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US Attorney Going After Salvadoran Drug Gang In Jersey

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JP Carroll National Security & Foreign Affairs Reporter
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The New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office is going after notorious members of Salvadoran street gang called MS-13 or Mara Salvatrucha, after the gang committed a series of illegal and dangerous activities.

The charges brought against the gang range “from killings and shootings to robbery and drug dealing,” according to a NJ.com report. The process for jury selection started Tuesday.

The gang members implicated in the case were arrested in 2013 and are part of the MS-13’s Locos Salvatrucha from Plainfield, N.J.

The case, laid out by the US Attorney Paul Fishman, contains various disturbing anecdotes of crimes committed by the alleged gang members. MS-13 members allegedly hacked at enemies with machetes, for example, when confronting rivals like the Latin Kings and 18th Street Gang. Planning of police intimidation was also a crime allegedly committed by gang members who wanted to “firebomb the home of the mother of a Plainfield detective investigating their case,” according to NJ.com.

The indictment against the alleged gang members was issued in September 2013. According to a US Attorney’s Office 2013 press release, “in all, the indictment charges 14 alleged members of the gang with racketeering conspiracy and a host of other violent crimes.”

Currently, five out of 14 members have pleaded guilty to some charges against them. By pleading guilty, some defendants have been able to make deals with the US Attorney’s Office. These guilty pleas are in spite of the fact that “one member told authorities that gang rules forbade members from cooperating in investigations.”

El Salvador has been plagued with violence for years as a results of gang violence from the likes of MS-13 and their equally dangerous rivals in the 18th Street Gang.

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