in prison with them they invited me to a conference in Santa Cruz and that's how we started creating programs in in in the Pico Union and well in in Korea Town initially it wasn't easy in the beginning uh we we really didn't have the trust of law enforcement in 2000 I became part of the rampart Scandal which uh they had arrested a gang unit officer stealing kilos of cocaine out of the evidence room and that he flipped and then he told about all the crimes that the gang unit was committing things that we were saying that they were doing in the courtrooms but the jury didn't believe us over a cop I became part of the rapar Scandal behind being a a key witness Alibi for a 14-year-old kid that was being charged with murder in which he was at the church during our program during the time that the murder took place so it couldn't have been him and that's when uh the same officers that arrested him came after me and they arrested me for the sole purpose purpose of turning me over to immigration to be deported so that developed into this new Scandal within uh immigration during the time and and the police of how they used immigration as a tool to get rid of people they didn't want around and then uh eventually I was released and and won political asylum in 2002 but the LPD had not forgotten me and were not happy that I sued them right and they settled and in 2009 they came after me again they put me in a federal RICO case the charges were dismissed and I was able to restart again because homies lost everything we lost the office we lost the funding we lost the staff so I you know organized again and now you know we have 11 staff you know doing a lot of work in the community having been part of that myself you know it's like I know that I'm on a hit list on a Target list by the federal government the LAPD and they just looking for ways in which they can get me indicted so I have to walk a thin line everywhere I go I have to watch everything I [Music] say well the media has really given a lot of publicity to the MS13 gang that comes down through the state especially when you have a president that directly names a particular gag like MS13 and the repercussions that that has be behind it because once a president mentioned something it's telling it's telling their departments to go after this particular group MS 13 is one of the most vulnerable gangs to go after because they're they're they're targetting by by the immigration rhetoric the bad ombre one individual commits a crime it's in every newspaper while other gangs such as the Crips the Bloods 18 Street the Latin Kings who in some cases are bigger than the MS13 you know are not Co have coverage like this one because they're mostly either Puerto Rican or Mexican ameran or africanamerican which makes them US citizens and nothing feeds gangs as labeled them as the world's most dangerous as the city's most dangerous the mayor Antonio vosa at one point said that they put out a list of the top 10 worst gangs in Los Angeles and every gang wanted to be part of it it was like Hey I'm dangerous too so it creates the system of trying to see who which gang is number one and every gang wants to be number [Music] one you get to a point where you get tired of being chased by the police you get tired you know of being called by your mother and saying hey I'm raising your children when are you going to raise your own children so you start trying to figure out like I'm getting too old for this or I want to be more responsible people age out people uh some of them become Christians some of them you know try to study and and get a degree or something and start their own businesses you you have many many gang members for MS13 that are pastors that have turned their lives around and now they're preaching I'm still called a gang member right and I say well I am I am part of it I work in those communities so I am I cannot say that I'm not longer a gang member because that's how Society has labeled me that I'm a G a gang member for life but am I a gang member that's calmed down yes I'm some body that's looking out helping out now the children of many of my friends that are in prison yes in my life I've I've done a lot of things a lot of good things but also bad things and I regret those things that I've done but what I'm doing is trying to give back to the community what I once took the organization homie suos we're not stopping gangs we're reducing violence law enforcement is incarc in them we're trying to save as many as we can by helping them once they ready to do their lives having profit you don't have that you know two-bedroom twostory house with a pool no you're not going to have those things I'm able to support my myself and my family in a little you know um humble place that I have that's not even mine I'm renting but I think that a nonprofit always struggles in with day-to-day cost we love to have folks that are well off that have the funding be able to give us what we need to [Music] expand for

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Length: 24min 39sec (1479 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 21 2024