Associated Press
The FBI says a brutal street gang known as MS-13 has established a presence in Oregon, even though local police
say they have not seen any evidence of its arrival.
"If MS-13 is in Oregon City, I wish the FBI would tell us," said Oregon City police Lt. Lisa Nunes.
Testifying in Washington, D.C., in late April, a high-ranking FBI official said the gang had spread from California
to other states, including Oregon.
"MS-13 has a significant presence in northern Virginia, New York, California, Texas, as well as in places
as disparate and widespread as Oregon City, Ore., and Omaha, Neb.," Assistant FBI Director Chris Swecker told a House subcommittee.
The gang is considered an international criminal organization, trafficking in drugs, arms, smuggling illegal
immigrants, and involved in prostitution and home robberies.
It is rooted in the U.S.-backed civil war against guerrillas in El Salvador. Refugees fleeing that conflict
formed and named the gang in a Salvadoran neighborhood of Los Angeles. MS is short for Mara Salvatrucha: "Mara" means gang
in El Salvador; "Salvatrucha" is the word for a Salvadoran male, and was used by guerrilla fighters in El Salvador.
The number 13 means the gang is a "Sureno" or Southern California Latino gang. Originally, the 13 was adopted
because it refers to the letter M -- the 13th letter in the alphabet -- for Mexico.
Federal authorities characterize the gang as a soulless, tattooed army of cutthroats, known for beheading
enemies and staging grenade and machete attacks.
This week, two MS-13 members in Alexandria, Va., were convicted of hacking to death a pregnant teen on the
banks of the Shenandoah River after she was exposed as a federal informant. In recent months, gang investigators from California
to Maryland have uncovered MS-13 plots to randomly ambush and kill police.
But police in Oregon say there is no evidence that MS-13 has a presence in this state. Police have encountered
people claiming membership to MS-13, but not in Oregon City.
Swecker told The Oregonian that his April 20 testimony before the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
was poorly worded because he did not mean to imply that MS-13 had a "significance presence" in Oregon City.
"What it was meant to illustrate is that this is not just a problem in inner cities, but in outlying areas,"
Swecker said, adding that he was relying on a local police report to note other areas of the country where MS-13 had been
spotted.
Still, Oregon police are bracing for the gang's arrival.
"Like any gang with this kind of power, they're going to come to Oregon," said Mike Beagan, president of the
Northwest Gang Investigators Association. "Just like 18th Street moved up from L.A. Just like the Bloods and Crips moved up
from L.A."
The 18th Street gang also began in Los Angeles with Salvadoran roots. It has already battled with the rival
MS-13, which the FBI now estimates has between 30,000 and 50,000 members in five countries, including about 10,000 in the
United States.
Information by: www.kgw.com
