GANG BUSTING WIDENS NATIONAL ATTACK AIMED AT L.A.-BASED MS-13.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

In an opening salvo against the violent Central American street gang Mara Salvatrucha, federal, state and local authorities across the nation have arrested more than 100 suspects - including 17 in Los Angeles - on criminal and immigration charges, officials announced Monday.

The crackdown, called Operation Community Shield, represents the strongest effort yet to ferret out members of one of the largest and most violent gangs, using information and resources at all levels of law enforcement.

The gang, which operates in the San Fernando Valley and across Los Angeles, has been under siege from the Los Angeles Police Department since January, when the crackdown began.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, officials, in conjunction with other law enforcement authorities, are poised to fight the gang, also known as MS-13, with statutory and prosecutorial tools developed in the past to combat organized-crime syndicates.

``We're just starting to really go after MS,'' said Jim Jones, ICE supervisory special agent in Southern California. ``There's a lot we're going to bring to bear they've never seen before. ... They've never had their money looked at.''

The agency is prepared to go far beyond prosecuting felony re-entry, as in the past, and to include complex financial and other investigations aimed at the gang's leaders or ``shot callers.'' ICE also is targeting gang drug smuggling and money laundering, in part by seeking forfeiture of suspects' assets.

The 17 foreign nationals arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of being tied to MS-13 crimes were among 103 arrested in recent weeks in Miami, Baltimore, Washington, New York and Newark, N.J., under the new anti-gang initiatives.

``Many of these gangs, like MS-13, began here and are deeply entrenched,'' said Loraine Brown, special agent-in-charge for ICE investigations in Los Angeles. ``But we will not let that deter us. Working with our law enforcement counterparts, we are going to use every tool at our disposal to take these criminals off the streets and break the cycle of gang-related violence that is threatening the safety of our communities.''

LAPD Deputy Chief Ron Bergmann, the Valley's top commanding officer, said MS-13 activity is more pronounced in the Valley than it has ever been, concentrated mostly Van Nuys and the East Valley.

``They're a problem in the Valley,'' Bergmann said. ``They're a very vicious gang and in most cases are fairly well armed. They're working a lot of angles throughout the city, rather than one territory.''

Eight of the 17 arrested in Los Angeles are to be prosecuted on federal felony charges, including firearms violations and re-entry into the United States after deportation, while the rest are being prosecuted on state and local charges or are being held on immigration-administrative complaints and face deportation.

LAPD officials estimate Los Angeles MS-13 membership at just under 1,000.

In one case, federal officials believe a 24-year-old Salvadoran - with prior arrests on drug charges and robbery - tried to arrange the contract killing of a local police officer. While there was insufficient evidence to charge him, he was arrested March 12 by the LAPD and has been booked on local contempt-of-court charges. Once his local prosecution is completed, he will be subject to ICE proceedings that could lead to deportation.

ICE agents said they believe that the man returned to the United States illegally last year to act as leader of one of MS-13's subgroups operating in the Wilshire area, the Francis Clique.

ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said prosecuting MS-13 gang members is made more difficult by the gang's intimidation of witnesses.

``Everyone is afraid to testify,'' she said.

The Los Angeles battle has been going on longer than the nationwide crackdown, with earlier arrests of suspects including a 30-year-old Mexican man, with a prior conviction for attempted murder, who returned to the United States after serving nine years in prison to organize younger gang members.

LAPD spokesman Paul Vernon said the department is cooperating with federal agencies in the nationwide crackdown.

MS-13 was born in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s to early 1990s, initially drawing on young men who grew up in the war-torn streets and countryside of El Salvador. Many had used weapons, and some had experience in guerrilla warfare. Federal officials said they resorted, at times, to hacking up their enemies with machetes.

``They were desensitized to violence,'' Jones said.

Unlike many other L.A. gangs, MS-13 wasn't attached to a particular neighborhood or ``turf.''

Members of Mara Salvatrucha, which Jones said roughly translates as ``people from El Salvador look out for each other,'' also were identifiable from other, older Hispanic gangs by their longer hair and their tight T-shirts and pants.

As outsiders, they claimed they needed to band together.

From Los Angeles, the gang exploded throughout the country.

``Now its membership has spread to other Latino groups. ... They're international - from here to Canada, to the East Coast, to El Salvador.''

The gang includes members from Mexico and Central American countries, as well as a few non-Latinos. Of the 17 recently arrested in Los Angeles,

seven were from Mexico, six from El Salvador, three from Guatamala and one was from Honduras.

Beth Barrett, [phone]

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com